Desal Data News | Israel

Thermal desalination won’t be killed off by RO membranes, says IDE Technologies

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 00:00:00

Although reverse osmosis (RO) membranes have developed to provide nearly 60% of worldwide desalinated water, there remains a large demand for thermal processes despite predictions the technology use will shrink, an industry expert has said. In an exclusive interview with…

Build ‘em bigger

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 00:00:00

In February, the governor of the Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC), said that a 600,000 m³/d (159 MGD) SWRO plant was being planned for Rabigh, north of Jeddah, on the Red Sea coast. SWCC is now in the process of…

SWRO construction update

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 00:00:00

Seawater desalination provides 40 percent of Israel’s total water needs. The total production will increase from 300 million m³/y (243,200 AFY) to 450 million m³/y (364,800 AFY) when Sorek comes online in the next few months. By the time that…

Growing by leaps and bounds

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 00:00:00

Although the number of small and mid-size SWRO plants is growing at a much faster rate than the number of large-scale plants, the large-scale plants that are being built are getting larger. The list of the largest SWRO plants that…

University R&D

Tue, 07 May 2013 00:00:00

Last week, after seeing a flurry of press releases describing a report that ranks water research institutes, WDR decided to conduct its own survey of universities that are most active in desal-related research. More than thirty-five respondents, most of whom…

IDE Technologies appoints Bruno Escojido

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:00:00

IDE Technologies has announced the appointment of Bruno Escojido as executive vice president of sales and marketing. Prior to joining IDE, he was an executive in the retail industry. He will be based at IDE’s headquarters in Israel and may…

Tom Berman (1934-2013)

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:00:00

Professor Tom Berman, an Israeli marine microbiologist, died in a fall last week, while vacationing in the Galapagos Islands. He was 79.

Born in Czechoslovakia and raised in Glasgow, Scotland, he had been…

Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet?

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 00:00:00

In 2008, when the first Osmosis Summit was held in Amsterdam, this newspaper noted that the terms ‘forward osmosis’ (FO) and ‘pressure retarded osmosis’ (PRO) were rarely used—or even understood—by people outside of academia or Norway. A lot has changed…

Local company wins Colombia desalination project

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 00:00:00

Amiad Water Systems, an Upper Galilee-based international water-filtration firm, this week signed an $8 million agreement to implement its technologies in a Colombian oil field. The company will be providing filtration systems to the Israeli subsidiary Nirosoft, of Ron Lauder’s…

SWRO capacity doubled in same footprint

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 00:00:00

When it was originally commissioned in May 2007, the Palmachim SWRO plant’s production capacity was 110,000 m³/d (29 MGD), and by April 2010, the plant had been expanded to produce 150,000 m³/d (40 MGD). Then, in November 2011, Via Maris…

Disk-filters to protect Ashdod UF membranes

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 00:00:00

Filtration manufacturer Amiad has signed a contract, valued at US$ 1.67 million, to provide an Arkal Super Galaxy automatic disc filtration system (SpinKlin R) for the protection of ultrafiltration membranes at Israel’s 100 million m³/year Ashdod Desalination Plant. The contract…

MEDRC’s mission continues

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 00:00:00

When it was established by an international agreement in 1996, the Middle East Desalination Research Center (MEDRC) was the first institution that was part of the Middle East peace process referred to as the Oslo Accords. It is also the…

Connecting two seas

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 00:00:00

As it is currently envisioned, the $10 billion Red Sea-Dead Sea Water Conveyance (RSDSC) program would transfer up to 2,000 million m³/y (1,448 MGD) of seawater about 180km (112 mi) from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea to stabilize…

Top Ten Seawater Desal Successes

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 00:00:00

A few weeks ago, WDR offered its list of the Top Ten Desal Disasters. It was noted that not all of the projects remained disasters, and some turned out to be successful plants. In fact, one of the projects included…

Middle East in Brief

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 00:00:00

An Israeli government committee of experts has concluded that an artificial island could be built off the country’s Mediterranean coast to house future desalination plants and other infrastructure. In an interim report issued in November, Science and Technology Ministry experts…