Energy Recovery and Seawater Desalination

SAN LEANDRO, Calif., Dec 01, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Energy Recovery, Inc. ("ERI") (NASDAQ:ERII), a global leader of ultra-high-efficiency energy recovery products and technology for desalination hires a general counsel to head its legal affairs. In her new role, Stanford Law graduate Carolyn Bostick, will join the management team of one of Northern California's fastest growing cleantech companies.

A legal professional with years of global experience, Carolyn Bostick will take charge of the Company's legal activities including intellectual property protection, corporate governance, M&A, compliance and international law related matters. Prior to joining ERI, Carolyn was Vice President and General Counsel of Trend Micro Incorporated, a world leader in content security software based in Japan with offices worldwide. Starting as the company's first full-time attorney in 2000, she developed an international legal team spanning Asia, Europe and Latin America and served as Site Executive for the company's North American Operations. Carolyn started her legal career at Silicon Valley law firms, including Brown and Bain and Heller Ehrman, where she represented companies such as Intel, RSA Data Security, Cargill and ABC Sports in intellectual property and antitrust matters. Carolyn graduated from Brown University and Stanford Law School.

GG Pique, ERI President and CEO stated, "Carolyn is a key addition to our management team. She brings a high level legal expertise to our organization that is critical as we grow. We feel very fortunate to have her as our in-house general counsel."

Energy Recovery, Inc. (ERI) is a leading manufacturer of energy recovery devices, which by significantly reducing energy consumption is helping make desalination affordable. ERI's PX Pressure Exchanger(R) technology (PX(R)) is a rotary positive displacement pump that recovers energy from the high pressure waste stream of sea water reverse osmosis systems at up to 98% efficiency with no downtime or scheduled maintenance.

The company has research, development and manufacturing facilities in the San Francisco technology corridor as well as direct sales offices and technical support centers in key desalination hubs such as Madrid, UAE, Shanghai and Florida. ERI service representatives are based in Algeria, Australia, China, India, Korea, Mexico, Taiwan and the Caribbean.

As the demand for clean, potable water increases; ERI is poised to face the global challenges ahead. For more information on ERI and PX technology, please visit www.energyrecovery.com.

SAN LEANDRO, Calif.-- Energy Recovery, Inc. (Nasdaq:ERII), a global leader of ultra-high-efficiency energy recovery products and technology for seawater desalination, announced today that it will release its third quarter results for fiscal 2008 on Tuesday, November 11, 2008, after the market close. The Company will host a conference call for investors on Tuesday, November 11, 2008 at 1:30 p.m. PT.

The conference call will be in a "listen-only" mode for all participants other than the sell-side and buy-side investment professionals who regularly follow the Company. The toll-free phone number for the call is 800-951-9235 or 706-758-9752 and the access code is 68565515. Callers should dial in approximately 15 minutes prior to the scheduled start time. A telephonic replay will be available at 800-642-1687 or 706-645-9291, access code: 68565515, from 5:30 p.m. PT Tuesday, November 11, 2008 to 8:59 p.m. PT on Tuesday, November 24, 2008. Investors may also access the live call or the replay over the internet at www.streetevents.com and www.energyrecovery.com. The replay will be available approximately three hours after the live call concludes.

About ERI(R)

Energy Recovery, Inc. (ERI) is a leading manufacturer of energy recovery devices, which by significantly reducing energy consumption is helping make desalination affordable. ERI's PX Pressure Exchanger(R) technology (PX(R)) is a rotary positive displacement pump that recovers energy from the high pressure waste stream of sea water reverse osmosis systems at up to 98% efficiency with no downtime or scheduled maintenance.

The company has research, development and manufacturing facilities in the San Francisco technology corridor as well as direct sales offices and technical support centers in key desalination hubs such as Madrid, UAE, Shanghai and Florida. ERI service representatives are based in Algeria, Australia, China, India, Korea, Mexico, Taiwan and the Caribbean.

As the demand for clean, potable water increases; ERI is poised to face the global challenges ahead. For more information on ERI and PX technology, please visit www.energyrecovery.com.

Algeria Adds 200,000 m3/day of Increased Seawater Desalination Capacity

SAN LEANDRO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 24, 2008--Energy Recovery, Inc. ("ERI") (NASDAQ:ERII), a global leader of ultra-high-efficiency energy recovery products and technology for desalination, announced that it had won another large-scale energy recovery contract for seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination in Algeria. The Mostaganem SWRO Desalination Plant, located approximately 38 miles east of Oran in the western seaside region of the country, will have a total capacity of 200,000 cubic meters per day (m3/day) (52.8 million US gallons per day), enough to supply drinking water to a population of over one million people. The plant is expected to begin operation sometime in the second half of 2009.

The Mostaganem plant is being built on a 25-year build own operate and transfer basis by UTE Mostaganem, a consortium consisting of Inima (Grupo OHL) and Aqualia (Grupo FCC) of Spain. Inima previously selected ERI to provide its advanced energy-saving PX technology for both the 16,000 m3/day Los Cabos and 65,000 m3/day Alicante desalination plants. The Mostaganem project is one of many for ERI in the region, including the 200,000 m3/day Hamma plant built by GE Water and the 200,000 m3/day Beni Saf and 100,000 m3/day Skikda plants currently being built by GEIDA.

The process for the Mostaganem plant will include 240 ERI PX-220 Pressure Exchanger devices arranged in 16 trains of 15 units each. Utilizing PX technology will help significantly reduce power consumption by the plant's high-pressure pumps. Each device will save approximately 80 kilowatts for a total plant energy savings of over 19 mega watts.

Rick Stover, ERI's Chief Technical Officer and Vice President of Sales said, "with this contract, ERI increases its project wins in Algeria to 1,220,000 m3/day of permeate capacity. We are proud to be the energy recovery solution for the region."

Energy Recovery, Inc. (ERI) is a leading manufacturer of energy recovery devices, which by significantly reducing energy consumption is helping make desalination affordable. ERI's PX Pressure Exchanger(R) technology (PX(R)) is a rotary positive displacement pump that recovers energy from the high pressure waste stream of sea water reverse osmosis systems at up to 98% efficiency with no downtime or scheduled maintenance.

The company has research, development and manufacturing facilities in the San Francisco technology corridor as well as direct sales offices and technical support centers in key desalination hubs such as Madrid, UAE, Shanghai and Florida. ERI service representatives are based in Algeria, Australia, China, India, Korea, Mexico, Taiwan and the Caribbean.

As the demand for clean, potable water increases; ERI is poised to face the global challenges ahead. For more information on ERI and PX technology, please visit www.energyrecovery.com.

140,000 m3/day (37MGD) Desalination Project for Mining Application Contracted to use PX(R) Technology

SAN LEANDRO, Calif., Oct. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Energy Recovery, Inc. ("ERI") (Nasdaq: ERII), a global leader of ultra-high-efficiency energy recovery products and technology for desalination, announced that it will supply energy recovery devices for a seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination project in Australia. IDE Technologies awarded ERI the energy recovery contract for the 140,000 cubic meters per day (m3/day) (37 million gallons per day (MGD)) facility. The new desalination project adds process and drinking water for a large mine operation in Australia.

IDE Technologies will construct the plant which will utilize ERI's PX Pressure Exchanger(R) (PX(R)) technology as the energy recovery solution for the project. The plant is scheduled for completion in late 2009.

Water is a key component in the mining process. Because the region is subject to extreme drought conditions, a highly efficient desalination system provides an affordable solution both for process requirements and regional drinking consumption. The ERI solution will include PX-220 devices which will save an estimated 16 megawatts of power.

In 2007, ERI was also engaged for a 55,000 m3/day (14.5 MGD) desalination plant for the Trekkopje Uranium project in Namibia, South Africa. That plant is projected to supply an estimated 20 million cubic meters of water per year to the mine. In addition, ERI and IDE Technologies are teaming to provide advanced energy-saving PX technology for the 100 million m3/year Hadera, Israel desalination plant which will be the world's largest such plant when it starts up in 2010.

About ERI(R)

Energy Recovery, Inc. (ERI) is a leading manufacturer of energy recovery devices, which by significantly reducing energy consumption is helping make desalination affordable. ERI's PX Pressure Exchanger(R) technology (PX(R)) is a rotary positive displacement pump that recovers energy from the high pressure waste stream of sea water reverse osmosis systems at up to 98% efficiency with no downtime or scheduled maintenance.

The company has research, development and manufacturing facilities in the San Francisco technology corridor as well as direct sales offices and technical support centers in key desalination hubs such as Madrid, UAE, Shanghai and Florida. ERI service representatives are based in Algeria, Australia, China, India, Korea, Mexico, Taiwan and the Caribbean.

As the demand for clean, potable water increases; ERI is poised to face the global challenges ahead. For more information on ERI and PX technology, please visit www.energyrecovery.com.

The sand screens and micron filters were selected because of the durable and corrosion resistant fiberglass and PVC construction. The specific model of Eden micron filters was chosen to maintain the filter element flux at approximately 3.3 gpm/per 10" equivalent.

Due to the relative remoteness of the installation site, multistage-centrifugal, high-pressure pumps have been selected for their reliability, availability of parts, economics of operation and easy maintenance. Centrifugal pumps in general are smoother, quieter, and require less ancillary equipment (i.e. pulsation dampeners) than positive displacement pumps. Hydropro has found that positive displacement pumps are much more prone to failure and lengthily downtimes than high-quality centrifugal pumps.

The Grundfos Booster Modules were chosen for several reasons. The inline style helped conserve space and provided ease of installation, allowing everything to be mounted on the same skid (with the exception of cleaning/flush tanks, raw water booster pumps, and chemical feeds). These submersible, multi-stage centrifugal pumps were also chosen because they are very efficient and quiet, and are constructed of corrosion resistant, 904L super austenitic stainless steel.

The high pressure feed and concentrate headers were made of 2205 duplex stainless steel for superior corrosion resistance, and the structural skid was constructed of FRP for low weight and zero maintenance. ERI´s Pressure Exchanger was chosen because of its high energy efficiency, dependability, and corrosion resistant materials.

Performance

Values for the projected power consumption rates that were presented in the proposal were based on a 27ºC feed stream of 45,000 mg/l TDS and a permeate flow rate of 100,000 gpd. The membrane manufactures projection software was used to determine the system parameters at a recovery of 35%, and these parameters were subsequently used to determine the projected power consumption. The result was an anticipated feed pressure of 900 psi and a specific power consumption rate of 3.02 kWh/m³.

Once the system was installed and operating, the specific power consumption was calculated based on actual system parameters and the result was a much lower value of 2.65 kWh/m³. There were several reasons the actual value was lower, the main reason however, was the conservative design. Because of some uncertainty in the feed water quality, the SWRO system was designed with a relatively low flux (approximately 8 gpm/ft2), and a somewhat large hydraulic envelope. As it turned out, the feed water TDS was closer to 36,000 ppm and fairly stable. The lower feed TDS enabled the system to operate at a lower membrane feed pressure of 790 psi and a higher permeate flow rate of 120,000 gpd, consequently using less energy than originally projected and making higher quality permeate.

Conclusion

With most of the system assembled, the installation was fairly straightforward and went smoothly. The two units were installed, started up, tested and operator training was completed in less than three weeks. There was, however, a problem with the feed water quality and the pretreatment system, which was discovered after only 24 hours of operation. It immediately became apparent that the raw water was loaded with particulate that was quickly fouling the sand screens and the micron filters. Fortunately, the feed system could be modified to flow into an existing 250,000 gallon seawater tank from the wells, and the SWRO feed was then drawn out of this tank. This settling tank solution worked quite well and provided a feed water with a pre-filter SDI of 1.25.

There was also one other performance issue that needed to be resolved. Initially, the permeate quality was less than what was projected, and it was not clear why. The system was extensively checked ant tested for leaks, and the possibility that seawater was somehow mixing with the permeate was eventually eliminated. It was finally determined that the membranes did not meet the design rejection required to produce the projected permeate TDS. Once the membranes were replaced, the system was making plenty of high quality permeate that was well below the maximum acceptable permeate TDS.

KAJUR and the residents of Ebye have since been enjoying low-cost, high-quality water for over a year now without any noteworthy system failures. They are so pleased, in fact, that KAJUR has recently awarded Hydropro another SWRO job utilizing work exchanger energy recovery.

Design Requirements

In the original RFP, KAJUR requested twin 75,000 gpd SWRO units (expandable to 100,000 gpd) designed for a seawater feed of 45,000 mg/l TDS. The proposal presented by Hydropro was for two Seawater Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment units each designed to produce 75,000 gallons per day. Permeate water was projected to be of less than 300 mg/l TDS based on feed water from seawater wells with a maximum TDS of 50,000 mg/l and an SDI of less than 3. Each unit was designed to be easily expandable to a daily capacity of 100,000 gallons by the addition of one pressure vessel containing seven seawater membranes. All instrumentation, piping, valves, headers and pumps were pre-sized to accommodate the expansion.

Each proposed SWRO system consisted of four pressure vessels containing seven membrane elements each arranged in a single, one-pass array. With the expansion, the system would consist of five pressure vessels in a single staged array. Each system was designed to operate at a 30-40% recovery rate, with a maximum trans-membrane (feed to product) pressure of 1100 psi at a feed water TDS of 50,000 mg/l. With a feed water TDS of 46,000 mg/l, the trans-membrane pressure was projected to be approximately 900 psi at startup and 950 psi after three years of operation.

System Design

The final, installed 100,000 gpd Hydropro design consisted of the following major components and unit operations for each SWRO unit:
• Sand and Particulate Filters: Two HYDROPRO Tubular filter units Model STF5M2-400- PVC/150 each consisting of one PVC housing with a 150-micron wedge wire PVC screen for the removal of sand and particles, with automatic purge valves
• Micron Filters: Three heavy-duty filter housings constructed of FRP/PVC and built to ASME Code X, the housings are Eden Model 24EFC each accommodating six (6) 40" long five micron polypropylene cartridges
• RO High Pressure Booster Pumps: Two high pressure feed booster pumps Grundfos Model BM 17-27R (installed in series) - horizontal centrifugal, multi-stage construction of 904L Super Austenitic Stainless Steel, each driven by a 35 HP submersible type motor rated at 460V/60Hz/3Ø utilizing a Soft start motor starter and VFD RO Low Pressure Booster Pump: One booster pump Grundfos Model BM 30-4R - horizontal centrifugal, multi-stage type of 904L Super Austenitic Stainless Steel, driven by a 7.5 HP submersible type motor rated at 460V/60Hz/3Ø controlled by a variable frequency drive
• Membrane Modules: One FRP construction structural frame, five pressure vessels of FRP construction rated at 1200 psi operating pressure, 35 Thin Film Composite membrane elements ¬ 8" x 40", 2205 DUPLEX SS headers for feed and concentrate and Sch. 80 PVC for the permeate headers and low pressure feed, suction and concentrate piping, Allen- Bradley PLC SLC 5/04 based control system - installed in a NEMA 4X enclosure with system switches lights etc. installed on the panel door
• Chemical Feed Systems: One anti-scalant dosing system and one chlorine dosing system
• Freshwater Flush/Membrane Cleaning System

The system skid was designed and fabricated for a compact footprint due to limited installation space and to allow for shipping both units in a single container. The entire system was pre-assembled as much as possible to minimize field services.

Conventional Design

Previously, the standard Hydropro design for SWRO with energy recovery incorporated a single multistage centrifugal pump (or positive displacement) with a Hydraulic Turbo Booster. This design is fairly simple and generally does not require a significant increase in system controls or instrumentation and is for the most part a sound, and energy efficient SWRO design.

The hydraulic turbo booster converts the hydraulic energy of the concentrate stream to mechanical energy and then applies this mechanical energy to the full flow of the feed stream in the form of a considerable pressure boost. In a single stage SWRO system, the energy benefit associated with this type of energy recovery device is realized solely in the form of lower pressure (and thus lower horsepower) requirements for the high pressure feed pump. Because the equations used to predict the pressure boost produced by a HTB are usually specific to the manufacturer and dependent upon the system parameters, they will not be explicitly discussed here. In this case, a reasonable assumption would be a 300 psi (693 feet H2O) pressure boost from the HTB operating in a system as described in Example 1 below. The following example is used to demonstrate the reduction in high pressure feed pump horsepower requirements:

This HTB energy recovery device provides a substantial reduction in specific energy consumption, which, depending on the duty cycle and cost of power could pay for itself in a relatively short amount of time.

New Technology

The concept of a work exchanger energy recovery device was certainly not new, and several variations of these devices have come and gone. However, at the time of this proposal, there seemed to be a new approach to the design of these positive displacement devices that eliminated many of the problems associated with previous versions. The PE from Energy Recovery, Inc. (ERI) is an example of a novel work exchanger device that was in a position to profoundly affect the design of SWRO and the energy recovery industry.

The main idea of the Pressure Exchanger is its ability to directly transfer most of the hydraulic energy in the concentrate stream to an equal amount of feed water. The result is a side feed stream equal in flow to the concentrate stream (minus bearing leakage) that is boosted to near membrane feed pressure by the Pressure Exchanger. A small high pressure booster pump is then required to boost the high pressure feed exiting the PE so that it equals the discharge pressure of the high pressure feed pump and the two feed streams can be combined. This pressure boost accounts for pressure losses associated with inefficiencies of the pressure exchanger, losses across the membranes, and piping and fitting losses throughout the system. By significantly reducing the size of the high pressure feed pump to approximate the flow of permeate, the horsepower of the high pressure pump can be reduced by approximately two thirds of the total pumping power required. This substantial reduction in horsepower is, for the most part, specific to the high pressure, low recovery nature of the SWRO system. To illustrate the effect of this reduction in pumping power required, the following example is used:

Although there are other energy considerations besides just pumping power when comparing a system with no energy recovery and a system with a PE, this simple analysis shows a significant reduction in energy consumption when using a Pressure Exchanger.