Godshall N.A., Bruff M.J.
Altela Inc., US
Keywords: beneficial re-use, discharge, produced water treatment
Altela Inc. offers a fundamentally new water desalination product, the AltelaRainSM System (ARS) that inexpensively removes nearly 100% of dissolved salts and other contaminants from industrial wastewaters and undrinkable brackish waters. Altela has taken the simplest of nature’s processes for purifying water – i.e., mimicking thermal distillation in the water cycle for making rain – and recreates that process using readily available materials and very little energy compared with conventional thermal distillation or membrane separation. The internal heat transfer technology recaptures the energy needed to evaporate water, thus yielding about three times the amount of distilled water per energy input as traditional ambient pressure distillation/evaporation techniques. Consequently, the technology yields energy costs that are approximately only 30% of comparable ambient pressure distillation/evaporation processes. Since the treated water stream is distilled water, the quality of water from the AltelaRainSM System is extremely high and can be used at the well site for frac/well completion water, irrigation, stock watering, or other clean water uses following applicable legal and regulatory permitting. Altela has acquired several precedent-seetting re-use permits for commercial installations. Such reuse of treated, clean produced water directly supports the ‘energy/water/environment’ partnership outlined in the More Water, More Energy, Less Waste Act of 2007.
Journal: TechConnect Briefs
Volume: Technical Proceedings of the 2009 Clean Technology Conference and Trade Show
Published: May 3, 2009
Pages: 246 - 248
Industry sector: Energy & Sustainability
Topic: Water Technologies
ISBN: 978-1-4398-1787-2