HOUSTON — What its developer calls a new, lower-cost water desalination technology will be the basis of a pilot project by the city of Laredo, TX, to demonstrate the technology’s commercial application, the developer, Terrabon, L.L.C., announced in a March 18 press release.

The $1.6 million project, recently approved by the Laredo City Council, is a joint effort by Terrabon and the Texas Engineering Experiment Station. The pilot plant will be capable of producing 50,000 gallons of fresh water per day for residents of Laredo, Terrabon said. Plant construction will be completed by the end of this year.

The plant will use what Terrabon calls advanced vapor compression desalination (AdVE™) to treat brackish or salty water. Laredo, on the Texas-Mexico border, has limited natural supplies of fresh water.

According to the company, the AdVE desalination technology and another Terrabon process, MixAlco™, the latter used to produce biofuels from non-food biomass, were developed by Mark Holtzapple, a professor in Texas A&M University’s chemical engineering department. The technologies are licensed exclusively to Terrabon by Texas A&M. The experiment station is part of the Texas A&M system.

Houston-based Terrabon said in the release, “AdVE uses low-cost, high-capacity, high-efficiency compressors and engines and nonfouling heat exchangers to desalinate brackish and salty water. The process operates at higher pressures than traditional reverse osmosis technology and is significantly less expensive to build and operate.”

When constructed, the pilot plant will be operated by a Terrabon subcontractor, Applied Water Management Inc., a subsidiary of water utility company American Water.

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