NEWPORT BEACH, CA — A prototype of a deep-sea desalination device has been installed at the bottom of the San Joaquin Reservoir here, The Orange County Register reported September 3.

The prototype relies on the intense pressures found deep in the ocean to push seawater through an array of membranes, then pump the purified water to the surface.

The company behind the device, which is called DEMWAX, is Tustin, CA-based DXV Water Technologies. According to company President Michael S. Motherway, the “crushing force” at a depth of about 850 feet takes the place of electrical power. The device’s inventor is company CEO Diem X. Vuong.

According to the company’s Web site, the device’s membrane cartridges are moored on the floor of the water body. The flat sheets of membranes, which are aligned vertically in a series, are spaced to allow a large amount of source water relative to the product water penetrating the membrane to flow past the membrane unimpeded. This design allows for operation with an “extremely low energy use,” according to the company.

A perpendicular collection channel collects the treated water from the membrane, and then the clean water is pumped back to shore by a standard submersible pump.

The company says the design offers environmental benefits, including reduced carbon footprint and reduced impingement and entrainment of aquatic life. The low recovery of the process also does not boost leftover brine concentration levels in the area in which the system is located and the natural movement of water works to mix the leftover brine stream back to ambient concentration near the system.

Vuong told the Orange County Register, “We’re trying to be environmentally friendly.”

The suitcase-sized version of the device that is installed at the bottom of the San Joaquin Reservoir is designed to purify the treated wastewater in the reservoir to test the maintenance requirements of the system. The water it yields will not be put into the county’s supply.

Motherway is quoted saying the company expects to have a pilot plant in the ocean “within a year.”

Vuong and Motherway said that a full-scale deep-sea plant using their technology would cost about $350 million — roughly the same as the coastal seawater desalination facility being built near Carlsbad, CA. A plant with a DEMWAX process is a decade or so away, Vuong said.

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To access the company’s Web site, click here.

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