LAS VEGAS — Municipalities throughout the Southwest may soon be receiving drinking water from a new desalination device capable of operating on geothermal energy when the power grid goes down, according to a recent report on TheStreet.com.

The Delta T, developed by entrepreneur Doug Firestone of Las Vegas-based Aqua Genesis Ltd. and Professor Ronald Newcomb, Director of Operations at the San Diego State University College of Sciences International Consortium for Advanced Technologies and Security (ICATS), is a gas-vapor heating and cooling cycle desalination device that relies on a fully reversible thermodynamic process, not membrane treatment, to produce drinking water, the company's Web site explains.

Because the geothermal device uses heat to desalinate water, it is more cost-efficient than a membrane treatment system that requires high pressure to produce drinking water, according to the company.

The developers plan to open a series of private desalination plants and to sell water to municipalities around the Southwest, a market that Newcomb estimates at $1 billion, the report said.

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