2008 New Ventures BC Winner Saltworks Technologies is the subject of an article in the Economist this week titled Cheaper desalination: Current Thinking. The online and offline piece takes a closer look at Saltworks‘ fresh way to take the salt out of seawater.
THERE is a lot of water on Earth, but more than 97% of it is salty and over half of the remainder is frozen at the poles or in glaciers. Meanwhile, around a fifth of the world’s population suffers from a shortage of drinking water and that fraction is expected to grow. One answer is desalination—but it is an expensive answer because it requires a lot of energy. Now, though, a pair of Canadian engineers have come up with an ingenious way of using the heat of the sun to drive the process. Such heat, in many places that have a shortage of fresh water, is one thing that is in abundant supply.
Ben Sparrow and Joshua Zoshi met at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, while completing their MBAs. Their company, Saltworks Technologies, has set up a test plant beside the sea in Vancouver and will open for business in November.
Read the rest of the article online. Congrats to Sparrow and Zoshi on the amazing International coverage.