Water. Desalination + reuse
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/1019735
10 Interview September 2018 Water. desalination + reuse inviting them into a specially-designed working space. The new Water Exchange building is part of a redevelop- ment of PUB's existing WaterHub, and will house 24 private office spaces across six storeys, some with reinforced floor- ing to enable conversion into laboratories or workshops, as well as pre-furnished, hot desk-type options. It's intended for start-ups lacking the resource to establish a permanent premises, or those who want to be located nearby to other water entrepreneurs. Companies to have expressed an interest in taking up space there include Xylem subsidiary Visenti, and Blue - Ocean, both of which were based in the original WaterHub, as well as Xylem itself, Metasphere, a UK-based sensor and data company, the Japanese consultancies Nihon Suido and NJS, and Sinomira, a Chinese specialist in desalina - tion pre-treatment. "Singapore Water Exchange comes from feeling the pain of water start ups," explains Seah. "If someone has an idea, wants to change the world, but he doesn't have deep pock- ets, doesn't have the resource — no office, no money for three months' deposit… we give them a hot desk equipped with WiFi and other administrative convenience. They pay a token amount of a few hundred dollars." The exchange concept may go further, offering access to market professionals who can mentor young water entre - preneurs, as well as to training, and potentially to investors. "We are match making," says Seah. "The value is not money, it's what you bring to the table." New frontiers PUB's R&D has three core goals: to desalinate water a rate of one cube to 1 kWh of energy used, compared to 3.5 kWh per cube today; to achieve a minimum 90 per cent recov- ery rate in water reuse processes, compared to 75 per cent today; and for surface water treatment, to be able to han- dle variable qualities of source water. As time goes on, and achieving these goals is potentially within PUB's grasp, the utility has become increasingly focused on water quality monitoring, reflecting the rise of reclaimed water as a pro - portion of overall supply — as well as, for the future, on waste reduction and resource recovery. "As a utility we are very paranoid about bacterial moni- toring of water. Water quality is always a top priority and we are on a journey, seeking real-time monitoring and detec- tion of pathogens," says Seah. One step on the road to more robust water quality monitoring is PUB's new three-year agreement with Grundfos, officially signed at SIWW 2018, which extends a collaboration dating back to 2014 and which covers water treatment, water quality monitoring, digital solutions, and pumping. With goals on water resilience, energy consumption, and water quality monitoring in its sights, PUB's drive to innovate is naturally starting to push at the new boundaries of zero waste and resource recovery. "When we think we can achieve our goals, we get greedy and start thinking 'Can we go for zero waste?,' and 'Can I create a useful output?'," says Seah. "We can't do it alone. We're not supermen. We seek innovative solutions for challenges ahead, and to lev - erage mutual strengths with our partners." The new Singapore Water Exchange initiative is an incubator for water innovators, announced at SIWW 2018, which aims to support water start-ups, from technology companies to system integrators, investors, accelerators, market advisors, and associations, by inviting them into a specially-designed, more collaborative working space If you have an early stage technology, run it by us. If we think it works great, and if not, we will tell you why