Water. desalination + reuse

TECHNOLOGY CDI used as a point-of-entry system for treating incoming water for residential homes. (Image courtesy: Idropan, Location: Chennai, India) consideration are stationary applications, where unit size is a relatively minor consideration. Unlike RO and ED, which took several decades and several billion dollars to reach their current state, total CDI investment to date is below US$ 100 million (excluding substantial internal research & development expenses incurred by General Electric (GE), but including governmentsponsored grants and contracts). CDI was initially developed in the late 1960s but became widely known following work by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's Farmer and colleagues. The first company to attempt to commercialize CDI technology was Capacitive Deionization Technology Systems Inc, which was founded in 1996 based on work done at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. They voluntarily filed for bankruptcy in 2008. Other CDI developers have come and gone. GE invested substantially in CDI, leading to over 9 US patent applications between 2005 and 2009. However, they have remained dormant for the past 3 years or so, for unknown reasons. Several other companies including Materials Method, Sanabelle Water, and WL Gore & Associates, which were once active in this field are no longer active in | 36 | Desalination & Water Reuse | November-December 2013 research or have made a decision to leave abandon the market. This may be due to lack of an initial market identification, technical challenges or both. Despite the failure of Capacitive Deionization Technology Systems Inc, and decisions by GE and others to abandon the market, several companies worldwide are now developing CDI-related products. The leading companies active in CDI are Voltea (Netherlands), AquaEWP (USA), Atlantis (USA), Idropran Inc (Italy), LT Green Energy (Australia) and Enpar (Canada). Several relations exist or existed between CDI manufacturers. For example, AquaEWP was a subcontractor to Biosource on a US Defence Advance Research Projects Agency contract that resulted in the development of membrane-based CDI. Biosource was acquired by Voltea in 2008, and thus owns Biosource's membrane-related intellectual properties. AquaEWP also had licensing agreements with Idropan and LT Green Energy. While there are currently several companies active in the CDI area, the number of companies will likely increase in years to come. CDI is one of the technologies that originated in USA but will likely benefit developing countries primarily, since their water problems are more severe than in the developed world. It is expected that there will be an increase in funding for CDI technology by governmental organizations in the United States and worldwide. Equity investments in CDI are also expected to increase. The largest equity investment so far has gone to Voltea, which raised over US$ 10 million in two rounds of investments where firms such as Pentair, Rabo Ventures and Unilever Ventures participated. Enpar is a publicly traded company listed in the Canadian stock exchange, with yearly operational expenses of about Can$ 1-2 million (US$ 0.96-1.92 million) and 2012 revenue of about Can$ 200,000 (US$ 192,000) or less. As most other companies in CDI are privately held, their revenue numbers are unknown. The total annual sale of CDI units is likely below US$ 5 million. Pentair is currently launching a CDIbased product (Hybrid-DI) for water softening. This product was developed jointly by Voltea and Pentair, and is expected to reach market in the near term. No pricing information is available yet. The Hybrid DI is expected to come in four variations, which can treat up to a maximum of 6 GPM (2.8 L/s). The main advantage that this CDI unit will

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