Oasys’ New Desalination Technology

Company Claims that This is the First Membrane-based Solution that is Capable of Treating Water with Salt Concentrations up to Five Times Higher than Seawater

Oasys claims that this is the first membrane-based solution that is capable of treating water with salt concentrations up to five times higher than seawater.The Membrane Brine Concentrator(MBC)system is designed to transform high salinity waste water ranging from 5 to 15% dissolved solids into fresh, drinking quality water.

The system can achieve up to 85% water recovery. The MBC system uses forward osmosis as opposed to the more commonly used reverse osmosis technology, the differences which are highlighted by Oasys as follows:

The process of osmosis uses a semi-permeable barrier (or membrane) that water diffuses across. Water flows through the membrane from a lower concentration to a higher concentration to achieve equilibrium on both sides. Osmosis and forward osmosis are the same thing. Misunderstanding occurs when people confuse forward osmosis and reverse osmosis.

Reverse osmosis (RO) uses a similar semi-permeable barrier, but instead of allowing osmosis to naturally occur, the opposite is done, as force is needed. To overcome osmotic pressure, hydraulic pressure is applied to forcefully push water through the membrane, leaving salt behind.That's the major difference between reverse osmosis (RO) and forward osmosis (FO)- RO requires artificial force while FO uses natural osmosis.

In addition to being less energy intensive, the MBC system requires lower capital costs since there are no high-pressure components or exotic metals. This also leads to a low maintenance system that experiences significantly reduced downtime.

While desalination is one application for Oasys' MBC system, the Company is also targetingpower generation waste water and the energy industry, in particular the now popular method of extracting further oil from previously exhausted wells called "fracking" or hydraulic fracturing. On average,four million gallons of water are used to fracture a single shale gas well.The cost of sourcing, treating, and disposing of this water ranges from 10-25% of the total cost of oil and gas production. A single Oasys system can treat water from 12 fracking wells at a cost of $3-4 a barrel which is typically less than using trucks to transport the water to underground facilities, not to mention less energy intensive and environmentally friendly.Oasys plans to target the$36 billion hydraulic fracturing market that has grown exponentially in the recent years, especially in the United States.National Oilwell Varco (NYSE:NOV), a $30 billion provider of equipment and components for oil and gas drilling, is theexclusive licensee for Oasys MBC technology in global upstream oil and gas for produced water treatment.

As noted in previous articles, there seem to be hardly any publicly traded pure play desalination companies to invest in. NanoH2O was a private desalination companywe highlighted about a year agowhich was acquired by LG Chem in June of this year. Oasys however may provide public investors with a pure play opportunity to invest in desalination.According to a January 2014 article by Bloomberg,Oasys may seek to raise $20 million to $25 million this year or next with plans to access public markets in two to three years.

Source: Nanalyze

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Taxonomy

• Technology
• Desalination
• Membrane Technology