Water treatment breakthrough in Boston a huge help to craft brewers

Water quality isn’t just a requirement in craft brewing, it is a way of life. So, when a company like Desalitech achieves a record-breaking reverse osmosis water recovery rate of 96 percent at the Padre Dam Advanced Water Reclamation plant in Southern California and 98 percent from the Charles River, local brewers are the first to rejoice and take advantage.

This performance from Desalitech represents a major improvement over the highest reported recovery rates of 75 to 85 percent by traditional reverse osmosis systems from comparable water sources, corresponding to up to a six-fold reduction in the amount of unrecoverable water and disposal. The announcement has profound implications for the growing water reuse market in the United States and around the world, with significant cost reduction and environmental benefits.

The water from the Charles River was provided to six brewers, including Samuel Adams, Harpoon, Castle Island Brewing, Idle Hands Brewing, Cape Ann Brewing and Ipswich Ale Brewery, for them to brew special beers as a part of HUBweek’s 2016 Brew the Charles contest. HUB week occurred in Boston during the last week of September, with beer tasting on Oct. 1.

Desalitech’s groundbreaking ReFlex reverse osmosis systems have attracted major clients and partnerships among Fortune 500 companies such as Coca-Cola, Southern California Edison, Novelis and Pall who are moving away from inefficient and less reliable traditional reverse osmosis systems. Desalitech is able to efficiently treat highly challenging water sources that cannot be treated reliably with traditional reverse osmosis methods.

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Performance data for the Desalitech system was presented by Eileen Idica of Trussell Engineers at the WateReuse Symposium in Tampa. It documents five months of operation at a breakthrough 95 percent and 96 percent water recovery rates with negligible membrane fouling, scaling or maintenance requirements at the Padre Dam. High recovery and high reliability are critical for the Padre Dam as well as for other reuse project for water conservation and cost reduction.

Desalitech was also recently named the winner of the 2016 Global Water Award for Breakthrough Water Technology Company of the Year. The award, announced by Global Water Intelligence (GWI) at their 2016 Summit meeting in Abu Dhabi, was presented by Felipe Calderón, former President of Mexico (2006-2012) and Chairman of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate.

Desalitech’s ReFlex reverse osmosis systems operate at guaranteed maximum recovery rates, reducing wastewater by 50 to 85 percent and energy consumption by up to 35 percent, resulting in significant operating cost savings.