New Technologies in Spain - Spanish innovation contributes to advancing desalination to bring sustainable clean water to millions.
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New Technologies in Spain
Desalination
Spanish innovation contributes to advancing desalination
to bring sustainable clean water to millions.
Innovation in Motion Spain is now the world’s eighth-largest economy and the fastest growing in the European Union. It represents more than 2.5% of the world’s total GDP and a third of all new jobs created in the Eurozone last year. Spain is fast becoming a leader in in- novation and generating advanced solutions in the industries of aerospace, renewable energies, water treatment, rail, biotechnol- ogy, industrial machinery and civil engineering. Spanish firms are innovators in the field of public-works finance and management, where six of the world’s top ten companies are from Spain. Where innovation thrives, so will the successful global enterprises of the 21st century. To find out more about technology opportunities in Spain, visit: www.spainbusiness.com To find out more about New Technologies in Spain, visit: www.technologyreview.com/spain/water
Canary Islands Coastline
Desalination
in Spain
Spain built Europe’s first desalination plant nearly 40 years ago and is the largest user of desalination technology in the
Western world. Spanish companies lead the market, operating in regions including India, the Middle East, and North
America. Spanish innovation contributes to advancing desalination to bring sustainable clean water to millions.This is the
second in an eight-part series highlighting new technologies in Spain and is produced by Technology Review, Inc.’s custom-
publishing division in partnership with the Trade Commission of Spain.
Just steps away from the Mediterranean sea along Spain’s south- desalination plants, have grown, constantly honing and improv-
ern coast, machinery hums inside Carboneras, Europe’s largest ing both cost and efficiency. Research continues in the Canary
seawater desalination plant. Throughout the building, water Islands for ways to couple desalination with renewable energy
flows through brightly colored pipes and tanks, along the way to provide sustainable, ecological solutions for communities in
passing through layers of chemical and physical filtration before developing countries. Today, Spanish companies make up the
the seawater reaches the heart of the plant, the reverse-osmosis largest percentage of competitors on the international market
membranes that turn saltwater into fresh. This plant is the latest for the design, engineering, construction, and operation of new
marker in Spain’s decades of experience and research in the field desalination plants around the world.
of desalination. It represents the efforts of some of the top Span-
ish firms in the field, both in Spain and around the world. History of Desalination
For the past nearly 40 years, companies in Spain have built The idea that pure water could be made from seawater has been
and operated desalination plants, first in the water-poor Canary tantalizing thirsty humans for hundreds, if not thousands, of
Islands off the coast of Africa, then moving to fulfill water needs years. The original premise was based on the idea that boiling
on the Spanish mainland and around the world. These compa- or evaporating water separates the water from the salt. That
nies, and the companies that provide a wide variety of parts for theory—vaporization or distillation—was behind the technol-
www.technologyreview.com/spain/water 1
ogy for the first large-scale desalination and Japan who developed membranes for desalination plants in the world.
plants that sprouted in desert areas in the industrial purposes soon realized that
1950s and 1960s, primarily in the Middle those same semipermeable man-made Why Spain?
East. These areas, lacking water but with membranes could be used in desalination. Spain provided the home for Europe’s
plenty of fuel to burn, turned one resource, By the 1970s, desalination-plant develop- entrance into the desalination industry
energy, into what the region craved: water. ers adopted reverse osmosis (RO) for use with the first plant installed on the island
The technologies using heat, though, in new desalination plants. of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands in
require vast amounts of energy. Though more efficient than vaporiza- 1964. Since then, the process has
Researchers throughout the early tion or distillation and requiring far less expanded throughout the islands and on
1900s had been studying the idea of using physical space for the same operation, the Spanish mainland as well. Today,
a membrane to separate out salt from sea- these plants still demanded a high Spain is the fourth-largest user of desali-
water. This is based on the osmotic nature energy input. Over time, engineers devel- nation technology in the world, behind
of cell walls: certain semipermeable oped recovery systems to take advantage Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates,
membranes, such as animal and plant cell of the high pressure of waste brine left and Kuwait. Spain’s more than 700 plants
walls, allow water to pass through, after the reverse-osmosis process. This produce approximately 1,600,000 cubic
creating an equilibrium between a highly has led to precipitous drops in energy meters of water each day, or enough for
concentrated solution on one side of needs for the process, reducing the cost, about 8 million inhabitants.
the membrane and a diluted concentration while the cost of the membranes used in The Canary Islands aren’t the only dry
on the other. reverse-osmosis technology have also areas of the country in need of new water
Scientists hypothesized that with the dropped about 50 percent. sources. The coast along the Mediterra-
right amount of pressure and with the cor- At the same time, conventional sources nean, particularly in the south, has long
rect membrane design, this natural phe- of fresh water have proven more costly in suffered periods of droughts and inade-
nomenon could be reversed through a recent years. In some areas, coastal quate access to water. Despite water scar-
man-made membrane. Instead of flowing aquifers are depleted of water before they city, the sun and climate have made the
from a diluted solution to a highly con- can refill naturally, leading to the intru- southern region the agricultural breadbas-
centrated one, equalizing them both, the sion of seawater. All these factors ket of Spain and of much of Europe, with
concentrate could be forced through a contribute to the fact that, in some regions, miles of greenhouses stretching out to the
membrane, leaving an even higher desalination has become cost-competitive horizon. At the same time, the population
concentrated solution of dissolved solids with traditional methods of supplying in these areas has grown dramatically.
(in this case, salt) behind. water needs. Spain is already the second most vis-
In the 1960s, researchers in the U.S. Today, there are more than 15,000 ited country in the world, and tourism in
Spain is on the rise. In the past decade the
Use of Desalinated Water in Spain south of Spain has increasingly become a
destination for retired northern Europe-
ans looking to create a new home in a land
with plenty of sun. The local governments
have encouraged this type of develop-
ment, building new homes along with the
services necessary for this retired popula-
tion, such as golf courses. In fact, Spain
built a record-breaking 800,000 new
properties in 2005, most concentrated
along the southern coast; that figure is
higher than the combined new properties
built in France, Germany, and the U.K.
“Here we encounter the paradox:
because of the climate and the long hours
of sun, there’s a great deal of tourism and
very productive agriculture. And yet pre-
The production of desalinated water in Spain cisely because of the wonderful climate,
doubled from 2000 to 2004. The Spanish gov- there’s little water,” says Claudio Klyn-
ernment predicts that production will double hout, director of communications for
again in another five years. AcuaMed, the arm of the Spanish govern-
ment in charge of the water program.
Source: AEDYR
2 www.technologyreview.com/spain/water
The government has long been a
supporter of desalination as a method of
dealing with water scarcity. After the
Spanish Civil War, Spain’s economy was
in desperate need of revitalization. The
government saw an opportunity to boost
economic activities through tourism to
the sun-drenched Canary Islands, but the
region lacked natural water resources,
particularly on the eastern islands. In
order to lay the groundwork for economic
growth, the government decided to build
Europe’s first desalination plant in the
Canaries. This original plant used the
same technology as those in the Middle
East, that of vaporization of water. Within
a few years, though, the government
switched and began using the then-novel
reverse-osmosis technology for newer
plants.
Recent events have conspired to
continue this desalination trend within
Spain. Under the past government,
officials in Spain had created plans to
divert the Ebro River in the water-rich
north more than 480 kilometers south to
supply the parched regions along the
southern coast.
Based on a planned increase in water,
developers had rallied behind develop-
ment schemes costing billions of dollars
to build vast tourism complexes between
Alicante and Almeria in the south, includ- High-pressure pumps push sea water through reverse osmosis mem-
ing dozens of golf courses. But farmers branes housed in narrow blue tubes. Above, desalinated water is stored
and environmentalists protested that the in tanks to flush seawater at shutdown.
diversion would have a serious environ-
mental impact on the Ebro and its delta, in guaranteeing water, rain or no rain, forms of water treatment, such as waste-
on the farmland in the north, and along the independent of the climate,” says Klyn- water treatment or water purification. But
hundreds of miles of planned pipeline. hout. “In 2005 there was a drought, and the real prize for many of these compa-
When the new government took power there was doubt that the Ebro River would nies, the way they have been able to
in 2004, they put the expected plan on even have had enough water to supply had become significant players on the inter-
hold. Instead, they’ve drawn a new plan the planned pipeline been built.” national market, has been their experience
that supplies water to the south without Bidding on the first six of the plants with desalination.
taking it from the north. The main method begins in the spring of 2006, with all “We have been working for the past 30
involves building 20 new desalination plants intended for completion by the end years on all these desalination plants,”
plants all along the Mediterranean coast of 2008. When operational, these plants says Jose Antonio Medina, president of
where needs are highest, focusing on the will more than double Spain’s desalina- the International Desalination Associa-
region in the south. The desalination tion capacity. tion and head of the Spanish Desalination
plants are expected to fulfill 50 percent of and Reutilization Association. “That gave
the need, with reuse of treated water, Spanish Companies Spanish companies the necessary experi-
increased irrigation efficiency, and other The announcement of the plans to develop ence with both building and operating
efforts supplying the rest. these new desalination plants within plants. At the moment Spain has the high-
“The current government thought that Spain has been a boon for desalination est number of companies in the world
this new plan would be much more secure companies. Most also specialize in other with this level of technology and experi-
www.technologyreview.com/spain/water 3
ence in desalination.” government, in an effort to support a vari- experience working in Spain.
These companies include such names ety of Spanish companies, divided the Officials at Befesa, part of the Aben-
as Pridesa, Inima, Befesa, Cadagua, development of the landmark Carboneras goa Group, say one key to their advantage
Sadyt, Infilco, Aqualia, Cobra, Grupo plant. Separate bids were taken for the has been their willingness to take a chance
Seta, and IsoluxCorsan Corvian. Degre- design and engineering, construction, and in newer, financially riskier markets
mont, a French multinational company, operation of the plant. At the end, Inima around the word. Befesa was one of the
has a strong desalination sector made up worked out the engineering and design first Spanish companies operating in
almost entirely of Spaniards. details. A consortium of Pridesa, Degre- Algeria and is now building the first
Nearly all of these companies got their mont, Befesa, and OHL, Inima’s parent desalination plant in India.
feet wet in the waters off the coast of the company, undertook the construction. “This is our philosophy–when we start
Canary Islands. In the portfolio that com- Today, Inima operates the plant. work in a country, we do so because we
panies put forth to show their skill and This experience with different aspects have a strategy to be working in that
experience, many point to one of the many of plant development and management country,” says Guillermo Bravo, CEO of
ground-breaking plants on the Canary and with a wide variety of plants is the key Befesa. “We now have three plants in
Islands. One plant was the first in Europe, to the companies’ competitiveness, Algeria, and we plan to develop the
another the first large-scale RO plant in according to representatives. “Each plant market in India.”
Europe, another the first in Europe to take is different,” says Ignacio Zuñiga, inter- Befesa is also conducting research on
advantage of a new desalination mem- national business development manager the possibility of reusing desalination
brane, still another the first to use new of Cadagua. “There are different condi- membranes for other purposes after
energy recovery systems to dramatically tions in different oceans. And the condi- replacement, thus reducing the overall
reduce energy needs. tions of the intake of the plant or the level cost of the facility.
“One of the early plants, it was a very of pollution in the area, all of these affect Inima, which has dozens of desalina-
complicated plant to operate,” says the pretreatment of the water and the tion plants in Spain and around the world,
Medina. “I worked at that plant from the design of the entire plant.” points to their decades of experience, the
beginning. It has been like the university Representatives of each company, in financial backing of the international con-
of reverse osmosis for us.” competing against the others in the mar- struction company OHL, and their ability
At times today the companies are com- ket, point to specific company strengths. to work in all aspects of water treatment.
petitors when submitting bids for new Most are backed by large construction Not only are Spanish companies
plants, whether for individual stages, such groups or other financially secure, multi- building new plants, but in the U.S. one
as the design, or for the plant’s building national companies that provide the Spanish firm is attempting to fix an exist-
and operation. At times the companies needed resources and stability for invest- ing plant. The Tampa Bay Seawater
work in various consortia. The Spanish ments in this sector. All have years of Desalination Plant, the first large Ameri-
Spanish Companies at the Top of the Global Market (View complete interactive map online.)
Major International Operations
4 www.technologyreview.com/spain/watercan seawater desalination plant, origi-
nally begun in 1999, has been inundated
with problems from the beginning, due in
part to challenges with construction, man-
agement, and pretreatment of the seawa-
ter. Pridesa, a Spanish company now
owned by RWE Thames Water, won a
contract, in partnership with American
Water, to take over the plant.
Jose Maria Ortega, international com-
mercial director of Pridesa, admits that
rehabilitating an existing plant is much
more challenging than building one from
scratch. “We thought it was a huge oppor-
tunity to set up a good precedent for sea-
water desalination in the American
market,” says Ortega, “with ourselves as
the main protagonist.”
Supporting Companies
The membranes used in most Spanish
desalination plants are the heart of the
desalination plant. They are produced
primarily by American and Japanese High-pressure plug valves await shipping at an MTS Valves warehouse
companies, though some institutions in in the north of Spain.
Spain have begun undertaking research
into membrane production. Spanish com- One of the companies in the north, of duplex and superduplex alloys to create
panies, however, have developed the parts MTS Valves, makes high-pressure valves submersible motors and high-pressure
to fill many of the needs in these large- for all sorts of mechanical needs. As the hydraulic pumps for the intake of seawa-
scale plants around the world. The Span- desalination industry grew, it began devel- ter from beach wells or intake tanks.
ish Desalination and Reutilization oping the needed valves, then specialized Originally a family-owned business that
Association counts nearly 60 companies in the valves of the noncorrosive alloys of began in 1940 manufacturing small
as members, all involved in some aspect stainless steel called duplex and superdu- motors for area companies, the company
of desalination, from producing filters plex that are very expensive and difficult began to focus on submersible motors and
and valves to the large companies that to cast. The fact that there are two found- pumps when desalination began in Spain
build the plants. ries in the Bilbao region that work with in the 1960s.
Along the northern coast of Spain, the this metal has proven to be a boon for As the market developed, Indar con-
land is lush and green, a visual contrast local companies. tinued making pumps for other water-
to the parched areas of the south. The Says Jose Ignacio de la Fuente, factory treatment plants while honing its
cities and towns around the industrial city manager of MTS Valves, “We have been desalination niche by working with these
of Bilbao form Spain’s most concentrated in this market for more than 30 years. We challenging alloys. Taking it one step
industrial corridor, with a large number are the European leaders in this market, further, Indar has now created an even
of metal foundries and manufacturing supplying valves to plants around the more specialized niche by focusing on
plants. world, to Israel, Singapore, Australia, the pumps and engines of larger diameter,
Though this area can provide for its United Arab Emirates, and Algeria. We are suitable for the newer large desalination
water needs without desalination technol- in the position to guarantee a first-class plants. Recent research has led the com-
ogy, nevertheless a number of companies product by working with our suppliers.” pany to develop a pump and motor that
have specialized in meeting the needs of De la Fuente says MTS Valves continues saves enough energy to recoup the cost of
desalination. Desalinating seawater to research ways to optimize the perfor- the new pump in only one year.
involves particular engineering chal- mance of the valves, aiding in reducing the “We design the systems to stay com-
lenges, including dealing with the high overall cost of water production. petitive, to reduce power consumption as
corrosivity of the water and the extremely Indar Maquinas Hidraulicas (Indar much as possible,” says Marcos Garcia,
high pressure needed to force the water Hydraulic Machines) has also been able sales manager of Indar.
through the membrane. to take advantage of the local availability In desalination, a crucial factor is pre-
www.technologyreview.com/spain/water 5treatment, cleaning the water to the high- sea in that area.” pressure to push the water through the
est level possible before it reaches the The effects of the brine on the sur- membrane), it remains an issue in terms
reverse-osmosis membranes, the most rounding flora and fauna in the sea depend of cost and environmental issues, as
important, expensive, and delicate part of on the specific marine life in the disposal nations around the world battle rising
the entire operation. The purer the water, area. The usual response is to pipe the out- greenhouse gas emissions, such as those
the longer the membranes last and the flow far enough from sensitive species emitted by power stations.
more effective they remain. that the water quickly disperses into In the last 30 years, the amount of
Fluytec, a company based near Bilbao, the surroundings. This is carefully con- energy required for desalination has fallen
creates filter systems for the second level sidered in all plans for new plants, and precipitously, and along with it the price.
of treatment in a desalination plant. Its despite extensive research, there has not Decades ago it took approximately 12
filters, which look like long cylinders of been a documented case of serious delete- kilowatt-hours of energy to produce one
wound yarn, are cased inside a cylindrical rious effect resulting from the disposal cubic meter of freshwater using RO tech-
housing. To innovate and distinguish its- of brine. nology; today it takes on average between
selve in this market, Fluytec has devel- At the same time, companies are aware 3 and 4 kilowatt-hours of energy. Even
oped a method of building the casing out of the need to mitigate the effect of brine today, however, the cost of that energy
of noncorrosive fiberglass-reinforced on the surrounding seabed. Before the makes up about 40 percent of the total cost
“ We design the systems to stay competitive, to reduce power consumption
as much as possible,” says Marcos Garcia of Indar.
plastic (FRP), which unlike PVC can development of a plant begins, careful to produce each cubic meter of water.
withstand high-water pressures at much studies are done on the sensitivity of the “We are very close to the minimum
larger sizes. In the case of large-scale local marine life. Various techniques to energy for desalination,” says Juan Maria
plants, the FRP filters must be laid out and diffuse the brine may be employed. At Galtés, director of special projects for
layered by hand, a task that few compa- times, desalination plants are built close Inima. “There’s a point where it’s impos-
nies are able to accomplish. to power plants, as is the case with the sible to go any further,” because of the
In addition, Fluytec has developed a Carboneras plant. The brine from Carbon- high pressure needed to separate salt
new system for replacing filters in eras is mixed with the cooling water of from water.
extremely large plants, mechanizing the the thermal power plant, diluting the Developments in new kinds of mem-
process whereby filters are cleaned or brine to a percentage closer to that of branes or other tweaks in plant efficiency
replaced. “In the past it was done by hand. the original seawater. Another option is could help engineers continue to shave off
With this new system, filters will be off- to build a plant close to a wastewater small amounts of energy, reducing both
duty for only a short time,” says Jorge treatment plant; many coastal treatment the cost and the environmental impact.
Merlo, in charge of international sales for plants dispose of the residual freshwater
Fluytec. directly into the sea, and the two may be Canary Islands Renewable
Dozens of other Spanish companies mixed together. Energy
have developed expertise in niche markets “Many people think that desalination Researching methods to reduce energy use
in desalination, marketing their products has sort of bad impact on the environment. has long been a focus of the Canary Islands
within Spain and around the world. This is exactly the contrary,” says Corrado Institute of Technology (ITC), a research
Sommariva, president of the European facility supported by the regional govern-
Environmental Challenges Desalination Society and divisional direc- ment of the Canary Islands. And scientists
When countries or municipalities propose tor of Mott Macdonald. “Because for there are taking this one step further: they
new desalination plants, concerns about instance one of the reasons for selecting are investigating how to produce freshwa-
the environmental effects often arise in desalination in Spain and in Australia was ter from saltwater without using fossil
terms of energy consumption and the dis- the preservation of some of the existing fuels at all.
posal of the residual brine. For every liter natural resources which would have been “Here, we have a great deal of sun,
of water taken from the sea, less than half basically depleted if water transmission wind, and seawater. It is an excellent place
becomes desalted. The remaining brine was implemented instead.” to develop systems,” said Gonzalo Pierna-
has about twice the salinity of seawater One of the main challenges that vieja, ITC energy and water director. “It is
and is usually returned to the sea. remains with the desalination process is also an ideal place to simulate conditions
“The brine could be a problem in the- the cost of the energy required to produce in many developing countries.”
ory, but it usually isn’t,” says Medina. freshwater. Though different processes The engineering involved in using
“You have to study how resistant the demand varying amounts of energy renewable energy to power a desalination
marine life is to different levels of salinity, (desalting seawater with membranes plant can be relatively simple: solar or
and you have to study the conditions of the requires the most, as it takes tremendous wind generators can be hooked up to an
6 www.technologyreview.com/spain/waterAt the Canary Islands Institute of Technology, solar panels feed energy also power desalination plants that
to a stand-alone reverse-osmosis desalination system in operation supply all the island’s drinking water
since 1998. The domes cover desalination prototypes, including and irrigation needs.
workshops and labs. The ITC research group is one of only
a handful focusing on developing and
existing utility grid, which then offsets the which feeds a steady supply of electricity testing plants in which wind turbines
power demands of the desalination plant. to a small desalination plant. “But batter- directly power the desalination process
The challenge, however, in coupling ies aren’t great because you have to without going through any grid.
desalination directly with renewable replace them after, say, five or 10 years, Though all of these systems could be
energy such as solar or wind power lies in and then you have to dispose of them as used in industrialized countries, the main
the variability of renewable energy. The well,” says Piernavieja. “It’s better to goal of the ITC is to develop plants that
membranes used in reverse osmosis need develop a system that needs no batteries could theoretically supply water to even
to be kept wet, and the systems that make in the first place.” a fraction of the billion people around the
up a desalination plant have been devel- Other solutions tested at the Canary world in need of clean drinking water.
oped to handle a steady stream of water. Islands site make use of wind power. In “Many of these people live in areas that
Solar energy is plentiful when the sun one, a small wind-energy converter pow- h ave a bu n d a n t r e n ewa b l e e n e rg y
shines and wind power only when the ers a seawater RO plant designed to oper- resources and yet no electricity grid, and
wind blows. ate even with the stops and starts of wind they may never be connected to a grid.
Researchers in the Canary Islands power. In another, a small wind farm cre- This is the philosophy behind our
have spent the past decade developing ates a small stand-alone electricity grid research,” says Piernavieja.
stand-alone small plants that could that then feeds electricity to the desalina- ITC research on coupling desalination
provide water for approximately 100 to tion plant. with renewable energy is already being
300 families, about the size of a small vil- The Canary island of El Hierro, tested in the world outside the Canary
lage in a developing country. ITC projects which has 10,000 inhabitants, hopes to Islands. The ITC has placed four small
are also carried out in conjunction with model the future of island living. ITC is desalination plants among a population of
other international research institutes or involved in a project there in which even- African fishermen living within the
companies. tually 100 percent of the island’s energy boundaries of a national park called Banc
On one Canary Island test site, photo- needs will be served by renewable D’Arguin in Mauritania. In 2006, the
voltaic panels are hooked up to a battery, energy; that energy, through a grid, will diesel-run desalination plants are being
www.technologyreview.com/spain/water 7converted to run using a hybrid of wind, rehabilitating the plant in Tampa, or any
solar, and diesel power. Wind–solar RO other of these newer plants succeeds, it
plants are being installed in Morocco, and
a solar plant is destined for Tunisia.
could lead to the development of others.
Mexico is installing its first large-
Resources
Still, these types of applications have scale desalination plant in the resort town
ICEX (Spanish Institute for
many hurdles to overcome. Says Medina, of Los Cabos at the southern tip of Baja Foreign Trade)
“These types of systems need mainte- California, to be built and operated by www.us.spainbusiness.com
nance. If you install such plants in such a Inima. India’s Chennai plant, to be built
remote place, and if the plants break and operated by Befesa, opens the market AEDYR (Spanish Desalination
down, it could take months until someone there, while many Spanish companies are and Water Reuse Association)
can be sent there to fix them.” already in talks with the Chinese govern- www.aedyr.com
There are applications for these types ment about plans for desalination plants.
of stand-alone plants in industrialized According to Medina, Libya will soon be AMEC URBIS (Spanish
countries as well. The ITC is in discussion opening up for bids on desalination plants Association of Urban and
Environmental Equipment)
with the engineering company MTorres, as well. Israel recently began operating a
urbis.amec.es
based in northern Spain, about combin- large RO plant, and Spanish firms are in
ing the technology developed in the the competition to build the second one, Centro de estudios
Canary Islands with the ones MTorres is currently in the planning stages. hidrográficos
developing: offshore desalination plants In the Middle East, most plants in the (The Center for Hydrographic
powered by wind. MTorres, with exten- past have made use of vaporization tech- Studies)
sive experience in wind power, has plans nologies, while Spanish companies excel cedex.es/ingles/hidrograficos/
to connect the two fields. in energy-efficient RO plants. But many presentation.html
new plants in the region are now being
Growth of Desalination installed with RO or hybrid technologies HISPAGUA (Spanish Water
Without a doubt, the use of desalination as the price of oil continues to rise. Span- Information System)
hispagua.cedex.es
is rising around the world. The planned ish companies are already working in
new projects in Spain expand the market Saudia Arabia, Oman, and the United
SERCOBE (Spanish National
for Spanish companies. In Algeria, the Arab Emirates and have plans to expand Association of Manufacturers
government, like the Spanish government into this market. of Capital Goods):
in the 1960s, is currently acting on the While many companies around the www.sercobe.es
belief that the best way to jump-start the world have years of experience in
economy is to provide water for private general water treatment, Spanish compa- For more information visit:
consumption and for industry. To fulfill nies have some of the strongest back- www.us.spainbusiness.com
those needs, Algeria is in the process of g r o u n d s g l o b a l l y i n t h e fi e l d o f
building seven large desalination plants. desalination plants. “We want to focus Contact:
Of those, one will be built by Ionics, a more on desalination,” says Jose Maria Mr. Enrique Alejo
Trade Commission of Spain
U.S. company owned by General Elec- Ortega, international commercial director
in Chicago
tric, and one by a Spanish-Canadian con- of Pridesa, which builds and manages a
500 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1500
sortium. The remaining five will be built variety of water treatment and purifica- Chicago, IL 60611, USA
entirely by Spanish companies. tion plants in addition to desalination. T: 312 644 1154
Many in the field believe that the U.S., “We think that it’s probably the most F: 312 527 5531
which is plagued by water supply significant strength of the company and chicago@mcx.es
problems in California and Texas, is the field where we feel we can differenti-
another emerging market. A number of ate ourselves compared to the rest of the
water districts in California are already in companies all over the world.”
the planning stages for desalination According to the United Nations
plants along the coast, and Spanish Environmental Programme, hundreds of
companies are eyeing the state as a center scientists around the world see water
of future business operations. A number shortage as one of the top concerns in the
of municipalities in Texas are investigat- new millennium. Spanish companies are
ing the option of producing potable planning to use their expertise in desali-
water from desalination. Inima is already nation to improve the water situation for
building its first plant in the U.S., a facil- millions of people around the world, by
ity near Boston. If Pridesa succeeds in dipping into the nearly limitless seas.
8 www.technologyreview.com/spain/waterNew Technologies in Spain Series
Spain is a technologically and industrially advanced country committed to in-
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As part of this initiative, Technology Review’s custom-publishing division has
produced the New Technologies in Spain Series, which will appear as a special
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ous search for advanced solutions. To find out more, visit:
www.technologyreview.com/spain
Contact any one of our over
90 offices around the globe.
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