Californians may drink water from the Pacific near Malibu for a few years after drinking it — that is, if the company’s new desalination technology is feasible, it can be consumed.
Oceanwell Co. It is planned to anchor about twenty 40-foot-long devices, called pods, to the seabed several miles below the sea floor and use them to bring salt water and pump pure fresh water into the pipeline. The company calls the concept a water field and is testing prototypes of its pods in a reservoir in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains.
Pilot studies supported by the Las Wirgens Municipal Water District are closely watching from managers of several large water agencies in southern California. They hope that if new technology proves economics, it can provide more water for cities and suburbs that are vulnerable to shortages during drought while avoiding environmental deficiencies in large coastal desalination plants.
“It could provide a reliable water supply to Californians in the United States without producing toxic salt water that affects marine life and without intake to allow life to absorb from the ocean,” said Mark Gold, director of water scarcity solutions at the National Defense Council. “If this technology proves feasible, scalable and cost-effective, it will greatly improve our climate resilience.”
Calleguas Municipal Water District Deputy General Manager Ian Prichard’s Mark Golay of Oceanwell is heading towards a prototype of the desalinated pods tested at the Las Virgenes Reservoir.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Tim Quinn, the company’s water policy strategist, watched as a 12-foot-long cylindrical prototype lowered underwater on the cable during a recent demonstration at the Las Virgenes reservoir.
“We only pull fresh water out of the ocean and salt stays there at low concentrations, which is not an environmental issue,” Quinn said.
Tests at Las Virgenes reservoir will help the company’s engineers check how the system filters plankton and puts it back into the water. As the pods were nearly 50 feet underwater, Mark Golay, the company’s engineering director, turned on the pump and the water flowed from the nails.
The next step later this year is expected to involve testing in the ocean, lowering from the anchor ship to a depth of about five miles offshore.
“We hope to build a water field under the ocean in 2028,” Quinn said.
Quinn previously worked in California water stewardship Forty yearsHe joined Menlo Park’s Oceanwell two years ago, believing the new technology is expected to ease the state’s conflict over water.
“The Ocean Valley has never played a major role in the water future of California, and this technology allows us to see the ocean as a place where we can get a large source of supply with the smallest, if any,” he said.
Managers of seven Southern California water agencies will hold monthly meetings on the project and look at investments in new infrastructure such as pipelines and pumping stations to transport water that the company plans to sell from the coast.
Leaders of the Las Veergens Municipal Water District, who is in charge of the work, held an event at the reservoir on Friday to show how to test the technology. The pilot study received a $700,000 grant from the Southern California Metropolitan Waters and the U.S. Reclamation Agency.
The company still needs additional federal and state licenses. And it has not yet estimated how much energy the process requires, which will be the main factor in determining the cost.
However, water managers and other experts agree that this concept has several advantages over building traditional desalination plants on the coast.
The onshore pump running the system may require much less power, as the pods will be placed at a depth of about 1,300 feet, and the subsea pressure will help drive the seawater to produce fresh water through the reverse osmosis membrane.
The intake of coastal desalinated plants is usually inhaled and killed plankton and fish larvae, but the pod has one Patented air intake system The company said it would return tiny marine life to the surrounding water. And factories on the coast are usually discharged Super salty salt water Can waste Damage to the ecosystemthe seabed pods release less brine and allow it to dissipate without causing such environmental losses.
Golay lowered the prototype into the Las Virgenes reservoir for testing.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Gold says if the technology proves feasible on a large scale Mount Sacramento Joaquin Delta and Colorado River.
Research shows that human-induced climate change is Driving worsens drought In the western United States. Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration expects snow and aggravation of drought as temperatures rise, which is the average water volume of reservoirs and aqueducts for the national water project Can shrink by 13% to 23% Over the next 20 years.
Southern California water agencies are moving forward Plan to build new facilities That will change Wastewater enters clean drinking waterhas been investing in projects Capture more rain.
Besides economic viability, other issues need to be addressed through research, including how the system will filter tiny marine life, how much maintenance is required, and whether pods and hoses can pose any risk of entangling whales, Gold said.
Oceanwell executives and engineers say their systems are designed to protect marine life and eliminate the environmental negatives of other technologies.
A conceptual illustration shows a so-called aquatic farm that is planned to be installed on the California coast with 40-foot-long pods anchored to the seabed about 1,300 feet deep.
(Oceanwell)
Oceanwell CEO Robert Bergstrom, who has been engaged in desalination projects since 1996 and has built and operated seven seawater Caribbean islands on the Virgin Islands, the Bahamas and other Caribbean islands in the United States.
After Bergstrom retired, he moved to California and eventually decided to go back to work to develop technology to help solve California’s water problems.
“I have a big idea,” Bergstrom said. “I know it’s going to be a huge promotion, it’s in the moonlight.”
Founded in 2019, Oceanwell now has 10 employees. Its main investor is Charlie McGarraugh, a former partner at investment banking firm Goldman Sachs. One of its main investors is Japan Kubao Company.
Chief Technology Officer Michael Porter and the engineering team have been designing based on the concept of Bergstrom. They built the first prototype in the Porter Kitchen in San Diego County and conducted preliminary tests in the lab.
“This is inspired by the California environmental community and points out issues that need to be addressed,” Bergstrom said.
Desalinated plants operate in parts of California, including The largest facility in the country, In Carlsbad and a Small plants On Santa Catarina Island. However, the proposal to desalinate plants in new coastal seawater has generated strong opposition. 2022, California Coastal Commission Rejected a plan Large desalination plant in Huntington Beach. Opponents believe that the area does not need water Worry about high costs and damage to the environment.
Bergstrom said the traditional shallow intake of large amounts of algae, fish larvae and plankton disappear in the deep sea because permanent darkness underwater support 1,300 feet underwater greatly reduces life at sea.
“We have a lot of clean water to deal with,” Bergstrom said. “It’s almost the barren desert we choose to locate, and as a result, we don’t have much to filter out.”
The specific location for the first water field has not been selected, but the company plans to install it nearly 5 miles offshore and use pipes and a copper power cord to connect it to land.
Bergstrom said putting the system deep underwater could reduce energy costs by about 40%, because unlike coastal plants that have to pump more amounts of seawater, it will pressurize and pump a smaller amount of fresh water to shore.
Bergstrom and his colleagues touted the invention as a completely different approach. In a traditional sense, they say, it is not really desalinating the sea water, but collecting fresh water from operating equipment like wells in the ocean.
After their first water farm, they envision more buildings along the coast. Bergstrom believes they will help address the water shortage challenge in California and beyond.
Bergstrom said various locations from Santiago to Monterrey would be perfect for developing tap water sites, just like many water-sand countries with deep sea waters, as did Chile, Spain and North African countries.
“I believe it will reshape the world, not just California’s water, because I think the world is looking for something environmentally friendly,” Quinn said.
According to the company’s plan, the first aquatic farm will initially have 20 to 25 pods and will be expanded using additional pods, providing about 60 million gallons of water per day, enough to accommodate about 250,000 households.
Las Virgenes and six other water agencies, including the Los Angeles Department of Water and Electricity, the City of Burbank and the Municipal Water District of Calegus, are studying how to deliver water directly from the project, and at what costs and how inland agencies can supply supply through exchanges with coastal personnel.
“We are very dependent on imported water and we need to diversify,” said David Pedersen, general manager of Las Virgenes. “We need to develop new local waters that are resilient and that can help us adapt to climate change.”
His area is almost entirely dependent on imported supplies from the state water project, serving more than 75,000 people in the Agula Mountains, Calabasas, the Hidden Hills, West Lake Village and surrounding areas.
Mike McNutt, public affairs and communications manager for the municipal water district of Las Virgens, tasted the water flowing out of the nails after passing through the prototype desalination system of the Las Virgens reservoir.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
The region is in severe condition during the drought from 2020 to 2022 Water limit Customers reduced their use by nearly 40%. Pedersen hopes the region will reach the ocean around 2030.
Deputy General Manager Ian Prichard said in the Calleguas Municipal Water District, which provides water to about 650,000 people in Ventura County, one of the biggest questions is how much energy the system will use.
“It would be great if the technology was running and could bring it to market and we had the ability to bring water into our service area,” Prichard said. “The big test is, can they produce water at the rate we want to pay for?”
