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Israeli Company to Build California Desalination Plant

Israeli Company to Build California Desalination Plant

June 15, 2015

Desert & Water Research

NPR — A recent NPR radio interview about how Israel is bringing its desalination experience to California begins with a visit with Prof. Jack Gilron, chair of the Department of Desalination and Water Treatment at BGU’s Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research.

Prof. Jack Gilron

Prof. Jack Gilron

In a pilot desalination plant located in Israel’s Negev desert, Prof. Gilron explains that you can get salt out of sea water by freezing it and melting the ice or heating it and condensing the stream.

But the “workhorses” of desalination are thin, strong, plastic membranes, wrapped in a tight spiral around a collection tube.

In desalination plants, salt water is forced at high pressure through these tubes, separating the salt from the water in a thermodynamic process.

Membrane technology is about as good as it can get, in terms of maximizing the amount of fresh water that can be made, says Prof. Gilron.

This technology is being used by the Israeli company, IDE, in the water desalination plant it is building near San Diego.

Read more and listen to the interview on the NPR website >>