By Dan Emerson

 

Israel-based IDE Technologies thinks it has a solution to the global water shortage afflicting the western United States and elsewhere. “Solutions” may be more accurate, since the company employs several different technologies, in developing and operating some of the world’s largest thermal and membrane desalination facilities and industrial water treatment plants. IDE has been credited by Israel's Water Authority with helping alleviate the country's severe water shortage. It has built five large desalination plants on Israel's Mediterranean Coast to produce 130 billion gallons of potable water a year, with a goal of 200 billion gallons by 2020. Israel has also become the world's leader in recycling and reusing wastewater for agriculture – 86 percent of its domestic wastewater.

 

IDE has developed more than 400 desalination plants worldwide and is providing technology for North America's largest desalination project, a $1 billion, 54-million-gallon-per-day seawater plant and pipeline in Carlsbad, Calif.

 

Earlier this month, IDE Americas announced it has been chosen by the city of Santa Barbara, Ca., to refurbish, operate and maintain the city's recommissioned Charles E. Meyer Desalination Plant.

 

Global AgInvesting spoke with Lihy Teuerstein, head of IDE's commercial department, about the company's technology and what implications it may have for global agriculture.

 

GAI: Do you think the results you've produced in Israel can be replicated elsewhere?

IDE: Israel had been suffering from a water shortage but that is no longer the case. About 50 percent of the water for household use in Israel is provided by desalinated water. This amount can be increased, because all of our desalination plants there have additional quantities that can be purchased, if the government decides to do it.

I think this success can be reproduced in other places in the world;  anyplace that is near an ocean or sea does not have to suffer from water shortages anymore. It's just a matter of the regulators and decision makers deciding to make that change. We hope to see that change in the USA and North America, and other places around the world.

 

GAI: What challenges stand in the way of wider use of desalination and water recycling?

IDE: First and foremost, anything regarding desalinated water is usually regulated under the state or other government agencies. It takes time for a “change of mind” for regulators to understand that there is a solution. In some areas, the reason for the delay is that desalinated water may cost more. But if there is not enough water in an area, it has to be provided in other ways.

 

GAI: The Carlsbad plant is schedule for completion in December. How big an area will be served by the Carlsbad desalination plant, and how much of that will be agricultural land?

 

IDE: The water will be distributed from the Poseidon Reservoir in San Diego, so that will be up to San Diego County to decide. 

 

GAI: How has desalination technology become a more viable option?

 

IDE: One of the advantages IDE has is that we are a technology-neutral company; we can offer a variety of solutions for water treatment or desalination, depending on the client need, and the relevant environmental conditions. For example, polluted water, such as around the Indian coast, can usually benefit from the thermal technology rather than reverse osmosis. IDE can offer both technologies or a combination of the technologies. We can treat water to the specifications that agriculture requires. For example, if we need a certain level of boron for agricultural water, we can reach that level.

We have made progress in reducing energy consumption and the use of chemicals, which, of course, reduces the cost and is very good for the regulators' environmental concerns. We've also made technology improvements to enable a smaller (plant) footprint – we've seen that at the Sorek plant in Israel, which uses 16-inch, vertical membranes to produce a large amount of water in a very small footprint.

 

GAI: Is your company seeking to be acquired, as has been reported?

 

IDE: It's been known that our shareholders have intended to sell IDE, mainly as part of their desire to focus on their core business, which IDE is not a part of.  IDE is owned by the Delek Group, which produces and sells oil and gas; and 50 percent by Israeli Chemicals Ltd. They have indicated a desire to put IDE up for sale. However, the decision for the sale has been postponed or is not currently in process.