SAN CARLOS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sylvan Source, Inc., a provider of ultra-clean water systems, today announced that the company’s innovative thermal industrial process was selected as this year’s Technology Idol at the Global Water Intelligence and International Desalination Association 2012 Global Water Summit in Rome. This latest award validates the performance of Sylvan Source’s technology which uses an innovative platform based on phase separation.
“Being selected as the 2012 Technology Idol is especially gratifying to Sylvan Source as it affirms our strategy of delivering breakthrough technology and process solutions globally,” said Laura Demmons, chairman and chief executive officer of Sylvan Source. “We are honored that given the strong competition for this award, based on the other participants’ technologies, the delegates at the Global Water Summit chose our technology platform.”
The Sylvan Source thermal industrial process integrates a new pre-treatment technology that eliminates hard scale with a novel, proprietary heat transfer technology that significantly improves the energy efficiency of the system compared to conventional technologies. The process can desalt seawater at a water extraction ratio of 86 percent compared to 40 percent for reverse osmosis (RO) and 33 percent for thermal systems in comparable configurations. Sylvan Source’s breakthrough technology, in a basic desalination configuration, can handle more than four times the seawater concentration while reducing a significantly broader spectrum of contaminants than similarly configured conventional RO and multiple stage distillation (MSF)/multiple effect distillation (MED) thermal technologies. In addition, recent benchmark testing conducted by independent industry experts demonstrated 17% to 42% lower production costs compared to RO and MSF/MED thermal technologies, and lower energy utilization than comparable MSF/MED systems in a seawater desalination application. Sylvan Source’s flexible technology platform can be utilized in many industrial applications including produced water from oil and gas operations, chemical recovery, and biofuels.
The Technology Idol competition is modeled after the popular US American Idol television show. This year, each of the five participants was given ten minutes to present its product or technology to the audience of delegates and a panel of experts. After the presentations, the experts had ten minutes to question each presenter on technical merits and feasibility, and the financial and commercial attributes of the company’s business plan. After the presentations and questions, audience members voted for their favorite technology and business plan. This year’s Global Water Summit voting audience represented major purchasers of industrial and municipal water technologies, multinational infrastructure companies, established equipment suppliers and other experts in the water industry.
About Global Water Summit
Co-organized by Global Water Intelligence, the leading publisher of market intelligence for the global water sector, and the International Desalination Association, the leading global organization dedicated to desalination, desalination technology and water reuse, the Global Water Summit is the only event of its kind. It is an agenda-defining conference that brings together the highest level delegates from around the world, while maintaining the open and intimate atmosphere of a boardroom meeting. For more information, visit the conference website at www.watermeetsmoney.com.
About Sylvan Source
Sylvan Source, Inc. has developed an innovative industrial platform based on phase-separation, heat transfer and recovery, and scale removal (cation sequestration) technologies. The company’s technology platform is applicable to broad industrial processing and thermal energy management, as well as markets with complicated or challenging water treatment opportunities. The technology incorporates a fundamental cost structure advantage with significant energy and process efficiency gains. In addition, Sylvan Source’s technology reduces a broader spectrum of contaminants, at higher concentrations, more effectively than any other technology.
Along with the Technology Idol award, Sylvan Source has also been recognized as both a Red Herring Top 100 North American Private Company and a Red Herring Top 100 Global Company, and has received Frost and Sullivan’s Product Innovation Award. The company is headquartered in San Carlos, California and is privately held. For more information, please visit www.sylvansource.com.