Govt Pairs With F Cubed for Safe Drinking Water Project

Jakarta Globe, March 17, 2012

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The Indonesian government has announced it will partner with sustainable water technology firm F Cubed to set up solar-powered desalination kits across the country.

Indroyono Soesilo, secretary at the office of the coordinating minister for people’s welfare, said on Thursday that there was an urgent need to provide a sustainable and reliable source of clean water in villages and isolated communities nationwide.

The decision to partner with F Cubed, he said, was crucial in this respect. “We need to immediately find a solution to providing clean water in areas that experience chronic water shortages,” he said.

He said the Australian company would work with the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) to set up its Carocell solar-powered desalination kits throughout the country.

Peter Johnstone, the F Cubed founder and chief executive, said the desalination technology that his company had pioneered was proven to produce high-quality drinking water.

“Our technology can turn water from any source, be it seawater, groundwater, polluted or even contaminated water, into clean, potable water,” he said. “And because it runs on solar power, the water can be produced at a very low cost.”

Among the other benefits of the Carocell system that the company touts are that it “emits no greenhouse gas emissions, uses no chemicals, no costly membranes, no filters, no electronics and no ongoing power source is required other than solar radiation.”

The system is based on a single or a series of low-cost solar panels that can be mounted on the roof of a building or on the ground. The water goes into a feeder pipe running along the top of the panel, then is allowed to run down in evenly dispersed streams to the bottom of the panel.

As it flows down, it gets heated by the solar panel and vaporizes, condensing on the inside of the panel enclosure and eventually dripping out through a clean water outlet pipe.

F Cubed claims the distillation process, high temperatures and exposure to ultraviolet light kill any bacteria and germs in the water. The company also says its panels have double the solar efficiency of similar water purification systems.

The smaller of its two types of solar panels, with a surface area of three square meters, can produce up to 20 liters of clean water a day, while the larger panel, at six square meters, can produce double that amount.

Each panel converts 30 to 40 percent of the feed water into clean water.

The whole cycle can be carried out six times, after which the remaining fluid, with a high salt concentration, is crystallized to produce salt, as part of the F Cubed’s “zero liquid discharge” technology.

Johnstone said the Carocell panels were already in use in 26 countries, including Malaysia, India and Bangladesh.

“We are currently assessing building a factory in Indonesia with investment of around $10 million,” he said. “We want to participate in efforts to improve people’s welfare by providing clean water and creating jobs.”

F Cubed says that because the system runs entirely on solar power, there are no mechanical parts and no electronics, making it ideal for installation in remote, rural areas, as well as for use in disaster relief situations.

Antara