FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
1)
Can I buy stock in Consolidated Water Co. Ltd.?
Answer
Consolidated
Water Co. Ltd. is a shareholder owned
company and its shares are publicly traded on the NASDAQ Global Select stock market
in the United States. See the Investors tab for detailed investor
information.
2)
What is the main benefit of Seawater Desalination?
Answer
For some
small island nations there is no choice but to
liberate fresh water from the sea. Larger countries and coastal
communities have or are considering augmenting their potable water
supply with desalinated water in efforts to meet their populations
growing needs and add a component of supply that is truly drought proof.
3)
Why is desalinated water more expensive than
conventional supplies from
ground and surface waters?
Answer
Ground and
surface waters have little dissolved salts
or solids and with minimal treatment can yield potable water safe for
drinking. Seawater has a considerable amount of dissolved salts/solids,
some 70 times the amounts considered safe for human consumption.
It takes a large amount of energy and highly specialized corrosion
proof equipment to liberate fresh water from saline waters.
4)
What is the difference between Brackish Water and
Seawater?
Answer
The primary
difference between brackish water and
seawater is in the amount of dissolved salts/solids. Seawater contains
higher amounts of dissolved salts/solids (from 15,000 milligrams per
liter (mg/l) to over 40,000 mg/l of total dissolved solids). Water that
has only 1,000 - 15,000 mg/l dissolved salts/solids is considered to be
Brackish. The greater the salt content of the water, the higher the
pressure or electric power needed to treat water using membranes,
resulting in higher energy costs.
5)
There are other desalination methods/technologies
commercially available, why is Reverse Osmosis the preferred technology
utilized by Consolidated Water Co. Ltd.?
Answer
There are
principally two main methods of desalting,
thermal distillation and membrane separation. Due to the lower energy
costs required for membrane separation methods, it is the preferred
technology globally. Specifically, Reverse Osmosis membrane separation
is the mostly widely used technology used for brackish and seawater
desalination. Reverse osmosis is a fluid separation process in which
the saline water is pressurized, and fresh water is separated from the
saline by passing through a semi-permeable membrane that rejects the
salts.
6)
How much power is needed to produce desalinated
water using the Reverse
Osmosis technology?
Answer
Typically,
the energy required is about
2.8 - 3.5 kWh per cubic meter or 11.0 – 13.5 kWh per US
kilo-gallons. There is a demonstration project underway in the U.S.
where they anticipate dropping energy to 1.7 kWh. The overall unit cost
for desalinated water has dropped significantly in the last 10 years,
and continues to drop as the technology is developed to increase
efficiencies and recovery rates.
7)
Is desalinated water corrosive?
Answer
Desalinated
water is highly purified, meaning very low
in dissolved salts/solids, because of this desalinated water has a
high potential to dissolve solid materials, corroding pipes and other
distribution fittings/equipment. Typically, desalinated water is
"stabilized" by adding naturally occurring minerals, calcium and/or
magnesium back into the water prior to it being put into the
distribution system.
8)
Is Seawater Desalination a sustainable solution
for our potable water needs?
Answer
Obtaining
fresh water from the sea is arguably more
sustainable than removing water from fresh water sources such as ground
water aquifers, lakes and rivers, given the relative size of the
World’s oceans compared to the dwindling size and
increasingly
polluted fresh water sources. Billions of gallons of fresh water are
liberated daily from the oceans by the natural
evaporative/precipitation water cycle.
9)
What are the environmental implications of
desalination?
Answer
Environmental
concerns include air pollution and
greenhouse gas emissions from the power plants that provide electricity
and/or thermal energy to the desalination plants.
Regardless
of the method used, there is always a
concentrated waste product consisting of everything that was removed
from the created fresh water. This is sometimes referred to as brine,
often disposed of in the ocean, and careful planning and design needs
to ensure that this brine stream is dispersed as quickly as possible.
Marine life
entrapment and impingement of the open sea
intakes and brine outfalls for these systems is an environmental
concern. Design improvements and extensive monitoring of existing
systems have reduced the environmental impact of both.
