Category: Research Developments

Happy #worldoceansday2023 where Nils Horneff and Wesley Williams presented on advancements in heave modeling of the Water Bros desalination system at the Appalachian Energy Summit!

In preparation for the CREATE Stage in the Waves to Water Prize competition from DOE, we submitted a testing proposal for the WATER BROS Desal buoy for wave tank testing. The accepted proposals were announced this week, and we are excited to announce that we will be testing our fully functional desalination buoy prototype at the University of New Hampshire Jere A. Chase Ocean Engineering Laboratory later this summer!

This fully funded testing opportunity provides WATER BROS Deal with a high accuracy, high fidelity testing facility to validate models, structural security, and performance prior to open water testing in April of 2022.

We look forward to the collaboration with the TEAMER Program and the University of New Hampshire while promoting a clean energy future for our planet!

We installed a commercial off-the-shelf Reverse Osmosis under-sink system in Coastal North Carolina, an area with known municipal water challenges. Total dissolved solids (TDS) were tested with the following results:

• Inlet Municipal water: 191 mg/L 
• Brine Reject: 264 mg/L
• RO Membrane Outlet: 1 mg/L
• Product Water (after re-mineralization): 12 mg/L

The installed system requires a minimal footprint; dramatically improves water taste, clarity, and smell; and is providing a minimum of 99.5% contaminant removal. Testing of the inter-stage water quality, flow rates, and reject water analysis provides a key insight to the advancement of water purification and treatment.

Coastal conditions are harsh and unpredictable. The WATER BROS Desal team continue to simulate various wave conditions and refine the model prior to prototype construction at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte Industrial Solutions Laboratory. Ever-expanding simulation of various wave states through our thorough wave energy conversion model on the Matlab/Simulink platform ensures hydrodynamic stability in any wave conditions, and optimal wave energy conversion efficiency.

In the continuous effort to ensure that Water Bros Desal is designing the most thorough, rugged, and capable system, training and upgrading of knowledge are at the forefront of the engineer’s priorities. The team has acquired a business license for the Matlab, Simulink, SimScape, SimScape Multibody, and WecSim platforms for development and simulation of the prototype.