BOSTON, June 11, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Desalitech, a provider of resource and cost efficient water production and treatment solutions, announced today that it secured an additional $5 million equity funding from Liberation Capital and its institutional investors, increasing the private equity firm's total investment to $9.5 million and bringing the total amount raised by the company to over $13 million. The funds will be used to accelerate Desalitech's growth and strengthen its position as the leading supplier of high-recovery low-cost industrial water treatment solutions.
Industry accounts for nearly 60 percent of fresh water withdrawals in the developed world, according to UNESCO, putting tremendous stress on water resources and driving the fundamental and increasing need for more efficient and cost-effective water supply and wastewater treatment solutions. Reverse osmosis (RO) is an effective and widely-applied technology for water treatment and desalination, yet current RO systems waste both water and energy.
Desalitech's Closed Circuit Desalination (CCD™) solutions are the first major improvement in RO water treatment in decades, lowering costs by 20 to 60 percent by increasing water-use efficiency, reducing energy consumption, increasing flexibility and reliability and greatly reducing the emission of brine waste. With their unique capability of extracting purified water from challenging sources at high recovery rates, CCD products are ideal for industrial water and effluent treatment, agricultural water supply and inland brackish desalination.
"Liberation Capital is providing more than just funding," said Desalitech CEO Nadav Efraty. "This investment is a vote of confidence from experienced water experts that recognize how our proven products can change the economics of water treatment, providing more reliable, cost-effective solutions to maximize the performance of industrial manufacturing operations."
Desalitech's systems far out-perform state-of-the-art water treatment methods. CCD systems have achieved over 97% recovery whereas traditional RO systems typically operate at only 75% recovery. CCD systems are desalinating seawater with 1.5 kWh/m3 energy, compared to 2 to 3 kWh/m3 with state-of-the-art conventional RO. Similar savings percentages have been achieved with CCD systems in industrial water and effluent treatment applications.
"Desalitech has developed a superior and differentiated technology to meet the growing and irreversible market demand for high efficiency and high recovery," said Jeff Garwood, managing director of Liberation Capital. "Their solutions are ideal for industrial and agricultural water treatment, where fresh water supply and effluent disposal costs have become a burden, or even a limiting factor in many cases."
"Industry cannot afford to waste water or the costs of using outdated treatment approaches," said Desalitech Executive Vice President Richard Stover, PhD. "The status quo of 25 percent waste or more is simply no longer acceptable. Desalitech is setting a new standard by reducing waste by up to 70 percent and energy consumption by upwards of 30 percent. Desalitech is committed to be the premier solution provider for high recovery water treatment."
CCD products reinvent the reverse osmosis process by recycling concentrate until a desired recovery level is achieved. Brine is replaced with feed without disrupting the production of treated water and without wasting energy. Desalitech offers complete systems for sale or Build Own Operate (BOO) water-supply arrangements directly to end-users or through international, national and regional partners. The systems are comprised of standard high-quality membranes and RO components, include any required pre- and post-treatments and are supplied with full performance guaranties. The company has been granted more than 80 patents world-wide. Commercial CCD installations have run continuously for over four years, purifying water supplies and reclaiming wastewater in a broad range of industrial, agricultural and municipal applications.
About Desalitech:
Desalitech provides resource and cost efficient water production and treatment solutions. Its next-generation CCD™ process is a patented, proven, highly flexible and reliable water treatment platform that raises recovery, reduces energy consumption and reduces capital cost, thereby lowering the cost of treating wastewater, industrial water, brackish water and seawater.
About Liberation Capital
Liberation Capital is a Global Private Equity Fund specializing in project finance for distributed renewable energy, water and wastewater projects. Liberation Capital supports modular, repeatable, decentralized projects like those served by Desalitech. Its investment model centers on strategic partnerships with CleanTech technology firms and project developers with multi-project/multi-year investment horizons.