10/10/2007

New platform offers solutions to meet world's growing water demands

Trevose, PA — GE Water & Process Technologies, a unit of General Electric Company, launched the next generation of Electrodialysis Reversal (EDR) solutions today – enhancing its portfolio of advanced water and wastewater treatment solutions designed to address the world’s growing water demands.

“With over 50 years of experience and thousands of installations, the next generation of our EDR technology leverages our expertise in the water industry -- bringing to market an advanced water treatment solution that has one of the highest water recovery rates available,” said Jeff Garwood, president and CEO, GE Water & Process Technologies. “Our EDR technology will expand our capabilities in regions -- like China, Australia, Spain and the U.S. -- where the demand for robust solutions to tackle water scarcity and water quality challenges continue to rapidly grow.”

Today over 1.1 billion people lack adequate access to a safe water source, and symptoms of water scarcity like groundwater depletion and water source contamination only continue to place stress on limited fresh water supplies. GE EDR desalination technology removes salt, radium, arsenic, perchlorates and other potentially harmful contaminants from tough-to-treat well and surface waters. Using an electrochemical separation process that allows selective passage of ions in solutions, GE EDR technology produces high-quality water for a variety of industrial applications, such as cooling and boiler make-up water, and its rugged membranes and high chlorine tolerance make it ideal for a variety of wastewater reuse projects. The most common EDR applications include: municipal drinking water, industrial process water, and wastewater reuse.

GE EDR Technical benefits include:

* High water recovery rate design –- up to 94% -- for efficient water resource use
* Reduced waste discharges with high water recovery design
* Robust membranes that can tolerate moderate levels of particulates
* Long membrane life for low total cost of ownership
* Chlorine-resistant membranes enable low-cost disinfection techniques
* Low electricity consumption
* Adjustable electricity enables the control salt removal and energy optimization
* High water silica tolerance

EDR Experience
GE Water & Process Technologies’ EDR expertise can be seen in projects around the globe.
Recent GE EDR project highlights include:

ATLL Barcelona, Spain
* GE EDR will produce up to 52.8 MGD (200,000 m3/day) or 20% of the water for the greater Barcelona area. The technology will also help provide a consistent source of safe drinking water by reducing dissolved solids and trihalomethane precursor organic particles.

Magna Water Company, Utah, USA
* A 6 MGD (22,727 m3/day) GE EDR system will remove dissolved solids and harmful arsenic and perchlorate from the community’s well water.

City of Suffolk, VA, USA
* A fluoride reduction project currently undergoing a 46% expansion to 13.6 MGD (51,515 m3/day) will be the second largest EDR facility in the world and will operate at 94% water recovery.

For more information on the GE Water & Process Technologies and GE’s new EDR platform, please visit www.gewater.com .

SOURCE: GE Water & Process Technologies