The US$200,000 challenge will be awarded to four winners, each receiving a prize of US$50,000 with further investment towards commercialization of the most promising ideas. Current desalination operations are typically very energy intensive with consumption levels reaching up to 70 percent of the desalination costs. Global production of desalinated water uses around 75.2 terawatt hours of electricity per year, enough to power nearly 7 million homes. The goal of the global technology challenge is therefore to identify novel ways to lower these energy consumption costs around the world, either through technology advances or process improvements or both.
“Finding a more efficient method of desalinating seawater will be a game-changer in our collective pursuit of a more sustainable energy future across the globe” said Nabil Al-Khowaiter, Aramco Entrepreneurship's Director of Special Projects. “Due to increased water scarcity, countries around the world are poised to rely more and more heavily on desalination as a means to provide fresh water. With current techniques, this increased reliance could contribute dramatically to increased energy use. Aramco Entrepreneurship is partnering with GE not only to identify new solutions to lowering desalination costs, but also to invest in and attract new technologies and industries to Saudi Arabia.”
The open innovation challenge will focus on cleaner energy sources, the use of advanced materials and better process integration. The end objective is to secure salination solutions that are innovative, impactful, feasible and scalable across the globe.
“GE ecomagination is investing to speed up the development of more sustainable solutions for water desalination” said Deb Frodl, GE's global executive director, ecomagination. “Through this challenge, we hope to inspire scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and innovators around the world to bring their talents to this effort and help drive greater outcomes for customers.”
The deadline for entries is July 16th 2014 with winners announced in November.
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