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| Mohammed Rasool Qtaishat, winner of the 2008 Ottawa Tech Venture Challenge. (Photo by Etienne Ranger for the OBJ) |
Student's desalinization technology up to 70 per cent more efficient that current industry standard
When a water main broke in downtown Ottawa last month, residents of the adjacent apartment building on Elgin Street were without water for 30 hours. But it didn't take long for residents to complain that the city wasn't working fast enough to restore service.
Imagine, however, if the entire city's water supply were turned off. Regularly.
That's the reality Mohammed Rasool Qtaishat, 29, grew up with in his hometown of Salt, Jordan.
"The city would give us warning, of course. But the water would be off for days, so people would have to prepare by storing water," he said, adding many Middle Eastern countries experience similar water shortages.
It may seem strange Mr. Qtaishat would have to travel all the way to Canada, the country with the most fresh water in the world, to develop a desalinization technology he said is more efficient and less expensive than competing technologies.
"We are working on a membrane process that has been around for 40 years, but it has not been commercialized yet due to some technical challenges with the membrane," said Mr. Qtaishat. "But we have found a way to make a membrane that can produce higher amounts of water compared to the commercial membranes being used today, while using the same process."
It's that technology and the related company, Water for All, which won Mr. Qtaishat the top prize at the 2008 Ottawa Technology Venture Challenge last week, beating out 40 other competitors from Carleton University, the University of Ottawa, Algonquin College and Queen's University. In the past, winning projects have ranged from microchip technology to insulin monitoring to web applications.
"(Mr. Qtaishat's) idea in terms of scale was probably the most ambitious. The competition is designed to inspire structured imagination, which is what technology companies are," said Technology Venture Challenge judge James Smith, a partner with business law firm LaBarge Weinstein. Mr. Smith is also chair of the competition.
The reward for top spot was a $10,000 cash prize, while the two runners-up each received $5,000. All three teams received complimentary enrolment in entrepreneurial business courses offered by the Ontario Centres of Excellence.
"Many competitions are focused on the integrity of the business plan whereas we are focused more on the process of opening up and focusing technical ideas on a particular market application," Mr. Smith said.
Mr. Qtaishat's research has already attracted support, including $286,000 in funding from the Middle East Desalination Research Center in Oman, and attention from Hyflux Ltd., a water purification company based in Singapore.
With desalination membrane filters, sea water is drawn through the purifier and pumped through a membrane with pores large enough to allow water but too small for impurities. Current membrane filters are very energy-intensive, and have to create a great deal of pressure to purify the water.
Though Mr. Qtaishat's solution is currently top secret – the patent is still pending – he explained it's all about the type of material in the membrane. With this material, he said his technology is able to run on solar panels and produce 50 kilograms per square metre of the membrane per hour – that's about 60 to 70 per cent more efficient than current technology, which produces about seven to eight kilograms per metre per hour.
Though his prototype works, Mr, Qtaishat's next step is to prove his technology on a larger scale through a pilot plant.
There is of course, huge potential for this kind of technology. According to the World Health Organization, 1.1 billion people worldwide lack access to clean water.
"When you look at the regional and country level, there is a huge disparity. For example in sub-Saharan Africa, almost four out of 10 people don't have access to clean water," explained George Yap, program director for WaterCan, a charity dedicated to providing clean drinking water to the world's poorest people.
He said although Mr. Qtaishat's technology would work in rich and technologically advanced countries like the oil-rich countries of the Middle East or the U.S., African nations that need it most struggle to afford wells and could never purchase such complex solutions. If technologies like Mr. Qtaishat's take off, he worries they will be left further behind.
"Whatever increased coverage we are able to accomplish through increased wells and toilets, in the meantime population continues to grow and it's a case of where we have to run just to stay still," Mr. Yap said.
By Julie Fortier
Special to the OBJ
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BUBBLY FACTS
1.1 billion people worldwide lack access to clean water.
2.6 billion people – 42 per cent of the global population – lack access to basic sanitation like toilets or safe latrines.
Each year, approximately 1.8 million children die from diseases caused by contaminated water and poor sanitation – more than 5,000 children each day.
Globally, water scarcity already affects four out of every 10 people. The situation is getting worse due to population growth, urbanization and increased domestic and industrial water use.
By 2025, nearly two billion people will live in countries or regions with absolute water shortage, where water resources per person fall below the recommended level of 500 cubic metres per year. This is the amount of water a person needs for healthy and hygienic living.
Sources: WHO, UNICEF
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