http://www.idswater.com/water/us/pump_engineering/Hydraulic_turbocharger/105_0/g_supplier.htmlPump Engineering Inc provides energy recovery turbochargers: Hydraulic TurboCharger for sea water reverse osmosis, High Pressure TurboCharger for gas processing, and Low Pressure TurboCharger for brackish water reverse osmosis
...The Advanced Technology Turbocharger recovers hydraulic energy from the high pressure concentrate (brine) stream in the reverse osmosis (RO) process and transfers that energy to a feed stream. That feed stream may be seawater going into a single stage RO membrane block, or it may be first stage brine stream being boosted in pressure for a second stage membrane block for further recovery of permeate. This unique approach offers many advantages to the RO designer and users.
Advanced Technology Turbocharger Background
Like the previous generation PEI Turbos, the Advanced Technology Turbocharger transfer pressure energy from one liquid stream to a second liquid stream. However, with the use of new technology the Advanced Technology Turbocharger does this energy transference much more efficiently. The Advanced Technology Turbocharger consists of a pump impeller section and a turbine rotor section. Both pump and turbine sections contain a single stage impeller or rotor. The turbine rotor extracts hydraulic energy from the brine stream and converts it to mechanical energy. The pump impeller converts the mechanical energy produced by the turbine rotor back to pressure energy in the feed stream. Thus the Advanced Technology Turbocharger is entirely energized by the brine stream. It has no electrical, external lubrication, or pneumatic requirements.
The turbine rotor depressurizes the brine while extracting the energy in the form of high speed rotational torque. The brine, depressurized up to 5psi (brine exhaust can be any value, even hundreds of psi) is exhausted to the discharge piping.
It is readily apparent that the reduced discharge pressure of the high pressure pump will have a large effect not only on reducing operating cost, but also on reducing both initial capital and maintenance cost. [continued]
Inadequate access to safe drinking water by over 1.1 billion people
Sometimes oceans are mistaken for available water, but the amount of energy needed to convert saline water to potable water is prohibitive today, explaining why only a very small fraction of the world's water supply derives from desalination.