GE’s Seawater Reverse Osmosis technologies (SeaPRO, SeaPRO-E, SeaTECH, and SeaSMART) are used to remove salt and other dissolved impurities from water through the use of a semi-permeable membrane. Municipalities and industrial facilities use seawater reverse osmosis to make a consistently pure drinking water supply or as a first step in transforming it to high purity water for industrial use. Compared to thermal desalination, GE’s Seawater Reverse Osmosis technologies can reduce electricity costs and associated CO2 emissions on the power grid.
Environmental Benefits
Reverse osmosis desalination plants typically require 53% less energy (7 kWh/m3 water produced) than similarly sized thermal desalination plants (15 kWh/m3 water produced). A customer using GE's Seawater Reverse Osmosis technologies to desalinate 5,000 m3 of water per day (1,320,000 gallons), could save approximately 14,600 MWh per year, avoiding the annual emission of 8,800 metric tons of CO2 on the U.S. power grid, equivalent to the annual CO2 emissions of 1,700 cars on U.S. roads.
Operating Benefits
GE’s installed desalination platforms transform more than 1.75 billion gallons a day of water. That's equal to the daily water required for a variety of uses by more than 39 million people.
