Energy Recovery, a leader in pressure energy technology for industrial fluid flows, has won awards of C$2.7 million ($2.02 million) to supply its PX® Pressure Exchanger® technology for desalination projects in Chile’s mining industry.

The company said these desalination projects will be used specifically in the mining process and are expected to ship this quarter.

Energy Recovery will supply its PX-Q300 Pressure Exchangers for multiple facilities, which will produce up to 148,000 m³/d of water. The company estimates the devices will reduce the facilities’ power consumption for all projects by 12.7 MW, saving over 110 GWh/y of energy and avoiding more than 65,740 t/y of CO2 emissions.

Energy Recovery’s President and CEO Chris Gannon said 2018 was shaping up to be a potential record year for the company.

He said: “These recent awards in Chile confirm the efficacy and strength of the PX technology. We are excited about the growth opportunities for our Water business and the continued strength and activity level for desalination throughout 2018 and into 2019. Moving forward, we will continue to aggressively pursue tactical initiatives across the broader water industry.”

Rodney Clemente, Energy Recovery’s Vice President, Water, added: “Energy Recovery has had its eye fixed on Chile as a strategic market and accordingly has positioned our company to assist these facilities in maximising the overall profitability of their operations through an increased understanding of the critical mining-water nexus.

“Energy Recovery’s PX Pressure Exchanger technology has the lowest-life-cycle cost of any energy recovery device on the market today, and this industry-leading value proposition resonates well with both our customers and end-users in Chile.

“More specifically, our uptime advantage in mining applications is unmatched – vitally important when every day of downtime translates to millions of lost dollars for our customers. We are excited to add another critical project to our successful global reference list.”

Energy Recovery is an energy solutions provider to industrial fluid flow markets worldwide. Its solutions recycle and convert wasted pressure energy into a usable asset and preserve pumps that are subject to hostile processing environments.

The PX Pressure Exchanger captures hydraulic energy from the high-pressure reject stream of seawater and then transfers this energy to low-pressure feed water with up to 98% efficiency and no electrical power. The result is a drastic reduction in energy consumption over previous methods.

It has only one moving part, manufactured out of a corrosion-proof ceramic that’s three times more abrasion-resistant than steel, the company says.

“It provides unmatched durability, and its simplicity allows for scalability, quick start-up, and virtually no required maintenance. In fact, many of our PX devices have been in operation for as long as 13 years without interruption,” Energy Recovery said.