Creating fresh water with wave-powered seawater desalination technology
Ocean Oasis uses wave energy to drive an industrial scale desalination process leading fresh water to shore. Drawing on the experience of the Norwegian offshore and maritime industries and Spanish desalination expertise, our experienced team has developed an autonomous floating buoy solution which is both an efficient wave absorber, a suitable platform for a desalination plant, and which is robust in a storm environment.
Our Technology
Creating fresh water with wave-powered seawater desalination technology
Ocean Oasis use wave energy to drive an industrial scale desalination process leading fresh water to shore. Drawing on the experience of the Norwegian offshore and maritime industries and Spanish desalination expertise, our experienced team has developed an autonomous floating buoy solution which is both an efficient wave absorber, a suitable platform for a desalination plant, and which is robust in a storm environment.
A scalable and flexible solution
After many years of technology development, testing and improvement, Ocean Oasis offers a wave-powered desalination solution capable of delivering water at competitive prices, even in areas with only moderate available wave power.
By installing fleets of modular and standardized buoys to meet requirements at each location, the solution is both scalable and flexible.
Our sea water desalination system explained
The Ocean Oasis buoy is freely floating and does not rely on a strong connection to the seabed. The buoy can be completed in a yard, towed to location and installed using a standard catenary mooring system. Water is led to shore using a standard pipeline on the seafloor.
Wave power is harvested via the relative motion between a large body of water in the central moonpool and the buoy itself. This relative motion is used to pressurize prefiltered seawater driving a conventional reverse osmosis (RO) desalination process. After installation and commissioning, the buoy is fully autonomous with a minimum of offshore maintenance.
The desalination process is run without any use of chemicals and there are no oils or other harmful substances on board. Brine is discharged high up in the water column in relatively deep water and it has been demonstrated that waves disperse the brine rapidly avoiding harm to marine life.
Wave power is an underused, natural source of energy.
Ocean waves contain energy in a much more concentrated form than wind or solar energy and wave power is therefore an attractive potential source of renewable energy. The European Commission recently named innovation in ocean energy as a key technology for reaching EU targets and called upon member states to support innovation in wave energy.
Many water stressed areas also have a significant wave resource. Seawater desalination is energy intensive, and Ocean Oasis’ solution for wave power driven desalination has a large potential in areas like the West coast of South and North America, the West coast of Australia, South Africa, North Africa and South Europe. See our desalination project in the Canary Islands.
