Innovative, Economical, Evironmental

There are several ways to supply the required capacities of raw water for power generation, seawater desalination, municipal systems, and for the oil industry. These utilities have been getting their supply of raw water through open intake systems. The need has become apparent in the last 20 years to radically modify these systems in order to comply with stricter environmental regulations imposed by governments around the world.

Elmosa has done much work in seawater intake system development. We used the environment as a major design factor throughout our research program. We hold several patents, and our research and development continues. We invested heavily in finding an alternative to open channel intake systems. We conceived and researched the idea of pre-filtration at the water source. We set up models and conducted model studies in advanced hydraulic labs. We made a breakthrough in the water intake system technology by developing a unique infiltration system.

Invisihead™ Seawater Intake

The InvisiHead is a hydraulically invisible seawater intake velocity cap system fitted to the upstream pipeline inlet located offshore. The InvisiHead minimizes suction and drastically reduces the inflow of debris. It is hydraulically tuned in the lab. The entrance dimensions are not calculated as usually done in standard intake inlets and velocity caps but experimentally determined as the flow is tuned in. The InvisiHead seawater intake velocity cap is selected by the US Environmental Protection Agency consultants as the best technology available (BTA or BAT).

Infiltration™

The Infiltration is a uniquely engineered filter bed to keep marine life, debris, sand and silt, trash, and oil from entering into raw water systems. It is maintenance-free, expandable without the need for system shutdown, and exceeds all environmental requirements worldwide. The savings made by the lower costs of operation and maintenance of fish farms, reverse osmosis and power plants are estimated to pay off the initial system costs in a short period of time after start up.

NatSep™

The NatSep Separation Basin is located onshore where natural separation of sand and debris takes place. Sand and debris that may flow into the InvisiHead get naturally separated and settle at the NatSep intake basin. The NatSep patented design helped eliminate standard screening processes. Elmosa has discontinued the use of all screening systems including stationary and traveling screens in favor of NatSep.

Research and Development

We research and develop easily applied environmental technologies. Two R&D programs are currently active to research and develop the required technologies to:

  • Arrest CO2 and H2S associated with natural gas and oil at the bottom of a well and leave them behind at the reservoir, where they belong. Only hydrocarbons will be allowed to flow through up the well.
  • Collect Desert Heat for Conversion into Electricity: Create local permanent low pressure climates within the high pressure ambient of the hot desert climate. This generates constant high speed winds that can be harnessed by wind turbogenerators to produce clean, renewable energy, in quantities sufficient to satisfy the total global demand.