Energy Recovery announced on Monday that it has secured five new contracts for wastewater projects in India, under which it will supply its PX Pressure Exchanger energy recovery devices to multiple industrial reverse osmosis plants across the country. These projects span some of India's most water-intensive sectors, including textiles, photovoltaic manufacturing, steel, and petrochemical refining.

The award of these contracts reflects India's increasingly stringent wastewater discharge regulations and the growing emphasis on water reuse within the industrial sector. India is home to approximately 18% of the global population but possesses only about 4% of the world's freshwater resources. It is projected that by 2030, the country's water demand will be double the available supply. In response to this challenge, more operators are adopting reverse osmosis treatment strategies. The new orders are all designated for zero liquid discharge systems—a treatment process that eliminates all liquid waste from industrial facilities but is typically energy-intensive.

David Kim-Hak, Vice President of the Water Resources Division at Energy Recovery, stated that India is rapidly advancing its water reuse and zero liquid discharge initiatives. This shift is putting pressure on the energy economics of industrial water treatment. Operators across various industries are now incorporating energy recovery devices into their systems from the initial design phase. The application of the company's PX technology helps to lower operational costs and emissions while reducing dependence on volatile electricity prices.

The PX devices from Energy Recovery achieve efficiency rates of up to 99% with a single moving part, capturing pressure energy from the reverse osmosis process and returning it to the system. The combined treatment capacity from these new orders reaches 30,000 cubic meters per day, bringing the company's total supported industrial wastewater treatment capacity in India to over 230,000 cubic meters per day.

Headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, Energy Recovery designs and manufactures energy-saving technology products for critical infrastructure sectors such as seawater desalination and has over 30 years of industry experience.