Oasys Water - Affordable Desalination from the Cambridge startup

Access to drinkable water is one of most basic human needs.  As water tables sink and rainfall patters becomes erratic, coastal communities are being forced to consider the expensive and cumbersome prospect of desalination.  Fortunately, this option has the potential to become a whole lot cheaper.  Oasys Water, a Yale University spinoff, is commercializing a technology it calls Engineered Osmosis (EO) that could halve the cost of desalination and make it viable for people in need around the world. Typicaly the process takes advantage of reverse osmosis, which requires the use of high pressures.  The EO system uses forward osmosis and low-grade excess heat from power plants to produce potable water with less energy.  The Cambridge-based company has raised $10 million to pilot test a plant that it says could be implemented in water-scarce countries.

* It currently costs between $0.90 and $1 to turn one cubic meter (or 264 gallons) of seawater into potable drinking water. 

* This  approach is estimated to lower that cost to between $0.35 and $0.50.