Welcome to the Danfoss High Pressure Pump Blog

Do you know the carbon footprint of the fresh water in your glass?

Our first blog takes a close look at the interdependence of water and energy – the so-called “water-energy nexus”– to understand the energy intensity of the five main types of treated water: surface, groundwater, brackish groundwater, recycled water, and desalinated seawater.

People have turned to available technology to make seawater drinkable for thousands of years. The energy needed to do this, however, has always played a role in how widespread desalination could become.

In this blog, we look at the energy intensity of desalination throughout history. From thermal distillation to SWRO, the energy intensity of desalination has dropped dramatically over the last 100 years – and will most likely continue to fall in the future.

Desalination is the most energy-intensive source of potable water, requiring much more electricity to produce than ground or surface water. But all desal technologies were not created equal.

This blog examines the potential savings if all existing desal plants were retrofitted to be as energy-efficient as current technology allows. Whether you look at electricity usage and cost or CO₂ emissions, the opportunity to save is huge.

The world needs more fresh water than ever before to keep up with its growing population and economic development. At the same time, climate change is exacerbating extreme weather events – and making water scarcity increasingly problematical around the globe.

In this blog, we investigate the factors driving water demand and scarcity – and discuss why desalination – in particular high-efficiency SWRO – will be part of the solution.

As Europe tackles the dual challenges of climate change and water scarcity, the transition from low-efficiency desalination to high-efficiency seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) technology should be considered part of the European Green Deal.

Especially in southern Europe, the potential for reducing energy consumption – and its related financial costs and greenhouse gas emissions – are significant.

In this blog, we take a close look at CAPEX and OPEX to better understand SWRO’s cost structure.

While many costs are largely determined by plant size and location, two relatively small CAPEX decisions have a big impact on energy consumption, which accounts for 45% of OPEX: energy recovery devices and high-pressure pumps.

As more and more SWRO plants come online, concerns about the technology’s sustainability must be addressed.

In this blog, we examine the impact of intakes, outfalls, and feed water pretreatment on marine environments.

CAPEX is only the tip of the TCO iceberg. But some CAPEX decisions have an outsized impact on OPEX and total cost of ownership over an SWRO plant’s lifetime.

In this blog, we dive deeper into the importance of energy efficiency and the CAPEX choices that most influence SWRO’s overall economic and environmental costs.

Much of the installed base of desalination plants was built before the latest energy-saving technology was developed – in particular isobaric energy recovery devices and the most efficient high-pressure pumps.

Retrofits can make these older plants much more energy-efficient – enough to save the world €34.5 billion and 111 million tons of CO₂ annually.

As we turn the page from 2021 to 2022, we look ahead to better understand what the new year will mean to desalination stakeholders.

Look for more desal growth worldwide as water scarcity drives demand, more focus on desal’s environmental impact, more innovation to reduce its energy intensity, and more renewable energy to power it.

The world’s transition to renewable energy has important consequences for many industries – including SWRO.

In this blog, we examine how increased use of renewable energy sources – in particular solar and wind – will decrease SWRO’s carbon footprint and increase its availability and affordability.

Maintenance of high-value assets is critical to mitigating operational risks. As the SWRO industry evolves, more owners and operators will transition from simple corrective and preventative maintenance strategies and increasingly apply data-supported insights to optimize performance and profits.