ACES Profile: Fresh thinking about pure water

Professor Adel Sharif

His work tackling one of tomorrow’s most pressing problems – the availability of fresh water across the world – has won him the 2008 Energy/Environment Academic Enterprise Award.

Iraq-born Sharif completed a chemical engineering degree at Baghdad University before moving to the University of Wales, Swansea, UK, in 1987, where he completed an MSc and PhD. His subsequent research was in the field of membrane separation, particularly involving liquids. Liquid separation is a way to remove impurities from a liquid to produce either purified forms of the solvent (for example clean water) or concentrated forms of the solute (a protein, for example). Its applications include water treatment, oil purification and pharmaceutical manufacturing, among many other industrial applications.

“I moved to the University of Surrey in 1998. My switch to desalination and water treatment processes in 2003 was inspired by events in my home country, Iraq, including the overthrowing of Saddam Hussein. Some friends from Iraq called and urged me to do something about the lack of clean water there.”

In 2003 – the United Nations’ Year of Fresh Water – Sharif formed the Centre for Osmosis Research and Applications (CORA) at the University of Surrey. CORA, says Sharif, was founded to facilitate the development novel technologies related to desalination.

“The ultimate aim was to find a cost-effective desalination technique that would provide a sustainable supply of fresh water across the world,” he explains. “Our work since 2003 has got us to the point of having several patent applications and a spin-out company.” Building a company is a team business, and Sharif acknowledges the efforts of all his colleagues in CORA in bringing the project to fruition, and singles out Abdul Salam Al-Mayahi, a CORA PhD student, who is a named co-inventor on a number of patents.

The spin-out, Surrey Aquatechnology, was formed in 2006. It was merged with Modern Water plc in April 2007, and the new entity was floated on the London Exchange alternative investment market in June 2007, gaining a market value of £70 million within six months of formation.

The company was formed to commercialise a range of technologies around water purification and desalination, to tackle two growing problems across the world – the availability of fresh water and the treatment and disposal of wastewater.

“The technologies we have developed are innovative modifications to existing processes used in desalination,” says Sharif. “We’re using similar equipment, but in a different way.”

The novelty of Modern Water’s desalination process lies in the ability to transform, in a single, mechanical-energy-free step, a multi-component solution (such as seawater) into one containing known components (osmotic agents), from which pure water can be produced.

According to the company, the invention provides a means of manipulating the processes currently used in reverse osmosis desalination plants to produce an increased flow rate with reduced power consumption. The technology is estimated to reduce energy use by up to 30 per cent as well as cutting capital and operating costs. Fewer chemical additives are required than in existing desalination processes, and salt brine emissions are also lower.

The invention has been tested in a Royal Society-supported pilot plant study at the University of Surrey. Modern Water has now installed an industrial-scale plant in Gibraltar and a larger plant is planned for Oman.

Although Sharif has formed private companies before, this was his first experience of forming a spin-out. “When we were ready to spin out, the experience of the university helped us get on the fast track – you appreciate the support from the institution and can benefit greatly from its experience and reputation,” he says.

But what does he think makes some technology transfer projects successful where others fail? “Innovation is traditionally seen as needs-driven. Today, the situation has changed, and competition is also an important driver. For me though, one thing is vital: interest in what you do – it’s no different in that regard to being an artist or a footballer.”

Sharif also points out that ideas and passion aren’t enough, and that you must also have appropriate support available to help you develop your technology. “People in Iraq have the inspiration and good ideas but they don’t have the system and infrastructure to make the projects happen,” he says. “I took inspiration from my home country, but it was the opportunities available in my host country, the UK, that allowed me to convert the ideas into a product.”

He hopes that the work of Modern Water will contribute not only to a cost-effective and sustainable means of providing fresh water across the world, but to inspiring the next wave of inventors – wherever they are in the world.

“It’s not about the money you make,” he says, “but the positive impact you can have on society. We need to influence the younger generation to think positively about themselves and to realise their potential, especially in finding ways to improve other people’s quality of life.”

For more information see www.modernwater.co.uk