Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Oil tankers, not icebergs, a water scarcity solution?

Towing icebergs to ease water scarcity is yesterday; transporting water in supertankers is today.
What if ready-to-drink filtered water, 500,000 tons at a time, could be consistently shipped across the world in old oil vessels and the effort prove financially viable? Thorsteinn Gudnason believes it can happen — very soon. Bulk shipments of water involve tremendous overhead and the trick is pulling a profit, but Gudnason, managing director of Reykjavik-based Aqua Omnis, says his company is ready to transport water wherever it’s needed. “We [Iceland] have an abundance of high-quality spring water underneath our surface which we are offering to the world … It flows from Iceland into the ocean, quenching no one’s thirst.” From Bloomberg: “Iceland has vast amounts of spring water naturally filtered by mountians and lava terrain for hundreds of years that otherwise goes to waste…” According to Gudnason, the filtration process will allow for delivery of potable water. In other words, the supertankers, like giant kegs, can be tapped on arrival at whatever country buys Aqua Omnis water. Hauling water across the ocean has always been full of promise, but has remained a financial dead-end, yet Aqua Omnis believes their approach will work and claims investors in the Arabian Gulf have bought in: “It will cost $300 million to start the initial project including a minimum of seven ships, fuel and mooring equipment,” reports Bloomberg...more

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