‘It’s a breakthrough technology’
Input being sought from fishers, mariners for water desalination pilot
While the turnout was small, the insight was invaluable, say proponents of groundbreaking technology who are planning to pilot a water desalination project off the Cape Sable Island coastline this summer.
“Our technology is emerging, it's a breakthrough technology,” said Susan Hunt, chief innovation officer for Oneka Technologies during one of two information sessions held at the Island Barrington Passage Fire Hall on Feb. 27.
Oneka Technologies, which is based in Quebec, partnered with the Municipality of Barrington two years ago to be a test site for their latest wavepowered desalination buoy.
“We are the first company in the world to be successfully producing wave-powered fresh water through a desalination process and it provides an alternative to a sustainable source of drinking water that is targeted towards coastal communities with a lack of infrastructure,” said Hunt.
Oneka uses buoys as the platform for the water desalination process.
“Energy from the waves is a constant reliable source of power and that drives the motion of the buoy (which) rides up and down on the waves. Close proximity to coastal communities enables us to desalinate ocean water and provide that to the communities that need it,” said Hunt.
“We're proposing to execute a demonstration project over the summer that would run from July to the end of September. We planned it around minimizing the impact to lobster fishing. Our intention is to employ local contractor's services for some of the work that will be required,” added Hunt.
The single buoy measures five metres by eight metres. The company is proposing to locate the buoy in waters about three kilometres east of The Hawk on the eastern side of Cape Sable Island.
Nabil Al-Kahli, senior project manager, said the buoy would be anchored by a single line. The entire mooring setup is 150 square meters.
“The buoy itself would have a radar reflector and pretty much comply with Transport Canada for navigation,” said Al-Kahli.
The mooring and installation would happen from July to September.
“It's not a permanent installation. It's a pilot demonstration project,” said Hunt, adding it would only take hours to retrieve the buoy if needed.
“Beyond the demonstration, for one reason or another if it doesn't make sense to continue to operate here the buoy will be removed. We're taking one step at a time," she said. "We're not planning to take the next step until we've validated the technology through this pilot project and making sure it was something the community wanted to do."
The company does need to go through a permitting process to launch the buoy, said Hunt.
“We have acquired permits to operate Oneka buoys in three countries and have been permitted to operate our buoys within the waters of Nova Scotia a number of times in the past. This process involves a public notice period as well,” she said.
In the meantime, Oneka is reaching out to fishers and mariners in the area to share information about the pilot project and to receive feedback.
Hunt said the feedback received at the two Feb. 27 information sessions was helpful and insightful, as well as very positive and encouraging. She said those who attended the evening session agreed that the project would greatly benefit from having fishers' better understand the nature of the planned activity and its purpose, as it can be easy to jump to conclusions.
"In particular, they noted that the buoy will not be operating during lobster season and that future phases of the pilot project, which could involve the production and delivery of freshwater for local needs, are conditional on its acceptance by the community,” said Hunt.
What sets Oneka's water desalination technology apart from traditional technology is it produces no emissions. The only source of power that it uses is wave power. It does not require a land footprint and it is a responsible technology in so far as the broad discharge is at a much lower salinity than traditional desalination processes, said Hunt.
"It's intended to be used in a decentralized grid. It's a self-sustaining technology that doesn't require any connection to the power grid,” she said.
Oneka is just about to launch a year-long pilot project with water production off the coast of Fort Bragg, California. The company has been operating in Chilli since 2022 a pilot demonstration in a remote community that has severe water scarcity issue. They also have a facility in Florida where they are testing buoys for the U.S. Department of Energy, said Hunt.
“We are at the point now where we are close to commercializing the technology and have proven the ability of it to perform. We've been doing that by working with different communities on demonstration projects,” she said.
The partnership with the Municipality of Barrington came about after the region experienced drought conditions and water scarcity issues in four of the past seven years.
Oneka Technologies has recently deployed a spotter buoy for its wave-powered desalination pilot project.
This initiative aims to gather crucial weather and marine data to support its sustainable water solutions. The real-time weather data (wave and wind) collected by the spotter buoy is freely accessible to the public at https://lunaocean.app/ and by writing Cape Sable Island Buoy in the search bar.
Anyone wanting further information about the pilot project can contact Oneka by email at info@onekawater.com or by phone at 1-819485-0335.