One of Vancouver’s clean-tech darlings, Saltworks Technologies, has landed a contract with NASA to develop a water recovery system for the International Space Station.
The four-year-old Vancouver company won the contract to try to address a problem NASA has with calcium fouling its water recovery system, Saltworks co-founder and CEO Ben Sparrow told Business in Vancouver.
He said the machine NASA commissioned his company to build will be finished this week and then shipped to NASA for ground testing.
“And if it works it could end up on the International Space Station,” Sparrow said. “It’s a nice boost for the employees. They’re all scientists and engineers, and as children dreamed of space.”
Saltworks president Joshua Zoshi said, “The NASA project is an example of how Saltworks’ innovative technology could be used in diverse applications both on and off the planet.”
Zoshi and Sparrow were both on Business In Vancouver’s Forty Under 40 list in December 2011. The two met while doing MBAs at Simon Fraser University.
Saltworks uses thermo-ionic desalination to purify brine or brackish water. While it can be used to make drinking water from seawater, the company’s main focus has been using the technology to clean up industrial effluent.
