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Richard Stover

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Richard Stover, Ph.D., Chief Technical Officer Born December 15, 1962 in Ravenna, Ohio Raised in Glen Ellyn, Illinois

Richard Stover is one of the individuals who perfected the PX-220 that has become the basis for some of the largest SWRO plants being designed today, servicing train sizes up to 25,000 cubic meters per day of permeate capacity.

It is greatly involved in seawater desalination which promotes energy recovery thus promoting to a better global welfare.

Biography

Studied chemical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin 1983 – 1986. Graduated with bachelor’s degree. Worked for 3M Company in Minnesota 1986 - 1990 as a process and chemical engineer. Responsible for product delivery, reliability, and production at a videotape manufacturing facility. Used design-of-experiments and response-surface analysis to optimize process settings and chemical formulations. Applied statistical process control to optimize product quality and reduce waste.

Travelled 10,000 miles by bicycle in Southern Europe 1990 - 1991.

Studied chemical engineering at the University of California at Berkeley 1991 – 1996. Dissertation: "Bubble Dynamics in Electrolytic Gas Evolution” (Electrochemical Engineering) with Charles Tobias and Morton Denn. Devised an optical-laser technique to record fluid dynamics during hydrolysis. Experimented with surface tension, viscosity, electrode polarity, and bubble size. Simulated experiments with a finite-difference fluid-flow model. Graduated with Ph.D.

Worked for IBM Corporation in San Jose from 1996 – 1998 as a process development engineer. Led a manufacturing engineering team in developing and implementing a process for reducing friction and contamination in advanced computer hard drives. Discovered, demonstrated, and patented a hard-drive component design feature to increase product reliability. Worked for LFR Levine Fricke in Emeryville California 1998 – 2002 as a chemical engineering and environmental consultant. Designed and implemented wastewater treatment plants using chemical, electrolytic or membrane separation processes. Ran pilot studies, supervised construction for all trades, conducted startup, and provided training and operations and maintenance support.

Joined Energy Recovery Inc. in 2002 to develop and launch the PX-220, which has since become the leading energy recovery device in seawater desalination. Dr. Stover’s numerous publications and achievements have earned him international recognition as an expert in energy recovery and process optimization in reverse osmosis systems. He holds responsibility for technical product-support services, strategic positioning of PX® technology, and managing and expanding ERI’s intellectual property holdings. In addition, in his current role as Vice President of Sales, he is responsible for strategic growth and risk management. Dr. Stover was a co-recipient of the European Desalination Society’s 2006 Sidney Loeb award for outstanding innovation. Married since 1996 with 2 children.


Project Involvements

Development of Isobaric Energy Recovery Devices

Mr. Stover has contributed a lot in the study and development of Isobaric ERD’s or Energy Recovery Devices having to explain the details by which constitutes the process of SWRO (Seawater Reverse Osmosis) in relation to Energy Recovery. Richard Stover detailed the processes involved within SWRO systems which was overviewed from its Designs up to its Operations considering technical factors such as its energy consumption, and membrane performance along with the processes involved within each stage of the SWRO like overflush and mixing. For the Operations, factors to consider were from Energy and Flux variation to its maintenance, and device life which concluded that Isobaric ERDs offer significant benefits to SWRO plant designers and operators. These include unlimited capacity, reduced high-pressure pump costs, high efficiency and operational flexibility. Among the commercially available isobaric ERDs, the PX Pressure Exchanger isobaric ERD provides the following advantages:

•minimal simple controls •fail-safe operation •maintenance free operation •corrosion avoidance •low vibration •long life

These design and operational advantages have not only made isobaric ERDs the best choice for energy recovery in SWRO systems, they have also enabled the tremendous growth and success of SWRO for desalination applications.

The 200,000 m3/day Hamma Seawater Desalination Plant – Largest Single-Train SWRO Capacity in the World and Alternative to Pressure Center Design

Richard Stover was again involved in the Hamma Seawater Desalination Plant Project. This project involves the pumping system, train size and energy recovery system configuration of the GE Infrastructure (Ionics) project in Hamma, Algeria (Hamma). The project is the first private reverse osmosis potable water project in Algeria and the largest membrane desalination plant in Africa.

The Hamma project is an SWRO plant capable of continuously producing 200,000 cubic meters of permeate per day (m3/d). The Hamma plant is intended to supply 25% of Algeria’s capital city’s population with desperately needed drinking water. The project is the first private reverse osmosis potable water project in Algeria and the largest membrane desalination plant in Africa.

The Hamma plant was designed for both high capacity and minimum operating cost. Because pumps consume most of the energy supplied to the plant, it was essential that they be designed for high operating efficiency. As described by the Hydraulic Institute, larger centrifugal pumps are generally more efficient than smaller pumps, and the peak efficiency for very large centrifugal pumps is about 89% (2). The HP pumps selected for the Hamma plant operate at 1,084 m3/hr and approximately 88% efficiency, close to the theoretical maximum for the centrifugal pumps and notably high for high-head service. The booster pumps are also large, operating at 1,351 m3/hr and 89% pump efficiency.

An alternative to large trains is to feed multiple smaller trains with the same HP pump in a process configuration known a pressure center design. One of the advantages of this design is that larger, more efficient HP pumps can be used than if the individual trains were supplied separately.

An advantage of Hamma’s dedicated high pressure pumps is that each train can be operated independently, thereby facilitating relatively easy startup, shutdown and optimization of membrane recovery rate.

In a SWRO system equipped with PX Pressure Exchanger energy recovery devices, the membrane reject is directed to the membrane feed (through the PX devices and booster pump).

References

Seawater Reverse Osmosis with Isobaric Energy Recovery Devices
The 200,000 m3 per day Hamma Seawater Desalination Plant
ERI SALES & MARKETING TEAM
Desalination company Energy Recovery Inc. plans IPO SWRO Process Simulator