By Graham Cook

Water treatment technology for decalcification to be used on the International Space Station

A company founded by SFU MBA graduates Joshua Zoshi and Ben Sparrow won a contract to provide water treatment technology to NASA.  Saltworks, which was created in 2008, will provide the Ames Research Centre with a pilot system, which has the intention of effectively removing calcium from water.

Zoshi and Sparrow met at SFU in the Master of Technology MBA program in the mid 2000’s. The company they founded together is described as “providing sustainable and economic solutions for desalination and brine treatment.” In its first year, Saltworks won the B.C. New Ventures Award which recognizes entrepreneurship B.C.’s technology sector. In addition, the company is currently ranked number two on B.C. Business Magazine’s of the province’s 20 most innovative businesses.

The NASA Ames Research Centre, located in Silicon Valley in California, is described on its website as being “involved with many high-tech projects, ranging from developing small spacecraft to managing some of the world’s largest supercomputers, and conducting astrobiology research.” They discovered Saltworks design by putting out a public message that they were looking for a device which matched up with one of the technology platforms that the company produces. The International Space Station, which could utilize this technology, contains a water recycling system, which needs to process higher levels of calcium.

Co-founder Joshua Zoshi, who received his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering in 2001 and graduated from the MBA program in 2005, spoke with The Peak about his company’s recent success.  He explained that they had been working on the unit for about the past month, calling it a “fast-tracked project” which would be delivered to NASA relatively soon.

The water treatment system will receive an initial look at the research centre to determine whether or not it will end up on the International Space Station, and Zoshi said it is still too early to tell if it will end up in space.  He explained that every water treatment application has a unique chemistry and that the ISS has requirements that involve the fact that they have to recycle as much water as possible due to the extremely limited supply.  While he was unaware of what the unit would be used for on the station, his understanding was that one of its uses could be recycling urine.

Saltworks was originally founded on technology that cuts electronic use by half for desalinizing water and now contains a variety of different platforms and holds a number of complete and pending patents.