Year: 2008-09

Company: Clear Springs

Liaison(s): Fred Boling

Clear Springs is a large land holder and eco-friendly development company based in Florida between Tampa Bay and Orlando. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the investment bank S.N. Phelps & Co. Clear Springs has sponsored the KGI TMP to determine an optimal model for building a desalination plant for a prospective community located in Polk County, Florida. The model includes evaluations of desalination technology, fresh water demand projections, cost effectiveness (developmental, operational), environmental impact, regulatory issues, and sale of byproducts. The TMP also required secondary research and development of several scenarios. The team’s final recommendation justifies the economic feasibility of the desalination plant. Secondary to the desalination plant assessment, the team also evaluated the option of coproduction of biofuels and freshwater. Cogeneration is a technique that has been employed in the desalination industry to share costs between desalination and energy production. Developing synergistic relationships between energy resources and a brackish water source may prove a unique process to benefit the growing planned green community of Clear Springs.