MECO Contracted to Develop New Technology for DARPA
MECO has joined a team of University and Industry leaders to design and develop a significantly advanced desalination unit for military operations under a program awarded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). DARPA’s mission is to maintain the technological superiority of the U.S. Military and prevent technological surprise from harming our national security. The programs objective is to develop revolutionary technologies to support higher flow rates of desalination with greatly reduced energy and maintenance requirements. The team, led by Teledyne Scientific & Imaging in Thousand Oaks, CA also includes the University of Pittsburgh, U.C. Irvine and Virginia Polytechnic.
The US Army’s Lightweight Water Purifier (LWP), previously designed and developed by MECO, represents current state of the art technology for small mobile water purification and desalination needs. The LWP produces 125 gallons per hour of freshwater from a brackish water source or 75 gallons per hour from a seawater source. The LWP removes nuclear, biological or chemical agents from the water supply, is set up in 45 minutes and operated by one soldier. The LWP fits in the back of a HMVEE, a Blackhawk helicopter and is air droppable. The teams’ work is focused on maintaining the capacity and capability of the LWP while reducing its weight by a factor of 90, its cube and energy consumption by a factor of 20.
MECO is a manufacturer of engineered products for water purification serving a multiple of industries. The company has a history of providing products and services to the U.S. Armed Forces dating as far back as World War II. The company’s military products include mobile water purification plants, pumps and marine heat exchangers. MECO is also the world’s leading producer of water purification plants for offshore oil and gas platforms and the biopharmaceutical industry where ultra pure water is the primary ingredient in the drug manufacturing process.