U.S. Firm Enters Joint Venture with Israel on Desalination of Sea Water

A Chicago firm–Fairbanks, Morse and Company–today issued a statement here announcing its entrance into a joint venture with the Government of Israel for the construction of plants to convert sea water into fresh water by means of the process developed in Israel by Dr. Alexander Zarchin, a 64-year-old resident of Tel Aviv.

The machine invented by Sarchin, an emigrant from the Soviet Union, freezes sea water in a vacuum, forming pure water crystals which is then melted to produce salt-free water. The salt is drained off in the vacuum stage.

“Construction of the first low-cost plant for mass production to be located in Israel will begin during 1960,” the announcement of the Chicago company said. “We plan to locate a second plant in a semi-arid region of the southwestern United States. Our next goal is to create enough plants to produce a billion gallons a day of fresh water throughout the world by the end of 1965.

“Our engineers estimate that when we achieve full and regular industrial production, the cost of water under the Zarchin process will be as low as–or lower than–the present average cost of delivering fresh water to consumers in the United States, which is now approximately 40 cents per thousand gallons.

“We are indebted to Dr. Zarchin and the Government of Israel for permitting us to be the first non-Israeli group to study the full Zarchin process of removing salt and impurities from sea water by freezing, and to examine the process in the secret pilot plant constructed in Israel during the past two years.

“Our engineers have examined all operating and projected commercial processes publicly or privately developed in the United States and elsewhere, and we believe that the Zarchin process is a great scientific breakthrough. In the years ahead we expect many dramatic consequences of Dr. Zarchin’s work to provide startling benefits for the world.”