Andrews, has set up a local business with long-time friend Mr. Hamish Burns.

Their company, called H2Ocean, will help large establishments, such as hotels, cope with their water needs by converting sea and brackish water into drinkable water.

The company will focus on plants with a capacity of over 25,000 gallons per day, which require high levels of technical expertise to remain operational.

H20cean will offer maintenance and consulting services to existing facilities and will also design, install and operate new facilities.

The company will also arrange financing to build, install and operate new plants for a customer, whose only obligation will be to buy the plant's water.

"Part of my experience is in obtaining financing for projects,'' said Dr.

Andrews. "That way the customer does not have any investment.

"If he's in the hotel business, he can just concentrate on what he's best at, selling rooms, and not worry about the water supply. That will be our responsibility.'' He added: "Hamish and I think we can bring a lot more in-Island technical expertise into play, which is needed in these larger size units. I have all the contacts from many years in the business.

"We could very well solve problems less expensively than businesses having to fly down an engineer from the US.'' Dr. Andrews developed the world's first commercial RO machine while working at California-based Polymetrics. The unit was installed at Bermuda Aviation Services.

While at Polymetrics, he was at the forefront of the commercialisation of seawater RO development.

He was responsible for the design, installation and operation of the first plants in the Caribbean, Mediterranean, China Sea, South Pacific, Arabian Gulf, Red Sea and the North Sea.

In Bermuda, he was also involved in the design, installation and operation of plants at Elbow Beach, Inverurie Hotel, Cambridge Beaches, Oxford Laundry and Grotto Bay.

After leaving Polymetrics in 1988, Dr. Andrews became president of Boston-based Reliable Water Company. But he left there in 1991 to come back to Bermuda.

"I had been hoping to get back to Bermuda for a while but there's not much of a demand for atomic physicists in Bermuda,'' he said. "I finally figured out how to do it and came back a year ago.'' The way to do it, as he described it, was by becoming the managing director of Cayman Islands-based DesalCo., (correct) which he manages from offices on Bermudiana Road.

DesalCo is responsible for the operation of over two million gallons per day of seawater RO plants in the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands, providing the majority of the water in those countries.

He is also managing director of Ocean Conversion (Cayman) and Ocean Conversion (BVI), the local operating companies that own and operate the seawater RO plants.

Dr. Andrews said RO plants had come a long way since he was pioneering them in the 1970s.

"At first people didn't know how to run these things,'' he said. "A whole bunch were installed and people experienced a lot of problems.

"The plants were over-sold. Customers were told all they had to do was press a button and they would work. They didn't know what to do if anything went wrong. We learned through experience over the years.'' H2Ocean will initially use the resources of Bermuda-based Atlantic Water Development, a firm owned by Mr. Burns which provides well drilling and related services.

Atlantic Water also supplies, services and operates seawater RO equipment up to 25,000 gallons per day.

Mr. Burns worked with Dr. Andrews at Watlington Waterworks in the early 1970s.

"Reverse Osmosis machines are invaluable to large establishments,'' said Mr.

Burns. "Regardless of rainfall, they guarantee efficient, clean and economical water supply.'' The businessmen said Bermuda's total requirement was about two million gallons per day. "We can install anything Bermuda can handle in the multi-million gallon range,'' said Dr. Andrews.

WATER BARONS -- Reverse Osmosis pioneer Dr. Bill Andrews, left, and his business partner Mr. Hamish Burns.