Water. desalination + reuse

PROJECTS May-June 2014 | Desalination & Water Reuse | 23 | PROJECTPROGRESS LaRgEST dESaLinaTiOn PLanT PROduCES fiRST waTER Production of water has started at what will be the largest desalination facility in the world, the 1,025 million m 3 /d Ras al-Khair (Ras Azzour) seawater plant northwest of Jubail in Saudi Arabia. The state-owned Saudi Press Agency made the announcement on 23 April 2014, quoting the Minister of Water & Electricity, Abdullah Al-Hussayen, who said the cost of the complex, which includes a 2.6 GW power plant, was Riyal 27 billion (US$ 7.2 million). Built by Korea's Doosan Heavy Industries, the hybrid desalination facility has a capacity of 160 MIGD (727,000 m³/d) multi-stage flash (MSF) evaporation and 67.5 MIGD (307,000 m³/d) reverse-osmosis membrane filtration. It will supply water from the Gulf to 3.5 million people in the Riyadh area. The eight 20 MIGD (91,000 m 3 /d) MSF evaporators are the largest so far constructed in the world with the highest capacity. Doosan won the order for the project for US$ 1.76 billion from Saline Water Conversion Corporation in September 2010. Commissioning is due to be completed by the end of 2014. BEiJing dESaLinaTEd SuPPLy COuLd REaCh 1 BiLLiOn m 3 /yEaR A 3 million m 3 /d seawater desalination plant to supply the Chinese capital Beijing is being planned by Hong Kong-based Beijing Enterprise Water Group Ltd (BEWG), in addition to a 1 million m 3 /d plant on which the company is currently working. BEWG, working with desalination specialist Aqualyng, which moved its headquarters to China in 2013, has already completed a 50,000 m 3 /d seawater desalination plant in September 2012 in Caofeidian, from a 36,000 TDS source in Bohai Bay in Hebei province. It is currently working to have the 1 million m 3 /d plant up and running in Caoefeidian by 2019. Chinese media have quoted Wang Xiaoshui, director of the seawater desalination department of BEWG, as saying that, after the 1 million m 3 project goes into operation in 2019, Beijing will receive more than 300 million m 3 of desalted seawater annually, about 10% of its current water consumption volume. The current project will include a desalination facility costing Yuan 7 billion (US$ 1.13 billion) and a 270 km-long pipeline extending to Beijing, costing Yuan 10 billion (US$1.6 billion). BEWG also plans an additional desalination project with a capacity of 3 million m 3 to meet the capital's demand. Annual desalted water to Beijing will increase to more than 1 billion m 3 , equaling the storage capacity of the Miyun Reservoir, the largest storage facility in north China and Beijing's major water source. hyfLux SEES dahEJ funding 'wiThin yEaR' Hyflux has extended the time it foresees for financial closure on its Dahej seawater desalination plant in India to "within this year". In February, the Singapore desalination contractor and manufacturer said that it was aiming at financial close in the second quarter of 2014. The group is in a consortium with Hitachi to build the 336,000 m³/d Dahej desalination plant. Hitachi concluded a water purchase agreement in January 2013 with Dahej SEZ Ltd (DSL), the management company of the Dahej Special Economic Zone, for water from its proposed desalination plant in the zone. In a statement released with the company's first quarter results on 8 April 2014, Hyflux said that the group anticipated a slow year ahead due to "timing of project commencement and the delay in the operational readiness of the national power grid connected to our Tuaspring plant" (Singapore's second seawater desalination plant, which went online in September 2013). No date was given for the start of the Dahej plant. In its statement, Hyflux also said that the group was "actively pursuing" prospective projects in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, and on delivering a "suite of membrane products and systems for new applications for the industrial and municipal sectors." aBu dhaBi Signing fOR aL ZawRa dESaLinaTiOn PLanT A 30 MIGD (136,400 m 3 /d) seawater desalination plant is to be built in Ajman, UAE, following the signing of a memorandum of understanding on 4 February 2014 between Abu Dhabi National Energy Company PJSC (TAQA) and the Federal Electricity & Water Authority (FEWA). The Al Zawra Independent Water Project will be sufficient to supply 250,000 people in the Northern Emirates with drinking water. The reverse osmosis facility would be owned by FEWA and TAQA, underpinned by a long-term water purchase agreement with FEWA and funded with project finance. Construction is expected to start in early 2015 and the plant would begin commercial operations in 2017. SawS BOaRd gOES fOR ExTRa dESaLinaTiOn The San Antonio Water System (SAWS) board decided on 10 February 2012 to go for expanded desalination rather than importing groundwater. The board accepted suggestions from its staff to pursue additional brackish groundwater supplies through a proposed partnership with CPS Energy. With the availability of brackish supplies in Bexar County and adjacent counties, further expansion of a desalination facility in partnership with CPS Energy could occur on the same site as the currently planned desalination plant, the existing Aquifer Storage & Recovery plant and a third project increasing yield from the local Carrizo Aquifer. This co-location would save money on additional land as well as consolidating management and operation of several water supply projects. SAWS had a shortlist of three private proposals for imported water, the best of which was from Abengoa Water LLC. The private proposals would have required annual payments of up to US$ 85 million for 30 years, and a rate increase of approximately 9-12% in 2019, not including infrastructure

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