Water. desalination + reuse

business | 6 | Desalination & Water Reuse | May-June 2014 H2O Innovation wins Monterey SWRO subcontract H2O Innovation Inc has been awarded the contract to design, supply and commission the seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination system for the Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project in California, USA. The Quebec-based company received the Can$ 10 million (US$ 9.1 million) subcontract from CDM Constructors, the contractor that was awarded the entire design- build contract for the project in December 2013 by client California American Water. When completed, the SWRO plant will provide 9.6 MGD (36,300 m 3 /d) of potable water. The plant is expected to be operational in late 2017 or early 2018. ContRaCt&tenDeRneWs Desalination quartet booked for Masdar pilot plants Three major contractors in global desalination – Abengoa, Degrémont and Sidem/Veolia – together with forward-osmosis developer Trevi Systems, were awarded contracts on 5 May 2014 by Abu Dhabi's Masdar, to each start construction of a 1,500 m 3 /d desalination plant as part of Masdar's pilot project announced in 2013. Masdar - the development company owned by the Abu Dhabi government - aims to develop and demonstrate seawater desalination technologies efficient enough to be powered by renewable energy. The new technologies are expected to allow the implementation of cost-competitive large-scale seawater desalination plants powered by renewable energy in the UAE and abroad. "We look forward to working with these four leading companies as they break ground on new desalination technologies," said Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, chairman of Masdar. "Seawater desalination is an energy-intensive process that, if left unchecked, will become unsustainable over time. We must innovate and discover commercially viable solutions to meet our long-term water needs." Each company, selected for the project, says Masdar, because of their leadership and innovation within the desalination sector, will build and operate its own test plant to develop and demonstrate desalination technologies over the course of 18 months. This timeframe will enable the companies to gauge which desalination technologies emerge as the most efficient and therefore have potential to be powered by renewable energy. All of the four test plants will demonstrate innovations in advanced membrane technologies, such as reverse osmosis and forward osmosis, which are more energy-efficient processes than the thermal processes currently in use in most desalination plants in the UAE. As part of the pilot project, each of the four companies will collaborate with the Masdar Institute of Science & Technology. The entire pilot project test facility will be located in Ghantoot, 90 km northwest of Abu Dhabi, which has easy access to deep seawater and the availability of existing utility connections from a now-decommissioned desalination plant. During the course of the project, the test plants will also provide 1,500 m 3 /d of potable water to Abu Dhabi's water infrastructure. Abengoa said that its plant would use a membrane distillation technology designed by Abengoa, which would optimize the desalination process. Its project will have a budget of US$ 7.9 million. Wabag wins Libyan power station job The General Electric Company of Libya has awarded a contract to VA Tech Wabag for four industrial water treatment plants in Tobruk, Tripoli and Derna. Wabag is to act as an engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the project, which has a total value of over € 14 million. Under the contract, the company will provide two demineralisation plants, each with three lines producing 60 m 3 /d, plus two electrochlorination plants having two lines with outputs of 71 and 35 m 3 /d. Commissioning is planned for the end of 2015. Wabag qualified as the only overall bidder and turnkey supplier for both systems. The scope of performance will include planning, engineering, delivery, installation and start-up. The Vienna-based company has been in Libya for over 20 years and did not leave the country either during or after the revolution. This systematic market servicing has now resulted in this new contract.

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