Water. Desalination + reuse
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/640467
REGIONS February-March 2016 | Desalination & Water Reuse | 31 | Chennai to get third plant ASIA PACIFIC Indian state gives OK to desalination duo Dormant plant is on Victoria supply menu India's Tamil Nadu state government has given the go-ahead for two 60 Ml/d output seawater reverse osmosis desalination plants at Kuthiraimozhi in Ramanathapuram and Alanthalai in the port city of Tuticorin. They will supply rural areas where provision of safe drinking water has been a long-standing challenge. In May 2015, the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage (TWAD) board informed the government that the pre-feasibility study had been completed for setting up the two plants at a cost of Rs 680 crore (US$ 107 million) each. Initially, the state will invest 80% of the capital cost. Additional central government assistance has also been sanctioned for Rs 128 crore (US$ 20 million). The operation and maintenance cost for both plants will be Rs 37.05 (US$ 0.6) a kilolitre under a 25-year contract. The project will benefit about 15 towns, 16 unions and a municipality in these two coastal districts. The TWAD board is preparing a detailed project report on the transmission system to carry water from the desalination plant to users. India's Tamil Nadu state government has pushed ahead plans to build a third desalination plant at the city of Chennai with investment from German government funding agency, Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau (KfW). KfW finalised the deal for the INR 13.71 billion (US$ 208 million) reverse osmosis plant in October 2015. The seawater desalination facility will have a capacity of 150 Ml/d. The city requires 1,100 Ml/d but the water supplier, Metrowater currently supplies only around 550 Ml/d from its reservoirs and two 100 Ml/d desalination plants at Nemmeli and Minjur near Chennai. Forecasts are that the city's water demand will reach 1,600 Ml/d to meet the need from growing industry as well as residential areas. The state government has allotted funds for a fourth plant in Pattipulam, a few kilometres away from Chennai with the capacity to produce potable water initially at 200 Ml/d and eventually at 400 Ml/d. The Wonthaggi desalination plant at Victoria, Australia has yet to deliver any water but switching on the multi-billion-dollar desalination plant has become part of Victoria's water planning as the state remains gripped by drought. Local newspaper, The Age, reported recently that the Victoria government was calculating the use of the Wonthaggi desalination plant as part of its future water planning. Water minister Lisa Neville said the plant at Wonthaggi would act as a redoubt for Melbourne's water supplies. "Let's not pretend the desal is not there, like has happened over the past three years, let's do the planning across the state," Neville said. "We can consider the desal as security," she added. MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA Fujairah expansion kicks off The Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA) and Sembcorp Industries have completed construction and begun operation of a US$ 200-million expansion to the Fujairah 1 Independent Water and Power Plant (IWPP) in the United Arab Emirates. The expansion has upped the plant's seawater desalination capacity by 30% to 650 Ml/d. With more than half of the plant's desalinated water produced using reverse osmosis, the Fujairah 1 IWPP is now one of the largest reverse osmosis desalination facilities in the Middle East. The 150 Ml/d water expansion to output will be sold to the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Company under a 20- year water purchase agreement. The expansion uses the plant's uncontracted surplus power to produce the additional water at a "highly competitive" cost. It has also been configured for greater environmental efficiency and energy savings. The IWPP is owned and operated by Emirates Sembcorp Water and Power Company, a joint venture that is 60% owned by ADWEA and the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company and 40% owned by Sembcorp. Pipeline could rein in Emirates' desalination investment. A giant pipeline between Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) could stem the Middle Eastern states' investment in desalination according to a leading Emirates businessman. Chief executive of international carwash franchise, Geowash, Abdulla Al Shehi, has suggested an underground 500-km pipeline from Pakistan's river Dasht to Fujairah could provide the solution to the Emirates' persistent water shortage. He claimed to see no technical, political or other problems that would impede such a project. Al Shehi ¬– whose carwash system uses less than 2% of the water needed in conventional systems – said excess water from the Dasht River's annual floods that was routinely channelled to the sea could be put to use in the UAE. Chief executive of the UAE's research institute, Masdar, Dr Ahmad Belhoul, said although it was investing heavily in researching renewable energy to fuel desalination plants, he welcomed new ideas. "I think that the very spirit of creating a company like Masdar is to encourage people to come up with ideas, some of which are very practical and others more ambitious," he said. Al Shehi said the pipeline could produce ""an environmental impact." But he foresaw that the benefits in saving water from desalination would offset those effects. However, water expert, Professor Hussein Amery, warned that the proposed pipeline would be fraught with political issues. He added that even if those hurdles were overcome the pipeline would not be efficient because some 70% of water in the UAE was used in agriculture. "It's much cheaper and much more efficient to have the Pakistanis grow wheat and feed cows, then export the food," Amery said.