New desalination technology to be tested in Singapore

Israel-based water treatment company Desalitech is embarking on a project with Singapore’s national water agency PUB to test its closed-circuit desalination (CCD) technology at the Kranji NEWater factory, Today reports, quoting spokesmen of Desalitech and PUB.

The CCD technology claims to be able to:

• Increase overall flow in the reverse osmosis (RO) system to produce more NEWater 

• Lower energy consumption

The demonstration unit is expected to be operational in December and the pilot stretch over 18 months. PUB has more than 30 such test-bed projects with local and international water companies.

Desalitech SWRO system: Used to produce more NEWater (photo credit: Desalitech)

• PWN Technologies wins IWA Project Innovation Award 2012: This company’s demonstration plant, Andijk III in the Netherlands, has clinched the Project Innovation Award 2012 of the International Water Association (IWA). The demo plant is a pre-treatment installation to produce drinking water that integrates two technologies based on suspended ion exchange (SIX) and ceramic membranes (CeraMac). These result in higher water quality, lower energy consumption and a lower environmental burden.

Pieter Spohr, CEO of PWN Technologies, says in a statement: “PWN Water Supply Company North-Holland embraced the SIX and CeraMac technologies, and several water companies have shown keen interest. PUB has a CeraMac demonstration plant working at the CCK Waterworks in Singapore.”

• US$1 bil Sembcorp Salalah project operational by May 2012: Phase 3 of this power generation and water desalination project in Oman was scheduled to be running in April, the Oman Daily Observer reports. In May, the project’s desalination plant will start up, marking the completion of the scheme – the first independent water and power project (IWPP) in the governorate.

The IWPP consists of a gas-fired power plant with a total net capacity of 445 MW and a seawater desalination plant employing reverse osmosis technology to produce 69,000 cu m of treated water per day. The entire output of the project is contracted under a 15-year agreement with Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP).

OPWP is looking at procuring a second independent power project (IPP) sized at between 200 and 400 MW. The possibility of a water component is not excluded.

Sembcorp Salalah Power and Water Company, which owns and operates the Salalah IWPP, is 60% owned by Singapore-based Sembcorp Utilities. Earlier this year, its partner Oman Investment Corporation divested part of its stake for the Bunyah GCC Infrastructure Fund of Bahrain-based Instrata Capital.

• Hyflux and Japanese partners clinch Asia’s largest desalination project in India: Hyflux is partnering Hitachi Ltd and Itochu Corporation to develop a US$600 million seawater desalination plant with a capacity of 336,000 cu m per day in the Dahej Special Economic Zone in Gujarat, India, it was announced March 22nd.

Sembcorp Salalah Power and Water Company (photo credit: Sembcorp)

The consortium, through a special purpose company known as Swarnim DahejSpring Desalination Pvt Ltd (DahejSpring), signed a co-developer agreement with Dahej SEZ Limited (DSL). Olivia Lum, executive chairman and group CEO of Hyflux Ltd, says this is Hyflux’s first large-scale water project in India.

The project is a result of a successful smart community feasibility study delegated to the consortium by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). METI sponsored several feasibility studies to develop eco-friendly, technologically advanced infrastructure projects in the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor.

Other Living Cases in this issue

• Tianjin Eco-City receives its first residents
• New York gets Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize
• Global challenges for solar feed-in tariffs