Veolia has been collaborating on Masdar’s ambitious Renewable Energy Water Desalination Program. sharing the costs to build and operate a pilot plant with the same characteristics as future large scale and low energy consumption desalination plants.
The pilot program aims to test and develop advanced, energy-efficient seawater desalination technologies, with the long-term goal of implementing renewable energy-powered desalination plants in the United Arab Emirates.
As technology partners, Veolia, via its desalination specialist SIDEM, and Masdar have shared the costs for the pilot plant which has been built in the Ghantoot area. The plant has been producing potable water since August under the same operation constraints as a large plant and capable of handling very harsh seawater conditions (salinity up to 52 g/l, temperature which may exceed 42°C and harmful algal blooms).
The results obtained so far are extremely promising: Veolia has already lowered the electrical consumption performances by 7% compared to the contractual target initially required by Masdar, and is still improving on that every day.
New pretreatment design can also save 25% on civil works
The energy cost savings can be added to other savings generated by a new pretreatment design which can save 25% on civil works, reducing the footprint of the plant as well as its CAPEX.
The innovative technologies that Veolia has developed and implemented at Masdar include high performance seawater pretreatment combining air floatation and filtration, as well as a new osmosis membrane feed configuration able to deal with high treatment fluxes.
A Swiss company which Veolia has been partnering with has also been developing new Energy Recovery Devices (ERD) which are implemented on the pilot. Veolia said that although these are all new technologies, their development is advanced enough to consider them ready for large-scale implementation.
The upcoming optimization phase will allow Veolia experts to push the limits of their system in order to further enhance the design and processes, in the pursuit of even better power efficiency while extending the lifetime of the plant.
Xavier Joseph, CEO of Veolia Gulf Countries said:
“As a major player in water desalination for the past several decades, Veolia now aims to develop the next generation of sustainable desalination technologies, helping populations and industries in water-scarce regions access this precious resource in an environmentally sound and energy-efficient way. We are very proud to be partnering with Masdar on this ambitious project.”
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