CYPRUS – A team of scientists explored the scale of seawater desalination in Cyprus and the technology’s impact on the environment and potential sustainable solutions. The study reports that five large desalination plants and 24 smaller desalination units supply drinking water to Cyprus’s municipalities, industry, power stations, tourist facilities and military. The energy consumed in the desalination facilities releases about 169 kilotons of CO2 equivalent to the atmosphere, representing around 2% of the island’s total greenhouse gas emissions. The study proposes renewables-driven (and waste heat-driven) desalination, followed by zero liquid discharge as a promising solution that could deal with both the CO2 emission problem and the brine waste. The study was funded by the EU-funded projects ZERO BRINE and WATER-MINING. (CORDIS)
UNITED KINGDOM – Southern Water is seeking planning consent for its plan to set up a desalination plant in the Fawley area. The plant will have a production capacity of 75,000 m3/d and will be used to supply water to the Hampshire region during periods of drought. (WWT)
U.S.A. – The Port of Corpus Christi’s plan to build a desalination plant on Harbor Island has been delayed. The State Office of Administration Hearings Administrative Law Judges has recommended the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to deny the permit application for the plant, stemming from the potential impact of the plant’s discharge of brine into the bay system. The port said in a statement that it plans to continue moving forward with the process and will ask the TCEQ to support the permit, stating it found earlier the port’s application met the requirements for the permit. A date still has to be set for when the recommendation will go to TCEQ commissioners for a decision. (Caller Times)
INDIA – VA Tech WABAG Limited (WABAG) has secured multiple water treatment plant orders with a total worth of $121.5 million in Switzerland, Tunisia and Libya. WABAG Swiss received its biggest ever order from ENERGIE SERVICE BIEL/BIENNE towards design and build of a reverse osmosis lake water treatment plant, serving the city of Biel and Nidau. The project will be executed over a 5 year period and WABAG will deliver the electro-mechanical equipment for all treatment steps as well as the automation.
WABAG secured an order from Societe National D’exploitation Et De Distribution Des Eaux (SONEDE) to design and build a 30,000 m3/d water treatment plant at Kasseb Dam in Tunisia. The project funded by KfW will be executed over a 20 month period. WABAG Austria signed a repeat contract with General Desalination Company of Libya (GDCOL) to design and build 3 multi-effect distillation (MED) desalination facilities in Bomba, Libya. The project consists of three thermal desalination lines and three steam boiler plants that will produce 30,000 m3/d and is an extension of an existing MED plant complex. The Bomba project is valued at more than $72.9 million and the order is the largest thermal desalination plant order in the company’s history. (EQUITY BULLS)