United Arab Emirates Has World's Largest Desalination Plants

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Despite rising costs and environmental issues, desalination plants are becoming increasingly numerous. In the quest for fresh water, water conservation remains the most cost-effective method to secure drinking water supplies. However, between reclamation and desalination, desalination remains the more popular for drinking water.

Reclamation from waste water is generally viewed as appropriate for irrigation and industrial purposes, but not drinking water. Desalination plants with open-ocean intakes, especially those with accompanying power plants or those in areas of low turbidity, often take the worst hits from environmentalists. Open-ocean intakes were limited in nations such as the United States by the passage of new laws or amendments concerning clean water. The Clean Water Act now denies desalination plants the use of open-ocean intakes, unless they can prevent at least 90% of marine life mortality. Areas of low turbidity, such as the Persian Gulf, suffer massive solute overloads, because shallow waters and little current activity do not allow for immediate dispersal of reintroduced salts and minerals.

Currently, more than 13,000 desalination plants are in operation around the world. The largest one, Jebel Ali Desalination Plant, is located in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and produces 300 million cubic meters of water annually through the utilization of multi-stage flash distillation. Shrinking groundwater supplies and more advanced desalination techniques have brought a massive desalination boom to the UAE, leading firms to spend more than $13 billion on new plants and expansions between 2007 and 2010. Other multibillion-dollar projects are scheduled to undergo construction in the next few years.

The Fujairah II Integrated Water and Power Project (IWPP), which began construction in 2007 near Al Fujayrah, UAE, has recently been finished and has entered into the final stages of mechanical completion. Though not one of the most costly, Fujairah Asia Power Company (Abu Dhabi, UAE), a private joint stock company established in 2007, invested about $2.5 billion in the project. Fujairah Water and Electric Company, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA) (Abu Dhabi) owns 60% of Fujairah Asia Power Company.

ADWEA is the only buyer and seller of water and electricity in the UAE and is responsible for balancing supply and demand through negotiations with generation companies. The remaining 40% of Fujairah Asia Power Company belongs to Fujairah F2 CV, a 50:50 limited partnership joint venture belonging to International Power plc (LSE:IPR) (London, England) and Marubeni Corporation (TYO:8002) (Tokyo, Japan).

The Fujairah II IWPP will use multiple-effect distillation and reverse osmosis to produce 130 million gallons of potable water per day. Once commissioned, the facility will be the largest desalination plant in the world. On the power side, Altsom United Emirates, a branch of Alstom SA (EPA:ALO) (Levallois-Perret, France), has supplied the project with combustion turbines and steam turbines that will be natural gas-fired. Once commissioned, not only will it be the largest desalination plant in the world, but the Fujairah II IWPP will provide the region with 2,000 megawatts of electricity.

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