Abengoa, the international company that applies innovative technology solutions for sustainability in the infrastructures, energy and water sectors, has been selected by the Engineering, Procurement & Construction (EPC) contractor SEPCOIII for the construction of a seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant in the industrial complex of the world’s largest ‘premium aluminium’ producer, Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), located in Jebel Ali, a port town 35 kilometers south-west of Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Abengoa will be responsible for the engineering, the supply of mechanical equipment, and instrumentation and control, as well as the supervision of the start-up of a desalination plant that will produce more than 41,000 m3/d of drinking water and water for industrial use. The plant includes pretreatment through dissolved air flotation (DAF) and gravity filters, a reverse osmosis system of five racks, post-treatment of calcite and CO2 beds, and the pumping of the product water. Additionally, it has a high purity water production system through an electrodeionization treatment (CEDI, Continuous Electro Deionization).
The project is part of the works that SEPCOIII is carrying out for EGA in its industrial complex, where treated water is currently obtained through thermal desalination processes, in particular multistage evaporation (MSF, Multi-stage flash distillation), which involves a higher energy cost and a greater space requirement than desalination by reverse osmosis.
With this new contract, Abengoa is consolidated as a leading company in the desalination sector worldwide, with an installed capacity of 1.5 million m3/d, which will be expanded to 2.8 million when the portfolio in execution is completed. In addition, Abengoa strengthens its presence in the Middle East, where it is currently executing the Rabigh III desalination plant, of 600,000 m3/d, and Shuaibah III desalination plant, of 250,000 m3/d, in Saudi Arabia, and the Salalah desalination plant, of 114,000 m3/d, in Oman.