SINGAPORE - While all eyes and ears of the desalination community are focusing upon utility PUB’s decision for its high profile fourth desalination plant in Marina East, the fifth project is equally as interesting.
Set to be located on Jurong Island, the 137,000 m3/day project is expected to be tendered shortly.
However, the project will not include land for the desalination plant as the island is currently fully occupied by industrial companies.
As a result, the project will have to be co-located with existing industrial facilities, leading engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firms to already be in discussion with companies on the island, WWi understands.
Speaking about the Jurong Island developments at the Singapore International Water Week, Masagos Zulkifli, minister for the environment and water resources, said: “It’s important for us to be close to a power system or power grid. By co-locating, we will be able to use either the steam generator, or the electricity that we can get directly from the power plant.”
Such a development could put companies already well versed in thermal desalination projects – off-taking heat from power plants to produce water – well positioned to bid.
Meanwhile, Singapore’s fourth desalination plant in Marina East has certainly become high profile and the result will no doubt be a politically important one for national water agency PUB.
Home grown Singaporean company Hyflux delivered the nation's first two desalination projects – SingSpring and Tuaspring, while Singapore civil engineering company HSL is currently delivering the third (read WWi story).
Various industry commentators told WWi that if a Singapore firm was to win the Marina East contract, it would send out a strong signal to the international community and could show a bias towards Singapore firms.
The Marina East variable salinity plant will treat two different sources of water: seawater from the Singapore Straits or raw water from the Marina Reservoir.
It was in April when Black & Veatch was appointed to provide consultancy services on the development (read WWi story).
Harry Seah, chief technology officer at PUB, told WWi: “The Marina East variable salinity plant is very exciting because we’re exploiting the technology where this particular plant you can switch between freshwater and seawater. So if it rains the plant treats freshwater. If it’s during a dry period it treats the seawater. It’s a two-in-one plant. This concept of a variable salinity plant is something that was developed internally at PUB.”
By 2060, desalinated water is expected to provide up to 85% of Singapore’s water needs.
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[Image credit: JTC]
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