DUBAI, UAE – Spanish engineering company Acciona Agua, together with Belhasa Six Construct (BeSIX) will construct the Jebel Ali Sea Water Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) project in Dubai.
The AED 871 million (US$237m) contract was awarded by the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) for the 182,000 m3/day desalination development.
The project is in-line with DEWA’s plans to decouple water desalination and power production and follows the organisation awarding the advisory services contract for Jebel Ali in 2016.
Currently only 5 percent of Dubai’s desalinated water supply comes from reverse osmosis (RO) but the Emirate state aims to increase this to 41 percent by 2030.
As part of this development, a two-pass RO system will be designed, including pre-treatment with an expected commission date slated for May 2020.
HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA said the organisation’s strategy is to “build production plants based on Reverse Osmosis (RO) which requires 90 percent less energy than that of multi-stage flash (MSF), making it a more sustainable choice for water desalination”.
DEWA plans to expand the use of RO to produce 305 million gallons (1.3 million cubic metres) of desalinated water per day by 2030, with a total production of 750 million gallons (3.4 million cubic metres), up from 470 million gallons (2.1 million cubic metres) currently.
Al Tayer added: “Increasing the operational efficiency of the decoupling process will save around AED 13 billion and reduce 43 ton of carbon emissions by 2030.”
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