Dow Water Solutions
Advances in FILMTECTM membrane technology from The Dow Chemical Company helps reduce energy requirements, making desalination more affordable and delivering the lowest cost desalinated seawater of $0.53/m3.
In 2005, the world's largest seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) began operations in Ashkelon, Israel, relying on Dow's reverse osmosis membrane technology
Organisation Name
Dow Chemical
Problem
The desalination plant in Ashkelon is part of a Desalination Master Plan launched by Israel in 2002 to help address the country's chronic water resource problems. Israel is one of the most water-challenged areas in the world and the successful operation of the Ashkelon plant ,which provides 320,000m3 water /day, shows a bright future for seawater reverse osmosis (RO) technology addressing the needs of this and other regions.
Solution
The desalination facility consists of 32 SWRO treatment trains and uses optimized, multi-stage RO and boron removal procedures. The method selected is highly flexible and readily adjustable to feel water temperature fluctuations and is capable of delivering a removal efficiency greater than 92 percent when required. The Ashkelon plant supplies approximately 15% of the total household water consumption in Israel. Other key requirements fullfilled by the FILMTECTM membrane technology are high pH tolerance, continuous low pressure operation, low membrane fouling and cost effective, reliable performance.
The Ashkelon project contains more than 40,000 RO membrane elements which makes this a milestone project for desalination in terms of size.
The driving vision for Dow Water Solutions is to help customers produce the highest quality water at the lowest possible cost which is what the Ashkelon project is making possible in Israel.
Constraints
Energy requirements for desalination plants could be a constraint. Dow has refined its membranes to be more energy efficient. The energy used is electricity, not thermal, and can be from renewable energy sources
Benefits
The Ashkelon plant is a testament to how advances in RO membrane technology have contributed to making the production of clean drinking water from seawater more affordable and energy efficient. Over the past ten years, FILMTECTM has helped to decrease the cost of RO water nearly threefold, while enhancements in membrane throughput and rejection have led to significant reductions in energy consumption.
Place Of Implementation
Ashkelon, Israel
More Information
http://www.dowwatersolutions.com
http://www.dow.com
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