Location: Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
Project: Qingdao BAIFA Seawater Desalination Plant
Capacity: 100,000 m³/day
Energy Savings: US$ 9.6 million or 96 million kWh/year*
CO2 savings: 56,000 tons CO2/year**
* energy savings estimates based on China’s power cost of $0.10/kWh
** based on Energy Recovery’s proprietary Power Model analysis
The Challenge : Industry Competing with Residents for Access to Fresh Water
In the vibrant seacoast city of Qingdao, China, a diverse population of over 8 million people shares space and resources with rapidly growing industry. The pressing need for a larger municipal water supply led government leaders to commission a seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) water treatment plant. In choosing Abengoa Water, which has built huge reverse osmosis (RO) plants on other continents, the Municipality of Qingdao sought the expertise of a company that knows how to design and build massive water treatment plants that bring huge quantities of drinking water to urban populations.
The Innovation Solution : PX Pressure Exchanger 260
Abengoa Water knew from its RO work on several continents that recovering and recycling energy was paramount to keeping water affordable, a consideration especially important given the huge flow capacity needed at Qingdao. Because Energy Recovery’s technological solutions have minimized the cost and energy footprints of their six other mega-projects, Abengoa Water wanted Energy Recovery’s PX Pressure Exchanger® technology to make processing more productive, profitable, and environmentally cleaner.
The Result: Drinking Water for Half a Million People
The PX supplied Qingdao’s RO plant with the potential of saving 96 million kWh per year and of cutting 56,000 tons of CO2 emissions with Energy Recovery’s industry-leading technology that recaptures the reusable energy from fluid flows and pressure cycles. The Qingdao processing plant will bring fresh water to up to 500,000 residents of Qingdao. Energy Recovery’s PX trains make desalination more affordable and sustainable by harnessing reusable energy at high efficiency with no downtime. “Abengoa continues to work with Energy Recovery to implement its innovative PX devices to significantly reduce the life cycle costs of the desalination process,” said Carlos Cosín, CEO of Abengoa Water. “We continue to be impressed with the reliability, efficiency and overall performance of its PX technology. We anticipate similar success in the Qingdao facility.”
