The Caofeidian Industrial Zone in northern China's Hebei Province began construction of its first
seawater desalination project on Tuesday.
Once completed, the project will satisfy two-thirds of the
planned water consumption of the booming development zone in Bohai
Bay, reported the Xinhua news agency.
The project will be financed by Norway's Aqualyng Holding AS and
built by another Norwegian company, Aker Kvaerner. With a total
investment of 200 million US dollars, the project is expected to
produce 20,000 tonnes of fresh water daily by March 2009. The
production capacity will be boosted to 30,000 and 100,000 tonnes
daily in the second and third phases respectively, the report
said.
The project will adopt the patented technology of reverse
seawater osmosis desalination held by Aqualyng, to reduce the cost
to the minimum. Extra heat generated from a local power plant will
be used to heat the seawater while the thick salty water produced
during the desalination process will provide raw material for
making industrial salts.
(CRI December 20, 2007)
