Malaysian desalination plant in Tianjin will be ZLD

A groundbreaking ceremony took place on 29 May 2014 for an industrial desalination project in Tianjin, China, which is claimed to be the first zero-liquid discharge seawater desalination project in the world.

The 300,000 m³/d plant is being built by XianDa (Tianjin) Seawater Resources Development Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Malaysia’s Enersave Group. Due to start up in 2017, the project will supply petrochemical plants in the Tianjin Nangang Industrial Zone.

In a speech read on his behalf, Malaysia’s prime minister, Najib Razak, said that, with this project, XianDa has not only been able to help preserve the ecosystem of the Bohai Bay, but also produce enough salt to transform 200 km² of salt plains into more productive land.