A combination of mobile reverse-osmosis (RO) and ship-based RO and distillation plants all made by Aqua-Chem Inc is helping provide water for victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.
Aqua-Chem announced on 16 March 2011 that it is working through the US State Department to make two mobile purification systems available to the Japanese government including one capable of processing up to 1.2 MGD (4,500 m³/d) from sources such as ocean water. At the same time, US Navy ships participating in the relief effort have eight Aqua-Chem desalination systems installed that can provide thousands of additional gallons of potable water.
Aqua-Chem told D&WR that there were several US Navy ships off Japan assisting in the relief effort and several on the way. The largest is a CVN Class aircraft-carrier with four Aqua-Chem distillers, each producing 100,000 GPD (378,500 L/d) of high-purity water from seawater, much of which can be transported to land for the disaster survivors. Most of the other ships that are in the area each have two 30,000 gpd (113,550 L/d) Aqua-Chem distillers.
One of the ships has had its distillers replaced with new 36,000 gpd (136,260 L/d) Aqua-Chem reverse-osmosis plants that the company recently designed and qualified. Several of these ships are large landing-type ships that are specifically designed to put an army and all their equipment on shore quickly. This makes these ships uniquely qualified to help in disaster relief.