A 3 million m³/d seawater desalination plant to supply the Chinese capital Beijing is being planned by Hong Kong-based Beijing Enterprise Water Group Ltd (BEWG), in addition to a 1 million m³/d plant on which the company is currently working.
BEWG, working with desalination company Aqualyng (now headquartered in China), has already completed a 50,000 m³/d seawater desalination plant in September 2012 in Caofeidian, on Bohai Bay in Hebei province. It is currently working to have the 1 million m³/d plant up and running in Caoefeidian by 2019.
Chinese media have quoted Wang Xiaoshui, director of the seawater desalination department of BEWG, as saying that, after the 1 million m³ project goes into operation in 2019, Beijing will receive more than 300 million m³ of desalted seawater annually, about 10% of its current water consumption volume.
The current project will include a desalination facility costing RMB 7 billion (US$ 1.13 billion) and a 270 km-long pipeline extending to Beijing, costing RMB 10 billion (US$ 1.6 billion). China Daily reported that the water would cost RMB 8 (US$ 1.28) per m³, twice the current cost of water in the city.
The additional desalination project with a capacity of 3 million m³ also planned by BEWG to meet the capital’s demand will increase Beijing’s desalinated water supply to more than 1 billion m³. This is equal to the storage capacity of the Miyun Reservoir, the largest storage facility in north China and Beijing’s major water source.
BEWG previously announced in January 2014 that it had signed an agreement with the government office of Sansha City for a desalination engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract under which the government office of Sansha City purchased two 15 m³/d desalination plants (including the transportation and installation of equipment, generator and container depot).
At the beginning of this year, the desalination EPC contract being undertaken by BEWG on Yagong and Lingyang islands in Hainan Province completed its construction and commenced operation. Since then, it has successfully solved the shortage of drinking water for residents on these islands.
BEWG is also planning to invest in desalination projects in Yongxing Island, part of Sansha City, as well as in other domestic and foreign islands, and coastal areas of China.