An environmental impact study (EIS) has been filed by Seven Seas Water Chile SpA for the Bahía Caldera Desalination Plant in Chile’s Region III.
The project involves construction of a reverse-osmosis (RO) plant that will have a desalinated water production of approximately 2.1 MGD (7,949 m³/d) in its first phase. The plant will be installed in the industrial yard of the Bahía Caldera Fishery, 2 km north of the city of Caldera.
The desalination facility will be fed with the excess water that comes from the industrial process of the fishery and the seawater that it captures through the feed pipes that it owns. The feed water will be conducted through a prefiltration system to remove the suspended solids from the water. High-pressure pumps send the feed through a series of RO membranes to remove the dissolved salts.
The RO system’s brine reject will be discharged into a transfer well owned by the fishery and will later be returned to the sea through its underwater duct. The solution is innovative because it optimizes existing infrastructure, reduces the costs of investment and operations and minimizes impact on the surroundings.
A portion of the product water will be utilized in fishery processes, and the surplus in supply will be sold to interested third parties. The desalinated water can be utilized in industrial and mining processes as well as for sanitary companies. With prior purification processes to make it potable, it can be used for consumption by the population within its concession area.