ERI wins Adelaide desalination energy-recovery contract

AdelaideAgua, the consortium which is to design, build and operate the 150,000 m³/d seawater desalination plant at Port Stanvac, near Adelaide, South Australia, has selected Energy Recovery Inc’s PX Pressure Exchanger energy-recovery devices for the plant, ERI announced on 5 May 2009.

“Acciona has deployed ERI’s PX devices in several locations worldwide and have first-hand experience of the devices’ ability to reclaim energy,” said Luis Castilla, managing director of Acciona Agua, the Spanish leaders of the consortium. “ERI is an obvious choice to help ensure that we have a highly efficient reverse-osmosis system and are producing water in the Adelaide plant with as small a carbon footprint as possible.”

Australia’s water crisis has prompted the government to revise the construction schedule of the Adelaide desalination facility. AdelaideAgua is required to begin delivering the first water in 2010, almost 12 months earlier than originally planned and the South Australian government is shortly expected to call for a doubling of the water production capacity, to 300,000 m³/d, at the plant.