The first phase of a $ 120 million contract to build two identical seawater desalination plants on the Palm Jumeirah island development in Dubai, UAE, has been completed by ACWA Emirates LLC.
The contract was awarded to ACWA by Palm Water, the utility company for the development. Palm Water and its consultant, Mott MacDonald, were heavily involved in the design, project management, commissioning, operation and monitoring of plant performance.
The new treatment plant, which has been up and running since May this year, has successfully completed reliability trials, taking over from a temporary system, installed by ACWA at the same site. The temporary desalination plant operated for over a year whilst the first phase of new project was under construction.
Capable of producing up to 32,000 m³/d of high-quality drinking-water, the desalination plant includes screening, ultrafiltration, two-stage reverse-osmosis, disinfection and remineralisation processes, designed and integrated with state-of-the-art controls and SCADA.
In the initial stages of production, the plant will provide water for large numbers of site workers at the various construction camps set up for building the island’s infrastructure, hotels and leisure facilities. Ultimately it will be used for residential consumption and a variety of island service facilities.
The Palm desalination plant will produce 32,000 m³/d.