The Nemmeli desalination plant in Tamil Nadu, India, was commissioned on 22 February 2013 by the state’s chief minister, Selvi J Jayalalithaa. It is the second seawater reverse-osmosis (RO) plant to provide drinking water for the city of Chennai.
The plant, which is 50 km south of Chennai, will have a capacity of 100,000 m³/d and was constructed by VA Tech Wabag for the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewage Board.
The plant has pretreatment provided by Arkel disk filters supplied by Amiad Filtration Systems and Seaguard ultrafiltration from Pentair X-Flow. The RO membranes are from Hydranautics/Nitto Denko and energy recovery features pressure exchangers from Energy Recovery Inc.
The plant is currently producing at 50% capacity, which will be ramped up to 100% in the coming weeks. It will supply water to residents of the southern suburbs of Chennai in Velachery, Pallipattu, Thiruvanmiyur and the localities along the IT corridor.