GE, seeking salt, to create pure water as byproduct

GE Water & Process Technologies, a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) is to design and construct a new reverse osmosis seawater desalination plant in South Africa.

In a first for South Africa, the plant's primary mission will be to recover ultra-pure salt for the production of chlorine, caustic soda, and hydrochloric acid at a new refinery in the Coega Industrial Zone, Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

The 600 tonnes-per-day $200M refinery will be owned and operated by Strait Chemicals and will meet the growing global demand for chlor-alkali and its derivatives.

“GE’s seawater desalination and thermal evaporation technologies will create around 630,000 tonnes of 99.9% pure salt annually,” said Earl Jones, General Manager, Structured Projects for GE Water & Process Technologies.

“Reclaiming salt from the desalination brine stream not only improves the overall economics of the refinery project, but also removes logistical issues by ensuring a reliable and locally available supply of high grade salt for use in the refining of chlorine.”

Pure water produced by the desalination process, which in this case is considered a by-product, will supply up to 70,000 m3/day of potable water to about 150,000 local inhabitants of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality for drinking and local municipal use. This quantity of water will also meet the anticipated water demand for the expansion of the industrial zone.

As freshwater resources in South Africa become increasingly limited, this sustainable, new source of potable water from the Coega desalination plant will help alleviate water scarcity challenges caused by low rainfall, growing populations and rising demand.

"Our customer, Straits Chemicals, has an exciting vision for infrastructure development in South Africa, and we are excited to contribute great technology and innovative solutions in support of this vision. Our strength in Seawater Desalination and Thermal Evaporation Processes, combined with our world class partners, allowed our team to provide a robust solution with superior lifecycle economics,” stated Jones.

“GE is committed to providing environmentally-friendly technology solutions, which we operationalise through our global initiative called ecomagination. This project reflects our commitment to the environment by providing freshwater to help lessen the social and economic impact of water scarcity, and by taking what would otherwise be a brine waste stream, and turning that into a valuable source of salt production,” said Nellie Swanepoel, Managing Director of GE Water and Process Technologies in South Africa.

Clive Rice, Director for Straits Chemicals commented, “The construction of this desalination plant will not only impact positively on the South African economy, as the Straits Chemicals refinery will produce over 600-tonnes of chlorine a day for both domestic and non-domestic markets, but will also be beneficial to the local community in terms of providing a solution for water scarcity concerns.”

Construction of the refinery is expected to take between 18 and 24 months with the completed plant being officially commissioned towards the end of 2009. It is expected around 600 local jobs will be created during the construction phase and once operational over 250 people will be employed. The refinery will be constructed in Zone 7 on an initial 30 hectares site with an additional 5-hectares for the desalination plant.

GE Water & Process Technologies is solving some of the world’s most pressing water challenges by providing industrial, agricultural and potable water. Technologies to accomplish this include desalination, advanced membrane, separation solutions, and water reuse and wastewater management and process technologies.