Integrated solutions provider ImproChem will be completing the construction and commissioning of a desalination plant for a large factory on the West Coast, in South Africa, with the plant expected to supply its first water in the second week of March.

The plant – which will be designed, procured, built and commissioned within three months – will ensure that the current fresh water used by factories and industries is instead efficiently distributed to households and communities in the area.

The plant is designed to deliver 1 100 m³ litres of fresh water daily.

“Seawater will be extracted from the beach well and filtered, from where it will be pumped through a reverse osmosis plant from waste management company Suez, where the salt and mineral particles will be separated, thereby resulting in fresh water,” says ImproChem engineer solutions executive director Sepadi Mohlabeng.

This project, Mohlabeng notes, will address two main concerns; providing the client with potable water in the event of so-called ‘day zero’ as well as treating the client’s existing wastewater effluent stream.

This process, he explains, is designed to treat industrial effluent in order to provide potable water – which will be in line with South African National Standards 241-1:2015 specifications.

The main unit processes at the project will include prescreening for solids removal, disinfection in order to prevent system fouling, dissolved air floatation for fog and suspended solids removal, ultra-filtration for the removal of finer suspended solids, viruses, proteins and pectins as well as reverse osmosis for the removal of dissolved solids.

Additional engineering support is provided by ImproChem’s technology partner Suez, who provides the inherent membrane technology.

In the long run, it may become feasible that this project supplies the community with fresh water, in turn, reducing water use and relieving the current drought situation in the province, Mohlabeng explains.

The solution is to consider the ample supply of seawater and turn salt water into fresh water for drinking, he adds.

Mohlabeng hopes the success of this project will influence other factories and municipalities to implement the same system.

Additional Service Offering

He further says that ImproChem can deploy its current technologies through all its deployed assets.

He explains that the ImproChem after-sales offering is based on the implementation of the Management Operation and Maintenance (MOM) programme to all its installed assets.

“The programme will be crafted by developing plant-specific maintenance plans, performance measurement as well as process control systems.”