With a capacity of 320,000 m3 per day, the Ashkelon plant is one of the biggest projects in the world using reverse osmosis to desalinate seawater.
Membrane desalination, a cost-effective and competitive solution.
Challenge
In 2002, Veolia Water and two Israeli partners won the BOT contract for the desalination plant in Ashkelon, located to the south of Tel Aviv.
The contract covers the financing, construction and operation of a desalination plant with a capacity of 108 million cubic meters per year.
The Ashkelon plant was delivered in 2005 in two phases—the second of which in December—each capable of producing 54 million cubic meters/year.
The Ashkelon region is faced with severe water shortage. As a result of climate change and overexploitation of resources, groundwater levels have never been so low. To meet the growing need for water, the region's authorities decided to turn to use of seawater: desalination offers an abundant alternative resource.
With a capacity of 320,000 cubic meters a day, the Ashkelon plant is one of the biggest reverse osmosis desalination facilities in the world.
Veolia Water's solution
One of the world's lowest production costs for membrane desalination of seawater
The cost of producing water by desalination is the same as that of withdrawing water from aquifers, and half the cost of importing water for irrigation in some parts of the eastern Mediterranean.
Very good water quality
The salt concentration in the water produced will be 30 mg/L compared with 35,000 mg/L in the seawater that feeds the plant (the standard for water for human consumption is 400 mg/L).
Technological expertise
The feed seawater is supplied by three pipelines installed on the sea bed.
- Following an initial pretreatment stage (dual-layer filtration), the seawater is gradually desalinated through 32 reverse osmosis trains, each with a capacity of 10,000 cubic meters per day (total of 30,000 membrane modules). In addition to reducing total salinity, reverse osmosis removes bacteria, viruses and boron.
- Seawater desalination has become a cost-competitive method of producing water thanks to economies of scale, the continuous fall in the price of membranes (halved in 10 years), the energy efficiency of plants using the process designed by Veolia Solutions & Technologies, and control of operating costs.
