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Key Driver Innovation: Siemens Is Supporting Singapore On Its Way Toward A Self-Sufficient Water Supply
August 26, 2011
The city and island state of Singapore is one of the largest metropolitan centers in Southeast Asia, and has changed enormously over the last ten years. This young 46-year-old nation has transformed into an international center for trade and finance with a population of five million. This has also increased the demand for water supply. As the island is only about forty kilometers across at its widest point, it does not have a sufficiently large land mass to supply all its inhabitants with drinking water. Singapore is therefore investing massively in research and development in this field. Its national water agency, PUB, has been working for years closely with Siemens on a large number of projects. Their common goal is to develop energy-efficient and process-efficient solutions for treating and recycling water.
There are more than 6,000 multinational companies and 500 financial institutions in this city state, an area just half the size of London. The government and city planners realized at an early stage that Singapore could only survive if the rapid growth of the economy and population was compatible with a sustainable environmental policy. Siemens recently commissioned the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), an independent research institute, to examine 22 metropolises in Asia with regard to the sustainability of their handling of resources and the environment, as well as their commitment toward greater protection of the environment. Singapore emerged as Asia's greenest metropolis in this Asian Green City Index, partly because of its sustainable water management.
The current water consumption of Singapore is approximately 1,730,000,000 liters per day, and this is expected to double by 2060. Because the country's ground and rainwater cannot meet the existing demand of its five million inhabitants, PUB supplies the population and industry from four sources: water from local catchment areas, imported water, reclaimed water known as NEWater and desalinated water.
To keep its water supply reliable and affordable in future, Singapore intends to minimize the proportion of water it imports from its neighbor, Malaysia. In order to achieve this, the other three sources have to be expanded. Siemens has been playing a significant role in supporting PUB in this endeavour. Today, the company is a key technology partner for Singapore in this area, having established its global research and development center at the Singapore WaterHub in 2007. The WaterHub is a center where partners and stakeholders in water engage one another actively in technology development, learning and networking. Furthermore, the Singapore Government is providing some 330 million dollars for research and development activities in the field of water technologies.
From the outset, Siemens has used its expertise and technologies in water to back the Government's efforts in making Singapore a global water hub and treading new paths in water management. When the PUB embarked on its programme to recycle and reuse water for the NEWater project, for instance, Siemens came in to build the pre-treatment system for a demonstration plant in Bedok to show that reuse was possible, and that the technology was efficient. The success of this partnership has seen Siemens join PUB to build innovative water and used water treatment systems such as the pre-treatment system at the Kranji NEWater Plant. This recycling process involves passing biologically treated waste water through membrane filtration (filter modules consisting of bundles of thousands of membrane fibers). After further purification by reverse osmosis and UV radiation, the water is completely purified without the addition of chemicals or harmful substances. Construction of a demonstration plant, capable of producing 10,000 cubic meters of fresh water per day, started in 1999 in the NEWater plant at Kranji. Since then, the plant has been purifying thousands of cubic meters of waste water every day, mainly for use in the semiconductor industry. Singapore intends to construct facilities with a capacity of 210,000 cubic meters per day by 2012, so that NEWater will provide twenty percent of the total water consumption. And this proportion will probably increase further, because the recycling process is extremely efficient and cost-effective.
Besides water reuse, seawater desalination plays an increasing role in mitigating water stress. Thus, PUB and Siemens continue their innovation partnership to further develop seawater as an additional source of drinking water. Conventional desalination processes – evaporation and reverse osmosis – require a high input of energy, but Siemens engineers have now developed a method of electrochemical seawater desalination which consumes only half as much energy as conventional technologies. The process combines electrodialysis and continuous electrodeionization (CEDI). Both technologies use an electric field to remove both sodium and chloride ions from the water. A demonstration plant using this process was brought into operation in December 2010. When the pilot tests are completed successfully, Siemens will develop the technology into a marketable product by setting up a full-scale customer pilot plant at PUB's Tuas facility.
Thus, the partnership goes on. Singapore will continue to invest in research and development to ensure the reliability of its water supply in future. Its top priority is to become independent of expensive imported water from Johor, the most southerly state of Malaysia. Singapore has been importing water from its neighbor since 1961. The last contracts expire in 2061, by which time Singapore intends to have a water cycle that makes it completely self-sufficient. For more information, visit http://www.siemens.com/siww and http://www.siemens.com/water.
About The Siemens Industry Sector
The Siemens Industry Sector (Erlangen, Germany) is the worldwide leading supplier of environmentally friendly production, transportation and building technologies. With integrated automation technologies and comprehensive industry-specific solutions, Siemens increases the productivity, efficiency and flexibility of its customers in the fields of industry and infrastructure. In fiscal 2010, which ended on September 30, 2010, revenue from continuing operations of the Industry Sector (excluding Osram) totaled around €30.2B. At the end of September 2010, Siemens Industry Sector had around 164,000 employees worldwide without consideration of Osram. Further information is available on the Internet at: http://www.siemens.com/industry.
About The Siemens Industry Solutions Division
The Siemens Industry Solutions Division (Erlangen, Germany) is one of the world's leading solution and service providers for industrial and infrastructure facilities comprising the business activities of Siemens VAI Metals Technologies, Water Technologies and Industrial Technologies. Activities include engineering and installation, operation and service for the entire life cycle. A wide-ranging portfolio of environmental solutions helps industrial companies to use energy, water and equipment efficiently, reduce emissions and comply with environmental guidelines. With around 29,000 employees worldwide (September 30), Siemens Industry Solutions posted sales of €6.0B in fiscal year 2010. http://www.siemens.com/industry-solutions
