Black & Veatch-Designed Desalination Plant Wins Global Water Distinction

Kansas City, MO — Black & Veatch, a leading global engineering, consulting and construction company, announced today the company recently won a distinction in the Desalination Plant of the Year category at the 2006 Global Water Awards for the Singapore-Tuas Seawater Desalination Project. The new 36 million-gallon-per-day (136,380 cubic-meter-per-day) seawater reverse-osmosis (SWRO) plant is the largest of its kind in Asia and one of the largest in the world, accommodating 10 percent of Singapore's national water demand.

"We're delighted to be recognized for our work on this exciting facility," said Dan McCarthy, president and CEO of B&V Water. "This award serves as recognition of Black & Veatch's global leadership in helping utilities produce safe, ample drinking water for their customers, while sustaining and protecting the environment."

The Singapore-Tuas Seawater Desalination plant is one of the most energy-efficient SWRO plants in the world, producing treated water at a total energy consumption for the plant of only 4.2kWhr/m3. This has resulted in an expected first-year selling price of $0.49 per cubic meter – the lowest of any comparable project in the world.

Black & Veatch provided complete design and permitting services for the US$90 million project as well as support during construction, commissioning and operation. The facility features a compact pretreatment process with screening and combined flotation/filtration prior to the extraction of dissolved salts via two stages of reverse osmosis membranes, with additional treatment to further improve water quality prior to distribution and consumption.

"The project represents the exceptional capabilities of Black & Veatch's global technology specialists, whose collective expertise is setting new standards for innovative and economical water treatment solutions," McCarthy said.

The 2006 Global Water Awards ceremony was held March 6 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The award winners are chosen from votes cast by subscribers to Water Desalination Report and Global Water Intelligence and members of the International Desalination Association. Black & Veatch shared the recognition for the Singapore-Tuas plant with Hyflux. Hyflux subsidiary SingSpring holds the Design-Build-Own-Operate contract awarded by Singapore's Public Utilities Board in early 2003.

SOURCE: Black & Veatch