World's Largest Desalitnation Plant Begins Operation In Israel

Midland, MI — The world's largest desalination plant in Ashkelon, Israel, is now providing and selling 165,000 m³ of water per day, relying on FILMTEC™ membrane technology from The Dow Chemical Company for the plant' s highly demanding seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) process. The plant is part of a Desalination Master Plan launched by Israel in 2002 to help address the country's chronic water resource problems.

The plant is owned and operated by VID Desalination Company, which is a consortium of IDE Technologies Ltd. (50 percent) equally owned by Israel Chemicals Ltd. (ICL) of the Israel Corporation Ltd. and Delek Group, as well as Veolia Water S.A. (25 percent). The Ashkelon desalination plant is comprised of a North and South plant, each designed to produce 165,000 m3/D making a total of 330,000 m3/D of produced water. The next phase is to begin commissioning of the South plant, which is planned later this year.

The OTID Consortium, an association formed by OTV, part of Veolia Water, and IDE Technologies Ltd., selected FILMTEC RO elements for the seawater desalination plant to meet the demanding needs of the Ashkelon SWRO process. The desalination facility consists of 32 RO treatment trains and uses an optimized, multi-stage RO and boron removal procedures. The method selected is highly flexible and readily adjustable to feed water temperature fluctuations, and is capable of delivering a removal efficiency greater than 92 percent when required.

SOURCE: The Dow Chemical Company