Chinese city plans seawater desalination project in Xiang’an District

Xiamen city, China, is prioritising the construction of a seawater desalination demonstration plant after major advances in seawater desalination technology.

The city has plans to build a desalination plant in Xiang’an District, which will produce about 50,000t to 100,000t of desalinated seawater per day.

The treated water from the plant will be supplied to industrial enterprises, and provide water to Xiamen Island in cases of emergencies.

It is expected that Xiamen will desalinate over 50,000t of seawater by 2020, reported Xiamen Daily.

It is also suggested that the city will set up the project as part of its strategy to turn the city into a demonstration city for seawater desalination.

The city aims to set up a network of water supply systems and use reservoirs as its main source to produce water.

In addition, it will use Jiulong River as a secondary source and the desalinated seawater will become a backup option.

Xiamen city has already developed some desalination equipment for installation on boats and on land, while with new technologies related to the field of seawater desalination, the city is able to save electricity when treating seawater into freshwater.

Earlier the city used 5kWh per tonne of power to desalinate water, which has now reduced to 3kWh.

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Image: The Chinese city of Xiamen has plans to construct desalination plant to convert seawater into freshwater. Photo: MikeRussia.