Caofeidian Seawater Desalination Project Breaks Ground

The Caofeidian Industrial Zone in northern China's Hebei Province began construction of its first seawater desalination project on Tuesday.

Once completed, the project will satisfy two-thirds of the planned water consumption of the booming development zone in Bohai Bay, reported the Xinhua news agency.

The project will be financed by Norway's Aqualyng Holding AS and built by another Norwegian company, Aker Kvaerner. With a total investment of 200 million US dollars, the project is expected to produce 20,000 tonnes of fresh water daily by March 2009. The production capacity will be boosted to 30,000 and 100,000 tonnes daily in the second and third phases respectively, the report said.

The project will adopt the patented technology of reverse seawater osmosis desalination held by Aqualyng, to reduce the cost to the minimum. Extra heat generated from a local power plant will be used to heat the seawater while the thick salty water produced during the desalination process will provide raw material for making industrial salts.