Location:
West Bay, Cayman Islands
Capacity:
2 million US gallons per day
Type:
Seawater Desalination
Technology:
Reverse Osmosis
Contract Type:
DBOO
About the project
This facility is located on Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands near the world famous Seven Mile Beach, which is the heart of the tourist area for the island. The Company’s first thermal vapor compression desalination equipment, operated from 1973 until the early 1990’s, was located on this site.
This seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant was commissioned in March 2009 with a capacity of 1.0 million US gallons per day. It was expanded in early 2016 to a production capacity of 2.0 million US gallons per day. This plant utilizes ultra efficient centrifugal high-pressure pumps with ERI isobaric work exchangers and uses less than 10.6 kWhrs of electrical power to produce 1,000 US gallons of product water, inclusive of power for feedwater pumps, post-treatment and product water delivery to the Company’s reservoirs. This plant produces finished water with a TDS of less than 200 ppm by passing some of the desalted seawater through a ‘second pass’ brackish water reverse osmosis system.
In addition to the desalination equipment, this site also includes five million US gallons of finished water storage, disinfection equipment and distribution equipment. This facility is one of three located in the Company’s regulated water utility service area in Grand Cayman. The drinking water produced by these facilities is distributed via the Company’s pipelines to homes, businesses, hotels and tourist accommodations in the area, under an exclusive long-term water utility license with the Cayman Islands Government.
Raw seawater for the plant is obtained from wells located on site, which mitigates the need for expensive pretreatment equipment and chemicals associated with open sea intakes. However, the raw seawater does contain hydrogen sulfide, which is removed from the final product using a degasifying tower and air scrubber system.
