This plant was the fourth facility, designed, built and operated by Ocean Conversion (Cayman) Limited for the Water Authority-Cayman and provides drinking water to the growing eastern districts of Grand Cayman. This plant is the largest desalination facility in the Cayman Islands, with a capacity of 2.4 million US gallons per day.
Because the cost of electricity on Caribbean islands is typically 4 to 5 times greater than in the United States and Grand Cayman is no exception, a critical factor in the design and operation of this plant is the overall energy efficiency of the facility. To that end, the plant utilizes the advanced Calder DWEERTM (Dual Work Exchanger Energy Recovery) system to recover energy from the high pressure brine stream and centrifugal pumps for its high pressure pumps.
Raw seawater for the plant is obtained from wells located on site, which avoids 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.
An advanced computer control system is used to operate and monitor the plant 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. This results in lower employee costs as the plant is only manned during normal working hours, though remains operational.
