Costing $217 million, it is smaller than others but can produce water for 200,000 households
By Jose Hong, The Straits Times, 29 Jun 2018
Singapore's third desalination plant opened officially yesterday, with the promise of turning sea water into drinking water more productively and cheaply.
The $217 million Tuas Desalination Plant can produce up to 30 million gallons a day (mgd), enough for 200,000 of Singapore's 1.3 million households. This is as much as the volume produced by the SingSpring Desalination Plant, despite being half its size at 3.5ha.
With the new plant, 30 per cent of Singapore's water needs can be met by desalination, up from 25 per cent. Two more such plants are in the works in Marina East and on Jurong Island, and when these 30mgd plants are up by 2020, they will bring total desalination capacity to 190mgd.
With Singapore's water use set to double to 860mgd by 2060, such "heavy, but necessary investments" must be made ahead of time and demand, said Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli.
"We have seen in other cities the dire consequences of not planning for the long term," he added, highlighting recent water crises in Cape Town in South Africa and Sao Paolo in Brazil.
Such investment "is made possible by right-pricing water to reflect the long-run marginal cost of producing our next drop of water, which is likely to come from Newater and desalination", he said. Newater is recycled from sewage.
He said he was heartened that per capita consumption of water had fallen from 148 litres a day in 2016 to 143 litres last year.
At the same time, Mr Masagos pointed out that desalination is an energy-intensive process, and "if we continue as business as usual, Singapore's desalination energy usage will be four times (that) of today".
"We do not want to become energy-reliant in our quest to overcome water scarcity."
By Jose Hong, The Straits Times, 29 Jun 2018
The $217 million Tuas Desalination Plant can produce up to 30 million gallons a day (mgd), enough for 200,000 of Singapore's 1.3 million households. This is as much as the volume produced by the SingSpring Desalination Plant, despite being half its size at 3.5ha.
With the new plant, 30 per cent of Singapore's water needs can be met by desalination, up from 25 per cent. Two more such plants are in the works in Marina East and on Jurong Island, and when these 30mgd plants are up by 2020, they will bring total desalination capacity to 190mgd.
With Singapore's water use set to double to 860mgd by 2060, such "heavy, but necessary investments" must be made ahead of time and demand, said Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli.
"We have seen in other cities the dire consequences of not planning for the long term," he added, highlighting recent water crises in Cape Town in South Africa and Sao Paolo in Brazil.
Such investment "is made possible by right-pricing water to reflect the long-run marginal cost of producing our next drop of water, which is likely to come from Newater and desalination", he said. Newater is recycled from sewage.
He said he was heartened that per capita consumption of water had fallen from 148 litres a day in 2016 to 143 litres last year.
At the same time, Mr Masagos pointed out that desalination is an energy-intensive process, and "if we continue as business as usual, Singapore's desalination energy usage will be four times (that) of today".
"We do not want to become energy-reliant in our quest to overcome water scarcity."
The technology being tested at the new plant could potentially halve the energy used for desalination, he said.
More than 7,000 sq m of the plant's roof will be covered by a photovoltaic system and, when online, the solar panels can generate 1.4 million kilowatt hours of energy a year, enough to power more than 300 four-room flats for the same period. The energy will be used to run the plant's administrative building.
The plant is the first to be owned and operated by national water agency PUB, with SingSpring and Tuaspring both run by water-treatment company Hyflux - which has been seeking to sell the loss-making Tuaspring plant.
When asked, PUB water supply (plants) director Bernard Koh said PUB's decision to run this plant was not triggered by any private sector lapses.
The new plant's opening comes soon after Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad recently criticised the water supply deal between Singapore and his country. Under the 1962 agreement, which expires in 2061, Singapore can draw up to 250mgd of raw water from the Johor River daily at 3 sen per thousand gallons. In return, Johor is entitled to a daily supply of treated water of up to 2 per cent, or 5mgd, of the water supplied to Singapore.
Asked if Tun Dr Mahathir's stance made Singapore's quest for water self-sufficiency more pressing, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy's Dr Cecilia Tortajada noted that the new desalination plant was planned years ago.
The senior research fellow from the school's Institute of Water Policy added that PUB has always taken a long-term view of Singapore's water challenges.
The new plant's opening comes soon after Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad recently criticised the water supply deal between Singapore and his country. Under the 1962 agreement, which expires in 2061, Singapore can draw up to 250mgd of raw water from the Johor River daily at 3 sen per thousand gallons. In return, Johor is entitled to a daily supply of treated water of up to 2 per cent, or 5mgd, of the water supplied to Singapore.
Asked if Tun Dr Mahathir's stance made Singapore's quest for water self-sufficiency more pressing, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy's Dr Cecilia Tortajada noted that the new desalination plant was planned years ago.
The senior research fellow from the school's Institute of Water Policy added that PUB has always taken a long-term view of Singapore's water challenges.
She said water security has been a longstanding priority for Singapore. "Johor is a very important source of water, but so are Newater, desalination and local catchments, and PUB has been working on all of them."
High-water mark for new Tuas plant
Smallest facility here produces 30 million gallons of water daily, similar to one twice its size
By Jose Hong, The Straits Times, 29 Jun 2018
The Tuas Desalination Plant is the world's most space efficient in terms of the amount of water it can purify for its size, said national water agency PUB.
At 3.5ha, it is the smallest of the country's desalination facilities, yet it produces 30 million gallons of drinking water a day, the same amount as SingSpring Desalination Plant, which is almost double its size.
It took two years to build and opened officially yesterday. And now that it is running, 30 per cent of Singapore's water supply can be met through desalination.
The $217 million facility will remain the smallest even after the next two desalination plants are built in Marina East and on Jurong Island by 2020.
It is the first to use solar power, as well as the most technologically advanced. More than 7,000 sq m of the new plant's roof will be covered by a photovoltaic system and, when online, the solar panels can generate 1.4 million kilowatt hours of energy a year, enough to power over 300 four-room flats for the same period.
However, in an indication of just how much electricity is needed for desalination, this is enough to run only the plant's administrative building - less than 1 per cent of the facility's total needs.
The Tuas Desalination Plant combines two purification methods used separately in SingSpring and Tuaspring. By doing so, its reverse osmosis membranes - where the final stage of purification occurs - must be cleaned only once monthly, compared with as often as once every two weeks.
Notably, this plant is the first to be owned and operated by PUB and, according to PUB water supply (plants) director Bernard Koh, will allow the agency to implement its own research and development projects.
The water agency's chief executive Ng Joo Hee said: "Sea-water desalination has a starring role in Singapore's water future. And the opening of Tuas Desalination Plant is another milestone in our quest for enduring water security."
He added: "Excitingly, it is a real-world test bed for the cutting-edge technologies PUB has been exploring in recent years in our ambitious bid to halve the energy used for seawater desalination."
* PUB’s Tuas Desalination Plant named Desalination Plant of the Year 2019
By Goh Yan Han, The Straits Times, 11 Apr 2019
Barely a year after its opening, the Republic's Tuas Desalination Plant has won an accolade.
The desalination plant - the first plant owned and operated by national water agency PUB - was named Desalination Plant of the Year at this year's Global Water Awards, presented at the Global Water Summit in London on Tuesday.
The awards recognise the most important achievements in the international water industry, including improved operating performance, innovative technology adoption and sustainable financial models. The other plants in the running for the Desalination Plant of the Year category were Barka 4 IWP in Oman, Djerba in Tunisia and Galalah in Egypt.
PUB said in a statement yesterday that the Tuas Desalination Plant marked a major milestone in Singapore's water sustainability journey. As the country's third desalination plant, the $217 million facility is Singapore's most technologically advanced plant, setting new industry benchmarks for its robust pre-treatment processes and reliance on clean energy, said PUB.
The plant is housed in a 3.5ha facility, which is roughly the size of five football fields. It produces up to 30 million gallons of drinking water a day, which is equivalent to the water demands of about 200,000 households.
Mr Christopher Gasson, publisher of media and events company Global Water Intelligence, which established the awards in 2006, said: "Tuas Desalination Plant... sets a new ecological benchmark and puts the PUB at the forefront of desalination plant development for decades to come in the region."
Related
Opening of Tuas Desalination Plant marks major milestone in Singapore’s journey towards water sustainability -28 Jun 2018
Malaysia's Mahathir taunts Singapore over water, again
Singapore will honour 1962 Water Agreement and expects Malaysia to do the same, says Vivian Balakrishnan in Parliament, 9 Jul 2018
PUB’s Tuas Desalination Plant named Desalination Plant of the Year -10 Apr 2019
Smallest facility here produces 30 million gallons of water daily, similar to one twice its size
By Jose Hong, The Straits Times, 29 Jun 2018
The Tuas Desalination Plant is the world's most space efficient in terms of the amount of water it can purify for its size, said national water agency PUB.
At 3.5ha, it is the smallest of the country's desalination facilities, yet it produces 30 million gallons of drinking water a day, the same amount as SingSpring Desalination Plant, which is almost double its size.
It took two years to build and opened officially yesterday. And now that it is running, 30 per cent of Singapore's water supply can be met through desalination.
The $217 million facility will remain the smallest even after the next two desalination plants are built in Marina East and on Jurong Island by 2020.
It is the first to use solar power, as well as the most technologically advanced. More than 7,000 sq m of the new plant's roof will be covered by a photovoltaic system and, when online, the solar panels can generate 1.4 million kilowatt hours of energy a year, enough to power over 300 four-room flats for the same period.
However, in an indication of just how much electricity is needed for desalination, this is enough to run only the plant's administrative building - less than 1 per cent of the facility's total needs.
The Tuas Desalination Plant combines two purification methods used separately in SingSpring and Tuaspring. By doing so, its reverse osmosis membranes - where the final stage of purification occurs - must be cleaned only once monthly, compared with as often as once every two weeks.
Notably, this plant is the first to be owned and operated by PUB and, according to PUB water supply (plants) director Bernard Koh, will allow the agency to implement its own research and development projects.
The water agency's chief executive Ng Joo Hee said: "Sea-water desalination has a starring role in Singapore's water future. And the opening of Tuas Desalination Plant is another milestone in our quest for enduring water security."
He added: "Excitingly, it is a real-world test bed for the cutting-edge technologies PUB has been exploring in recent years in our ambitious bid to halve the energy used for seawater desalination."
* PUB’s Tuas Desalination Plant named Desalination Plant of the Year 2019
By Goh Yan Han, The Straits Times, 11 Apr 2019
Barely a year after its opening, the Republic's Tuas Desalination Plant has won an accolade.
The desalination plant - the first plant owned and operated by national water agency PUB - was named Desalination Plant of the Year at this year's Global Water Awards, presented at the Global Water Summit in London on Tuesday.
The awards recognise the most important achievements in the international water industry, including improved operating performance, innovative technology adoption and sustainable financial models. The other plants in the running for the Desalination Plant of the Year category were Barka 4 IWP in Oman, Djerba in Tunisia and Galalah in Egypt.
PUB said in a statement yesterday that the Tuas Desalination Plant marked a major milestone in Singapore's water sustainability journey. As the country's third desalination plant, the $217 million facility is Singapore's most technologically advanced plant, setting new industry benchmarks for its robust pre-treatment processes and reliance on clean energy, said PUB.
The plant is housed in a 3.5ha facility, which is roughly the size of five football fields. It produces up to 30 million gallons of drinking water a day, which is equivalent to the water demands of about 200,000 households.
Mr Christopher Gasson, publisher of media and events company Global Water Intelligence, which established the awards in 2006, said: "Tuas Desalination Plant... sets a new ecological benchmark and puts the PUB at the forefront of desalination plant development for decades to come in the region."
PUB chief executive Ng Joo Hee said: "We are proud that the plant has been recognised by our peers, and even prouder that it is providing Singapore with high-quality drinking water and enduring water security every day."
The plant is housed in a 3.5ha facility, which is roughly the size of five football fields.
Other categories at the awards include Water Company of the Year, Desalination Company of the Year and Public Water Agency of the Year.
Last year's winners were the Mirfa IWPP in Abu Dhabi and the Jazan IGCC desalination plant in Saudi Arabia for the Municipal and Industrial Desalination Plant of the Year categories respectively.
This is not the Republic's first win at the awards.
Last year, the Ulu Pandan wastewater treatment project, designed to pilot technologies for the new Tuas Water Reclamation Plant, won Water/Wastewater Project of the Year.
The plant is housed in a 3.5ha facility, which is roughly the size of five football fields.
Other categories at the awards include Water Company of the Year, Desalination Company of the Year and Public Water Agency of the Year.
Last year's winners were the Mirfa IWPP in Abu Dhabi and the Jazan IGCC desalination plant in Saudi Arabia for the Municipal and Industrial Desalination Plant of the Year categories respectively.
This is not the Republic's first win at the awards.
Last year, the Ulu Pandan wastewater treatment project, designed to pilot technologies for the new Tuas Water Reclamation Plant, won Water/Wastewater Project of the Year.
Related
Opening of Tuas Desalination Plant marks major milestone in Singapore’s journey towards water sustainability -28 Jun 2018
Malaysia's Mahathir taunts Singapore over water, again
Singapore will honour 1962 Water Agreement and expects Malaysia to do the same, says Vivian Balakrishnan in Parliament, 9 Jul 2018
PUB’s Tuas Desalination Plant named Desalination Plant of the Year -10 Apr 2019
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