Source: CCTV.com

08-05-2006 11:44

The Binhai New Area in Tianjin is developing rapidly But scarce water resources has been plaguing the region. To solve the problem, 3 seawater desalination bases are being set up in the city's Binhai New Area.

Tianjin is a city of water scarcity, for many years, it has relied on the South-to-North water diversion project to relive its needs for drinking water. Since the city has abundant seawater resources, research on seawater desalination has been started since the early 1990s. Up till now, three seawater desalination bases have been set up or are being constructed in the city’s Binhai New Area, which is close to the Bohai Bay. The area’s advantageous location saves much cost of the endeavor.

Dai Haiping and her students started seawater desalination research in 2003. In 2005, at the Tianjin Tanggu Seawater Desalination Base, their research proved a success and was put into production. With a daily output of 1,000 tons of fresh water, the base produces desalinated seawater whose quality is equivalent to that of purified water.

General planner of the seawater desalination program Dai Haiping said:"Now our ‘reverse osmosis’ technology has become fairly perfect. We’re doing research on technologies of various procedures. We’ll have cost keeping and save resources to the best of our abilities. "

Now desalinated seawater is used as drinking water in governmental departments of road maintenance. They also use it to cook and irrigate greenbelts.

The survival rate of trees irrigated by desalinated seawater reaches 95%, while those irrigated by tap water, only 70%.

Desalinating seawater with ‘reverse osmosis’ technology is China’s first program with proprietary intellectual property rights. It helps to reduce impurities and harmful minerals in seawater. One ton of seawater can produce 400 kilograms of fresh water, and the dense seawater can be used to make solar salt.

Leading official of the seawater desalination base Feng Xiuhua said:"One defect of seawater desalination is the comparatively high cost. A seawater desalination base with a throughput of 200 thousand tons will be set up by the end of 2006, and a cost reduction of 30% will be achieved. "

In 1991, a seawater desalination base was set up and put into production in Tanggu, a district of Tianjin. The industrial water it produces is mainly used at the Dagang Power Plant. The Dagang Xinquan Seawater Desalination Co., Ltd, a joint venture of the Dagang seawater desalination base and a Singapore enterprise, was set up in 2000. With advanced foreign technologies, the water quality is much improved, qualified for both industrial and drinking purposes.

The field behind me will be the site for the second seawater desalination base, which is expected to go into operation in 2010. By then the cost of desalinated seawater for industrial use will be lower than it is now.

As an industrial area, Dagang District has high demands for water resources. And it's both energy-saving and environment-friendly if seawater resources can be utilized.

 

Editor:Luyuying