Water on demand, where and when you need it

“WATER STANDARD, with its ability to deliver water on demand, when and where it is needed, can play a pivotal role in securing an adequate supply of water for the region”

Leader in vessel based water solutions

In April 2009, WATER STANDARD was honored with Deal of the Year at the Global Water Awards for redefining the Water Industry with its introduction of vessel based mobile desalination solutions supporting the delivery of water to customers on shore or offshore in the quantity and quality needed. At a time when access to a reliable adequate source of water is identified as one of the most important issues facing our planet, WATER STANDARD is now recognized as an innovative leader in vessel based desalination.

Water challenges are not new to the MENA region, which leads the way in the implementation of new water technologies and has traditionally relied on desalinated water to support the tremendous growth of the last few decades. The strategic importance of water security in the Middle East cannot be underestimated. It impacts every aspect of each country's economy and their political, economic and social stability. Consequently, access to a secure water supply for the MENA region is a critical goal that has to be realized.

Delivering Flexible Solutions

Recently, the GCC and other MENA countries have implemented measures to ensure access to strategic water, food and energy reserves. Most problematic has been the ability to develop a regional water reserve. Traditionally this is accomplished by building reservoirs, or a network of capital intensive, environmentally invasive pipelines delivering water long distances. WATER STANDARD, with its ability to deliver water on demand, when and where it is needed, can play a pivotal role in securing an adequate supply of water for the region. WATER STANDARD can not only participate in the creation of a strategic water reserve, where desalinated water can be produced real time and then rapidly delivered to where it is needed, but with its flexible contract options, WATER STANDARD can also be a component of a balanced municipal water supply portfolio, or available for offshore oil and gas, industrial or construction needs.

The delivery of large volumes of desalinated water on demand has to be a major component of any water supply program in MENA. WATER STANDARD's environmentally focused, vessel-based approach offers customers the ability to secure their own water supply without being restricted by schedule, availability of land and suitable sites with power, or access to capital. WATER STANDARD's water supply approach utilizes proven reverse osmosis membrane technology with a proprietary water intake and discharge system, together with a co-located power plant. As a result, WATER STANDARD is able to deliver a unique fully integrated desalination plant on a mobile platform referred to as a Seawater Desalination Vessel or "SDV", which is scalable and capable of delivering volumes of up to 200,000 m³/day.

Advantages of Location and Mobility

Apart from the intrinsic advantages of being mobile, a tangible advantage of WATER STANDARD's design flexibility is that SDVs, with an initial life of up to 20 years, have the ability to redeploy to other locations with limited or no redesign. As a result, WATER STANDARD can offer short to long term contract options.

Another advantage to be considered in MENA is the SDVs ability to successfully deal with red tide and algal blooms. There is growing evidence that blooms of toxic marine phytoplankton are increasing in frequency, intensity and geographic distribution in MENA and the Arabian Gulf. The exact combination of factors which cause red tide is unknown, but some experts believe that it is a toxic combination of temperature, salinity and nutrients. Algal blooms and red tides introduce serious operational challenges for traditional land based desalination. However, the SDV, with its robust pretreatment systems combined with its location offshore, and the ability to intake water from a greater depth than traditional land-based plants, reduces susceptibility to red tides and blooms and addresses these factors with little disruption to production.

Leading the Way in Environmentally Focused Designs

WATER STANDARD is also at the forefront with regard to mitigation of the environmental impacts of desalination. As a consequence of major environmental advances in the desalination industry relating to the impact on marine life and energy requirements, desalination is increasingly accepted as a viable global option to augment water supply. In the last decade alone, the industry has been able to reduce power consumption and significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions. The SDV takes this trend to a new level and WATER STANDARD distinguishes itself through its patented designs which mitigate environmental impacts.

In a recently released report prepared by CH2M HILL, Inc., which compared both the technical feasibility and the environmental effects of the SDV to land-based desalination systems, CH2M HILL confirmed that the SDV has significant advantages with regard to source water intake, concentrate management and disposal, and overall project construction impacts. WATER STANDARD's proprietary discharge designs also meet or exceed current global regulatory requirements which stipulate mixing to within 3% of the ambient salinity within 100 meters of discharge (see Figure 2). In addition, due to the type of pretreatment system utilized on the SDV, chemical usage is minimized, and as a result of design efficiency, the CO₂ footprint of the SDV is often lower than a typical land-based plant.

WATER STANDARD: Ensuring a Secure Water Future

With the undeniable impact of climate change, rapidly growing economies and limited renewable water resources, MENA faces an uncertain future if it cannot secure access to an adequate supply of water to support an additional 2.7 million m³/day of desalination capacity every year to meet growing water demand. Rising to the challenge, MENA has adopted innovative desalination technologies. While desalination is not the only solution, when coupled with water recycling and conservation, it will be one of the primary, long-term solutions needed. WATER STANDARD can now play a vital role as a MENA partner, delivering water on demand when and where needed, helping MENA secure its water future.