Victoria Vaughan, Straits Times 19 Jun 09;
ONE of the world's largest water-reclaiming facilities will begin providing Singapore with water from next month.
Believed to be second in size only to Kuwait's Sulaibiya facility, the factory will double the supply of reclaimed water -
Newater - providing 30 per cent of the country's water needs by next year.
Built by Sembcorp at a cost of $180 million, the Newater factory will sell the water to Singapore's water authority PUB at 30 cents per cu m for a year.
Newater is one of the nation's 'four taps' for its water supply, with rain water capture, importation of raw water from Malaysia and desalination being the other three.
Sembcorp's executive vice-president of group business development Tan Cheng Guan explained that producing Newater is more energy-efficient than desalination, as a lot more goes into the sourcing of seawater than waste water.
The new factory sits atop the Changi Water Reclamation Plant (CWRP), which makes waste water readily available.
Mr Tan explained that developing countries such as China and those in the Middle East which are short of fresh water are realising that their costs of sourcing for fresh water sources will shoot up if they use their water only once.
'The market for recycled water is definitely booming,' he said, adding, 'Using a single drop of water multiple times is key.'
From next month, the plant will be working at 30 per cent capacity. When the factory is completed and goes into full flow, it will produce 228,000 cu m a day - enough to fill 91 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Although the factory is scheduled to be completed by the end of next May, Mr Gerry O'Toole, the regional director of Black & Veatch Water Asia Pacific, the firm which designed the factory, predicts it will be ready by Christmas.
The CWRP treats waste water to the point where it is clean enough to be pumped out to sea. Some of the water will then be piped to the Newater factory.
It then goes through three processes to filter out impurities and is also zapped with ultraviolet rays to kill any remaining contaminates. The Newater is then pumped into five storage tanks for PUB to use.
This is the fifth Newater plant in Singapore. The others - in Bedok, Kranji, Seletar and Ulu Pandan - can provide 15 per cent of Singapore's water.
Sembcorp Changi NEWater Plant to start operations in July
Vincent Wee, Business Times 18 Jun 09;
SEMBCORP'S showcase $180 million Sembcorp Changi NEWater Plant (SCNP) is about to come onstream with an initial capacity of 15 million gallons (69,000 cu m) of reclaimed water per day, ramping up to designed capacity of 50 million gallons (228,000 cu m) per day by June 2010.
Singapore's fifth and biggest NEWater project will start delivering its first flow of NEWater to PUB, Singapore's national water agency, by next month.
The four existing NEWater plants together meet about 15 per cent of Singapore's water needs. The new SCNP will add another 15 per cent, doubling this to 30 per cent when it reaches full capacity in 2010.
The 25-year design, build, own and operate (DBOO) project was won in 2008 with Sembcorp's competitive bid to deliver NEWater at 30 cents per cu m in the first year. The price is subject to adjustment in subsequent years under a formula.
It is believed SCNP's production cost is about 22 to 23 cents per cu m. However, the quantity of NEWater that PUB will require SCNP to produce is determined by PUB.
While unable to disclose specific details, sources said SCNP has an agreed formula with PUB that will ensure its production costs do not rise above the sale price.
SCNP's main operating costs are energy costs, making up just under a third of overall running costs. The plant is designed to reduce these energy costs as much as possible.
For example, its reverse osmosis process has an energy recovery system that helps to save about 10 per cent in energy.
This was a 'fairly expensive plant because PUB obviously wants to have high standards', said Sembcorp executive vice-president Tan Cheng Guan.
But some building costs were saved because certain components like the foundation for the plant was provided by PUB, since it was planned from the beginning that the plant would be put on the roof of PUB's Changi Water Reclamation Plant. Foundation costs typically make up 15 to 20 per cent of building costs.
However, Sembcorp is using the plant as a showcase for its waste water recycling expertise where it hopes to achieve 50 per cent growth in five years to managing water and waste water facilities capable of producing and treating six million cu m of water a day, from the four million cu m a day it handles now.
'We are further deepening our core competencies in the water business through strategic projects such as the Sembcorp Changi NEWater Plant and aim to replicate our track record in key target markets,' said group president and CEO Tang Kin Fei.
