ECOAGUA has been awarded the tender promoted by Aguas de las Cuencas Mediterráneas (Acuamed) for the engineering services for the development of the technical bases for supplying and assembling the necessary equipment to improve the energy performance of the seawater desalination plant of Carboneras, in Almeria, Spain.
Acuamed is a public company under the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment of the Government of Spain.
The Strategic Energy Saving and Efficiency Plan (2014-2017) of Acuamed considers as a priority strategic objective the need for the state company to become a benchmark in energy saving and efficiency in the water sector. One of the lines of action contemplated in this plan is the modernization and optimization of the water treatment line of the oldest desalination plants through the use of more efficient technologies and, within this line, and as a concrete action the “Remodelling of the process line of the Carboneras desalination plant”.
To undertake these works Acuamed has requested help from the National Energy Efficiency Fund of the IDAE. The scope of the remodelling consists in the replacement of the Pelton turbines used for the recovery of brine energy by Pressure Exchange Systems in the reverse osmosis (RO) process, and the corresponding remodelling of the equipment associated with the lines of RO, to allow the installation of said Systems.
In order to execute this remodelling of the osmosis lines, a preliminary engineering work will be carried out to design and dimension them. This engineering work will allow developing the technical basis for the next step that should be the bidding for the Supply and Assembly of the necessary equipment to improve the energy performance of the IDAM of Carboneras.
The contract involves the return of ECOAGUA to the Carboneras plant, after having participated more than 15 years ago in the design of the process in the construction phase of the plant. The design was a milestone in the market of desalination, having incorporated for the first time a common collector in the discharge of the high pressure pumps, at the inlet of the osmosis racks.