The principle explained

All the containerised pre-treatment and reverse osmosis equipment is placed on a barge, which will be ideally located in calm water approximately 1km from the shoreline. This will minimise mooring requirements.

The tanks are built into the base of the barge. Power can be obtained from the shore (via cable) or from onboard generators. Renewable energy can be employed, such as wind farms, wave or tidal energy.

Both seawater inlet and brine pipelines are located away from sensitive coastlines and marine environments.

All pumping requirements can be placed on the barge. Alternatively, the delivery pumps can be placed onshore. The only onshore requirements will be the delivery pipeline and the electricity cable, therefore the impact to the coastline will be minimal.

At the end of the contract period, the desalination equipment can be disconnected from the infrastructure and moved to an alternate location. The onshore infrastructure can remain at the location for future use.

Advantages

The advantages of the SSI barge-based desalination plant:

• Very flexible mobile desalination model
• High-volume, minimal-impact solution
• Most cost-effective incarnation of modular technology
• Can be all be employed tactically to deal with crisis
• Can produce over 20,000m³ of fresh water per day
• Barge can be tugged to pre-prepared onshore facilities
• Stable platform for desalination plant in varying weather conditions
• Onboard brine/chemical buffer and mixing tanks
• Facilities/cost easily shared
• Responsible and environmentally-friendly disposal of brine
• Negotiable contract periods
• High residual and resale value
• Low site preparation, limited infrastructure required
• Minimal site restoration costs

Basic timelines

From signing of contracts:

Month 1 – Commence onshore and subsea infrastructure works, together with key equipment procurement
Month 3 – Plant and barge purchase complete. Commence barge conversion
Month 8 – Barge converted
Month 10 – Desalination plant fully integrated on barge
Month 12 – All onshore and offshore pipes/infrastructure installed and tested
Month 13 – Commence water production