ACCIONA showcases its sustainable desalination experience at IDA, the world’s premier desal congress

ACCIONA Agua laid out its vision of a more sustainable form of desalination through energy savings and use of clean technologies, two solutions that the company is already implementing with proprietary technology in a number of desal plants.

ACCIONA Agua underlined the need to move towards more sustainable models of desalinationin the technical sessions at the International Desalination Congress, held in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) November 8 -12. ACCIONA used the Beckton, London (UK) desalination plant to illustrate this vision. Construction is close to completion at the ACCIONA-built Beckton facilities, on the estuary of the River Thames, and the plant will begin to deliver water to almost a million Londoners in the near future. This project, which was recognised this year as the most sustainable of its kind at the annual Global Water Intelligence Awards, is a pioneer in energy savings and in the use of renewable energy in desalination.

Under the theme "Desalination for a Better World", the IDA World Congress (organized by the International Desalination Association) addressed environmental and energy impacts of desalination and water reuse. In this context, the address by Julio Zorilla, the International Director of ACCIONA Agua, "A different vision of London’s Beckton desalination plant", revealed many of the aspects that have made the Beckton plant one of the year’s most pioneering and sustainable projects, which the plant owes to the considerable energy savings it achieves by being powered solely by renewable energies.  The Beckton project also uses includes a number of measures to reduce its impact on the wildlife in and around the Thames.

ACCIONA Agua’s head of R&D, Jorge Malfeito, also addressed delegates on the subject "Elimination of natural organic material in the pre-treatment phases of various desalination plants". Malfeito took an in-depth look at the pre-treatment stage, the single most important process for the long-term correct functioning of a desal plant. "Choosing the right pre-treatment programme and optimizing membrane design involves determining the potential for pollution from organic natural material", he said.

As well as taking part in the technical sessions, ACCIONA Agua had a stand in the Premium exhibition area. Visitors to the stand received a bottle of desalinated water from the Mediterranean, processed at ACCIONA’s desal plant in Javea (Alicante province, Spain). One of the company’s objectives is to take active part in exploring ways of making desalination and reuse more sustainable and efficient.

The world’s biggest desal fair

Every year, the IDA World Congress brings together the desalination industry’s major players, from end-users and suppliers to researchers, authorities, consultants, finance specialist and construction companies.

The five-day gathering features technical sessions, conferences, round tables, interactive sessions and workshops where participants discuss the main industry challenges and trends in an attempt to tackle the environmental and energetic impacts of desalination and water reuse.