Caribbean Island of Bonaire Expanding Drinking Water Plant with Seawater Desalination Solutions

GE (USA) today announced it will supply its Procera water filtration equipment package for a seawater desalination plant expansion project in Hato on the Caribbean island of Bonaire. The desalination plant is responsible for providing clean drinking water for the entire island, which is located about 80 kilometers north of Venezuela.

The project is an expansion of Water and Energy Company Bonaire’s (WEB) current desalination plant, which GE operates for the island’s water and electric utility under a “build, own, operate” contract. The new, permanent facility will supply 1,600 cubic meters a day of desalinated water to meet the growing clean water needs for the island’s residents and business. Bonaire is a special municipality governed by the Netherlands.

“Our goal is to become self-sufficient with drinking water production and to support the growing needs of residential and business customers on the island,” said Alfredo Koolman, CEO, WEB Bonaire. “We selected GE because of its desalination technology expertise and its familiarity with our existing operation. This project moves us closer to eventually having the capability of owning and operating our own desalination facility.”

GE designs and manufactures complete desalination solutions and provides customers with integrated, high-quality and consistent systems.

GE will provide a comprehensive Procera seawater solution, including six multimedia filters, two SeaPRO-84 seawater reverse osmosis (RO) units, two modified PRO-150-NA brackish water RO units together with an MCC and PLC Control System. Comprehensive system training also will be provided to WEB staff. GE’s skid-mounted equipment allows for ease of installation and the ability to move the units should a new desalination plant be developed by WEB in the future. It is a robust system design to ensure equipment longevity.

To help improve equipment durability, GE’s Procera solutions start with pretreatment components that protect membrane desalination systems by removing suspended solids and impurities. After careful analysis of an operator’s source water and conservation needs, modular desalination systems are then fitted to their applications.

“We are pleased to offer our advanced reverse osmosis membrane solution to help WEB Bonaire expand its desalination plant to meet the island’s future clean water requirements,” said Yuvbir Singh, general manager, engineered systems—water and process technologies for GE Power & Water. “With clean water more precious than ever around the world, our solutions can deliver reliable supplies of fresh water from just about any salt water source, including seawater.”

The expanded desalination facility is expected to be commissioned in August 2015 and is part of WEB Bonaire’s ongoing efforts to modernise the island’s power and water infrastructure.