A Chinese company has supplied OCP Group with a desalination unit that can produce 20,160 cubic metres of water a day at the Jorf Lasfar industrial complex. QT Enviro-Tech has released new technical details about the unit. It can produce 840 cubic metres of desalinated water an hour. If it runs at full capacity every day, it could produce about 7.36 million cubic metres a year.
The unit uses two main treatment stages. Ultrafiltration removes suspended particles from seawater before the water passes through reverse osmosis membranes, which remove salt.
QT Enviro-Tech built the plant around about 22 standard shipping containers. The company says much of the equipment was installed and tested at its factory in China before being sent to Jorf Lasfar.
The containers hold equipment such as high-pressure pumps, membrane vessels, pipes, valves and control systems. This approach reduces the amount of construction needed at the site and can make the project faster to install.
QT Enviro-Tech said the equipment was delivered within four months. An earlier company document gave six months from the start of design to full commissioning. The two figures cover different parts of the project.
The plant is part of OCP’s wider plan to use desalinated water and treated wastewater for its industrial operations.
A pipeline of between 203km and 219km connects the Jorf Lasfar area with the Khouribga mining site. It can transport up to 80 million cubic metres of desalinated water a year.
“This pipeline marks the culmination of the group’s water strategy, which has achieved its autonomy in non-conventional water two years before the planned deadline of 2027,” said Hanane Mourchid, OCP’s director of sustainability and innovation.
Ahmed Zniber, managing director of OCP Green Water, said the project would also reduce the use of water from dams.
“In addition to covering all the conventional water needs of the Khouribga mining site, it will save up to 80% of resources from dams.”
OCP currently has 288 million cubic metres a year of desalination capacity and 53 million cubic metres a year of treated industrial wastewater capacity.
The group aims to increase its desalination capacity to 560 million cubic metres a year by 2027.
QT Enviro-Tech was founded in Suzhou in 2011. It makes equipment for seawater desalination, brackish-water treatment and wastewater reuse.
“Our proprietary fastRO® containerized platform delivers a 20 MLD SWRO project — across ~22 ISO containers — factory-assembled and delivered within 4 months,” the company said.
