Desalination

With climate change threatening hotter and drier summers, desalination plants can offer the most practical solution for the provision of high quality water from tidal waters. The key treatment process in desalination is reverse osmosis which forces salty water through extremely fine membranes.

An example is  Thames Water’s  Gateway treatment works which was opened in June 2010 in Beckton, East London in an area considered to be “seriously water-stressed”. This works turns a mixture of seawater and river water from the tidal River Thames into high quality drinking water for one million Londoners as required.

The desalination process at Beckton is supported by chemical coagulation from Feralco’s premium product Aqualenc G10 which clarifies the water by neutralising colloidal particles and dissolved organic compounds which reduces the load on to the membranes.

The new works can produce up to 150 million litres of drinking water a day and is the first ever desalination plant in the UK.