POSCO E&C completes Korea's first commercial desalination plant

SEOUL, South Korea, Nov. 3, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- POSCO E&C (President & CEO Tae-hyun Hwang) said it has completed the construction of the nation's first and largest commercial seawater desalination plant.

To stably supply water of good quality to the Gwangyang Mill and secure water resources for Gwangyang, POSCO E&C has implemented the Gwangyang East Revetment Desalination Water Supply Project.

The plant, completed by POSCO E&C through the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) method, will supply approximately 30,000 tons of industrial water a day. This capacity is 13 percent of the industrial water supplied to the Gwangyang mill a day.

In particular, this project has employed the patented method for the direct coupling of ultrafiltration (UF) and reverse osmosis (RO) as well as the low-energy RO desalination technology using rainwater blending, which was certified as a new technology by the Ministry of Environment, reducing construction and operation costs.

In addition, it has applied the seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) high recovery rate process (internal staged design), increasing the recovery rate from 40-45% to 50-55%, consequently reducing investment costs dramatically.

Drawing on its experience in developing desalination technologies and constructing and operating the Gwangyang East Revetment desalination systems, POSCO E&C plans to make an entry into overseas desalination markets including Middle East and Latin America as well as the domestic desalination market.

Homepage: http://www.poscoenc.com/eng/