Engineering services for Singapore NEWater plant

Black and Veatch, a leading global engineering, consulting and construction company, has started full design engineering services for the Changi NEWater Plant in Singapore

The plant will be the fifth and largest NEWater plant in Singapore with a capacity of 50mgd (228MLD).

"With today's concerns about water scarcity and the need to meet future water demands in a sustainable manner, we are seeing an increased need for advanced water treatment technologies to allow used water to be recycled into the environment" said Ralph Eberts, Senior Managing Director of the Black and Veatch water business in Asia Pacific.

"This is the third and largest major water facility to deploy advanced treatment technologies that we have worked on in the region during the last twelve months".

Black and Veatch signed an agreement to provide full design engineering services for the plant with Sembcorp Utilities, a subsidiary of Sembcorp Industries, after Sembcorp was awarded this, the largest Design-Build-Own-Operate water project in Singapore in mid-January this year.

The project includes an agreement that the plant will supply PUB, the Singapore national water agency, with NEWater for the next 25 years.

Eberts added, "We are delighted to work on the NEWater project with Sembcorp.

Sembcorp has extensive water resources internationally, and the NEWater project presents a wonderful opportunity for us to foster a long-term relationship with Sembcorp".

Tan Cheng Guan, Executive Vice President of Sembcorp Industries Group Business and Strategic Development, who also heads the Sembcorp water business, said, "Black and Veatch was selected because it has demonstrated in-depth technical and project execution expertise based on its experience in prior water projects.

Further, the company has a well-established track record with PUB which developed the NEWater technology".

The design of the Changi NEWater plant reduces land use and minimizes construction costs by placing the main NEWater facilities on the roof of the newly constructed Changi Water Reclamation Plant.

Treated used water from the Changi Water Reclamation Plant will be piped directly to the NEWater plant as feedwater, minimising the extent of pipework for conveyance as well as maximising the use of existing PUB assets.

The plant will be commissioned in two stages: 15mgd (69 MLD) in 2009 and 35mgd (159 MLD) in 2010.

The Changi NEWater Plant is developed against a backdrop of other major water recycling projects in the region.

Black and Veatch and joint-venture partners Thiess Construction completed Stage 1A of the major Bundamba Advanced Water Treatment Plant in Brisbane, Australia, in late 2007 and expect to complete Stage 1B of the plant in June 2008.

When completed, the plant will have the capacity to supply a total of 66 MLD of purified recycled water to two major power stations in Swanbank and Tarong.

The Bundamba plant forms part of the AUD2.4bn Western Corridor Recycled Water Project, which upon completion will have the capacity to supply up to 232MLD of purified recycled water.

About NEWater.

High-quality recycled water, branded NEWater in Singapore, is the result of the continuous investment in water R+D by the nation's water agency, PUB, to look for effective ways of producing water from a range of feedwater sources.

NEWater is produced by purifying treated used water using advanced treatment processes including microfiltration or ultrafiltration membranes, reverse osmosis membranes and ultraviolet technologies, making the water exceptionally clean and safe for end users.

NEWater has passed more than 40,000 scientific tests and has been certified by an international panel of experts as exceeding both World Health Organisation and United States Environmental Protection Agency drinking water standards.

Due to its high quality and purity, NEWater is supplied mainly to industrial and commercial customers, especially those that have high-end processes like water fabrication that require water of a higher quality than that used for drinking.

Demand has been growing steadily.

NEWater already meets more than 15 percent of the total daily water needs in Singapore.

With the addition of the Changi NEWater Plant, NEWater is expected to meet thirty percent of the daily water needs for domestic and non-domestic sectors in Singapore by 2011.

A small amount of NEWater is also blended with raw reservoir water, which is treated at the waterworks before being supplied to the public for drinking.

Introduced in 2003, NEWater is one of the four diversified sources of water supply in Singapore.

The other three are water from local catchments, imported water from Johor, and desalinated water.

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