Ocean Conversion (Cayman) Limited
LOWER VALLEY
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Plant
type: Location: |
Capacity: Contract
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Customer: Commissioning
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This facility is located on the island of Grand Cayman, in Lower Valley.
This plant was commissioned in 1998 to meet the expanding potable water needs of the island in the outer districts of the island. Initially commissioned with a capacity of 400,000 US gallons per day, over the years the plant has been expanded several times. The facility’s current capacity is over 1 million US gallons per day. This plant is one of four facilities, designed, built and operated by Ocean Conversion (Cayman) Limited for the Water Authority-Cayman.
The Water
Authority-Cayman is the government agency
responsible for water supply and distribution to the areas of Grand
Cayman outside of the Seven Mile Beach / West Bay area serviced by
Cayman Water Company.
Currently all the water supplied by the Water Authority-Cayman on Grand Cayman
is produced in plants built and operated by Consolidated Water.
Grand Cayman has very limited low salinity groundwater resources and prior to the Company’s introduction of desalination to the island, homes, businesses and hotels relied primarily on rainwater collected in cisterns. The introduction of desalination by the Company was instrumental in allowing the islands’ property development growth to prosper over the years.
Because the cost of electricity on Caribbean islands is typically 4 to 5 times greater than in the United States, and Grand Cayman is no exception, a critical factor in the design and operation of this plant is the overall energy efficiency of the facility. To that end, the plant utilises the advanced Calder DWEERTM (Dual Work Exchanger Energy Recovery) system to recover energy from the high pressure brine stream and diesel driven positive displacement pumps to minimise the amount of electricity needed.
Raw seawater for the plant is obtained from wells located on site, which avoids the need for expensive pre-treatment equipment and chemicals associated with open sea intakes. However, the raw seawater does contain hydrogen sulfide, which is removed from the final product using a degasifying tower.
