Ocean Conversion (Cayman) Limited
RED GATE
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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, near the Owen Roberts International Airport.
This facility was commissioned in 1990 with a capacity of 350,000 US gallons per day. Over the years, as demand dictated, this facility was expanded to its current capacity of over 1.3 million US gallons of water per day. This plant was the first 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 service area serviced
by Cayman Water Company.
Currently all the water supplied by the Water Authority-Cayman is produced in
plants built and operated by Ocean Conversion (Cayman) Limited.
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 utilizes 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.
