Doosan Ships First Seawater Desalination Plant Facilities to Latin America

Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction announced on Feb. 2 that it shipped seawater desalination plant facilities to Escondida, which is the first seawater desalination project that the company won in Latin America. 

In September last year, Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction made a contract worth US$102 million (112.4 billion won) to build a seawater reverse osmosis (RO) desalination plant, which produces fresh water, at the Escondida copper mine in Chile, the largest copper mine in the world. The Escondida seawater desalination plant is the largest RO type project in the Latin American region. 

The first product, which was shipped to Chile on Jan. 31, was a dual media filter (DMF) that pre-treats seawater at a reverse osmosis type desalination plant. It is 15 meters long, 5 meters wide, and weighs 56 tons. The plant will produce a combined daily output of 220,000 tons, which is sufficient for the daily water requirements of approximately 550,000 people. 

Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction will take charge of the supply of the plant's facilities and equipment as well as supervision for erection and commissioning. The plant will see the first water production starting from the middle of 2016. The Doosan plant in Changwon and Doosan Vina, a local subsidiary in Vietnam, are co-producing major material and equipment for the Escondida seawater desalination plant.