Ashdod SWRO desalination plant – Israel

The Ashdod Desalination Plant Seawater Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) facility is a BOT project initiated by the State of Israel requiring the financing, design, construction, operation, maintainenance of a water treatment plant with a planned nominal production capability of 100 million m3 per year. The Government of Israel and the concessionaire, Ashdod Desalination Ltd, signed the BOT Concession Agreement in August 2011.

The construction of the SWRO facility and all ancillary works was planned to be delivered over a period of 24 months for Sub-Phase 1 and 27 months for the whole facility. Intake pipes were installed by mechanised pipe-jacking and open cut, with the marine intakes and brine lines being carried out by marine dredging and pipe sinking techniques. Equipment within the plant includes 2x pre-treatment ultra-filtration membrane streams, 2x RO membrane treatment streams followed by post-treatment water conditioning (re-mineralisation and chlorination) prior to on-site storage and then into a local supply storage reservoir. There is significant energy recovery infrastructure throughout the plant and further developments include the construction of an on-site power plant to provide a dedicated energy source independent of the national grid supply.

The facility was successfully fully commissioned in December 2015 when the project commenced its Commercial Operation Phase.

During the course of construction Battus provided technical advisory and monitoring engineer services to the Lenders, who were led by Bank Hapolim, supported by the European Investment Bank (EIB).