Australia: Carnegie Completes Desalination Plant Detailed Design

Wave energy developer, Carnegie Wave Energy Limited announces the completion of the Detailed Design of its wave powered desalination pilot plant.

The desalination pilot plant will be integrated into Carnegie’s Perth Wave Energy Project on Garden Island, Western Australia, and will demonstrate for the first time globally the production of both power and freshwater from the ocean’s waves.

The detailed design of the desalination plant has been carried out by global engineering firm GHD, local Perth-based desalination manufacturer Mak Water Industrial and Carnegie’s technical team. The plant leverages the CETO wave energy hydraulic system infrastructure being installed at the Garden Island site. The detailed design phase also involved environmental investigation which has been completed to provide baseline data to monitor on-going CWE site activity, as well as assisting and informing design and construction phases of the CWE project.

The design integrates operation of Carnegie’s novel CETO technology offshore with standard reverse osmosis desalination technology onshore. The high pressure pump of a standard containerised reverse osmosis circuit is driven by a variable displacement hydraulic motor installed within the hydraulic system of the wave energy facility. When in operation, the mechanical energy provided from the hydraulic circuit of the wave energy plant will reduce or eliminate the electrical power required for the high pressure pump in the reverse osmosis circuit.

The desalination pilot project is supported by $1.27m in Federal Government grant funding from AusIndustry’s Clean Technology Innovation Program of which $320,000 of this grant funding has now been received.

Press Release, October 30, 2013