IDE signs contract to build China's largest plant

IDE signed a contract to build China's largest desalination plant for energy firm Tianjin SDIC (who operates under the Chinese government's energy authority) in a deal worth $119 million. The seawater desalination facility will be erected in a power plant located 200 kilometers northeast of Beijing. The desalination plant is expected to begin operation toward the end of 2008.

The facility, comprising 4 MED units each with a capacity of 25,000 cubic meters, will supply 100,000 cubic metres of fresh water a day to the station's generators and drinking water for local resodents. The new plant will also use a new technology that utilizes the saline brine rejected from seawater and process it into table salt.

Avshalom Felber, president and chief executive of IDE, which has built more than 360 desalination plants around the world, said China was a significant strategic target for the company. He added that breaking into the Chinese market strengthened the company's position as one of the world's leading desalination technology companies.