The Straits Times / The Business Times News on Hyflux

Seawater to fresh water

SINGAPOREANS have cause to be appreciative that another source of water, the desalted variety, is soon to be pumped into their homes. The seawater being turned into fresh water through a membrane separation process is Singapore's very own. This is a rare ownership right that is to be savoured. Accolades are due to Ms Olivia Lum and Hyflux, the water treatment firm she built up, for charting another advance in Singapore's dogged striving to be less dependent on external supply. Raw-water supply agreements with Malaysia are still to be pursued. But negotiations have encountered difficulties so ritualistic, and Malaysia's own household and industrial water needs are growing so rapidly, that Singaporeans need to be conditioned to thinking that, yes, they can and should make more of their own water. Hyflux is operating the sole desalination plant in Tuas, using the reverse osmosis method to keep energy costs down. The plant is operational ahead of schedule and was built for far less than what was costed in the Public Utilities Board's planning scenarios. Coming after Newater, self-sufficiency is gathering pace.

While Hyflux crunches numbers on the rising energy cost, it should be researching membrane technologies to establish whether desalination can deliver a bigger percentage of potable water consumption. It is supposed to be able to fill 10 per cent of needs on its current production. Any increase to this that can be produced at not much higher cost than the present rate of around 80 cents a cubic metre, half the world average, has to be pursued. There are encouraging precedents. Reverse osmosis (a much cheaper method of desalting than distillation, which uses more fuel) is a technology that has a history of about four decades. American research reports show that pure water had been produced using this method for industrial, military and laboratory uses. Drinking water began coming onstream after the mid-1980s. The same membrane and energy-saving advances that allowed the Hyflux plant to be built at moderate cost could evolve continually to make replications feasible. Oil price is a bugbear, as experts keep forecasting new price benchmarks. Ms Lum's fuel-hedging would keep Hyflux's desalted water cost within limits for only so long. But scientists' ingenuity in improving membranes and pumps knows no bounds. Desalination need not remain a niche method forever.