Desalinizing Ocean Water

As water increasingly becomes a scarce resource, China takes progressive measures to ensure its future dominance in the clean water sector.  Government financed infrastructure, like the North-South Water Diversion Project that aims to reroute the Yangtze River, prove excessively costly and ultimately unsustainable.  In response, the Chinese government has committed to theproduction of 800 million gallons a day of desalinized ocean water by the year 2020.  

Haihe River, Tianjin

China already tests its first filtration systems by pumping 10,000 tons of desalinized water a day into Beijing’s pipes.  At this point, desalinized water costs 8 yuan per cubic meter to produce, while water on the open market sells for 5 yuan.  But in some of China’s largest cities, like Tianjin where the first desalination plant is located, water already sells at a premium and prices are expected to rise 63% over the next 20 years in the country. 

The Desalination Process
(Click to Enlarge)

The industry plans to refine membrane filtration technologies until they become economically viable.  With tax-breaks, low interest loans, and an initial investment of $4 billion in a new desalination plant, China willingly accepts upfront losses in its quest to dominate the industry with 90% market power by 2020.  Future investments could reach another $31 billion.  As a result, the red nation already attracts the preeminent desalination firms in the world to its soil -- and not just for manufacturing; foreign R&D operations have already reestablishing their home bases.

"The [first desalination] plant is not profitable at present," recognizes Guo Qigang, general manager of China's operational desalination plant in Tianjin.  "But as the economy develops, its value will increase.  Desalination provides value for society."

Desalinizing Ocean Water