The Magtaa RO seawater desalination plant will boast water production capacity of 500,000 cubic meters per day (m³/day), up 50% compared with the current biggest plant in Israel which has a capacity of 330,000 m³/day.

 

The RO membranes that Toray will supply to the Magtaa RO Seawater Desalination Plant have two distinguishing features, the world's highest level of boron removal capability and the ability to produce large water throughput while saving energy.

 

The diameter of the pores on the RO membranes has to be made extremely small in order to facilitate the removal of boron, thus drastically reducing the water production capacity of the entire plant. Toray, however, exploiting its proprietary molecular design technology, is able to achieve the removal of boron while controlling the microstructure of pore diameter at the sub-nanometer level (1 Angstrom = 1/10 billion meter), which will enable the Magtaa seawater desalination plant to continue producing water at optimum levels.

 

Algeria is located on the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, a region that faces the worst water resource shortages in the world. The Magtaa RO seawater desalination plant will be the third plant in Algeria for which Toray supplies RO membranes. When converted into daily life water, the plant will supply enough water for approximately 2 million people in Magtaa alone, making the desalination capacity of 3.2 million in total at the three plants using Toray's membranes at roughly 10% of the daily use water of the Algerian people.

 

Hyflux won the contract to design, build and manages the operation of the plant for 25 years. Toray will begin the delivery of the RO membranes in 2010 and the Magtaa RO seawater desalination plant will be operational by 2011.