Dubai, UAE, 21 June 2018: Support from the public sector will continue to drive demand for Treated Sewage Effluent (TSE) in cooling tower applications, said Fady Juez, Managing Director, Metito, adding that growing recognition of the efficiency of District Cooling will contribute to its uptake in hot climate areas such as South East Asia, Middle East and Africa, in view of their increasing urban population. “We believe it will grow more in cities where you have buildings and towers,” he said. The company, Juez said, has been active in promoting the reuse of water, calling it an “ignored wealth” especially in view of the initial investment required to desalinate. Of late, Juez added, there have been strong and proactive efforts from the government and private sector to support the use of waste water for cooling towers, especially for heavy consumers such as cooling towers in District Cooling projects. “In this respect,” he said, “we have seen a surge in the use of TSE.”

Juez says in view of the scarcity of water in the region, District Cooling stakeholders must consider TSE as the only option available and the government and private sector has been aware of the importance of this issue. This is especially true, he said, in the UAE where cost of cubic metre of water is an actual cost, and not a subsidised cost. Stakeholders, Juez said, have an option to use TSE and polished TSE through a process that utilises reverse osmosis technology.

In the GCC region, Juez said, there is a lot of focus from the government on the use of waste water, adding and that there is a steady move to establish regulatory framework procedures to ensure quality. In other companies, he said, where water is not as scarce, regulations are focusing more on the disposal of wastewater into rivers and seas, and not into use or treatment. Slowly, he said, there has been a move towards reuse. The company, he said, is heavily involved in supporting technical and commercial viability and reuse of wastewater. Providing an example of recent projects, Juez points to the wastewater recycling and TSE plant in downtown Dubai. The project, he said, was a milestone owing to the challenges the company addressed, such as available space given that the area’s prime location is expensive. He explained that the recycling and polishing plant has the capacity to recycle 20,000 cubic metres per day and addresses the water demand for District Cooling plants in the downtown area. He also highlighted the company’s move to complete, commission and operate the plant.

Hannah Jo Uy is Assistant Editor at Climate Control Middle East magazine. She may be contacted at hannah@cpi-industry.com