• GE delivers high purity water source to Valero Energy Corp. in Aruba
TREVOSE, PA, April 3, 2008 -- GE Water & Process Technologies' Mobile Seawater Desalination Solution is providing Valero Energy Corporation's 280,000-barrel-per-day Aruba refinery with high purity water -- enabling the refinery to avoid a costly plant capacity shortage while scheduled maintenance is completed to the facility's primary seawater desalination system.
Valero Energy's scheduled maintenance was coupled with the challenge of virtually no natural freshwater availability on the arid Caribbean island. Valero Energy quickly needed an affordable, reliable supply of high purity water to meet its production capacity. In response to the challenge, GE rapidly deployed, delivered and installed a 22-container, two-train mobile solution. Within five weeks from the order date, GE's Mobile Seawater Desalination Solution, which utilizes GE ecomagination-certified, advanced reverse osmosis membranes, was transforming approximately 600 gallons per minute (GPM) of seawater into high purity water for the refinery. The new water enabled the refinery to maintain full production capacity at the site.
"Whether it is an emergency, a scheduled shut down, or temporary need -- with the world's largest mobile water fleet, we can quickly deliver solutions -- no matter what the customer need is or part of the world," said Jeff Garwood, president and CEO, GE Water & Process Technologies. "Our expertise and capabilities give clients the ability to focus on their core business, while we provide an affordable, reliable water solution."
At the Aruba refinery, GE's Mobile Seawater Desalination Solution incorporates a two-train configuration with each train capable of producing 300 gallons per minute of fresh water. Raw seawater is first fed to a multimedia prefiltration system to remove suspended particles. Advanced reverse osmosis membranes then remove dissolved ions, before a mixed bed ion exchanger removes any last traces of dissolved impurities. The high purity water is then used in critical refinery boiler and cooling processes for applications such as crude oil desalting. Specialized GE anti-scalant chemicals are also used to prevent the formation of deposits in the system and ensure peak operating efficiency. The GE system is scheduled to remain at the Valero Energy Aruba refinery until the end of 2008.
GE's Mobile Water Solutions include: demineralization, filtration, softening, deoxygenation, reverse osmosis, and cooling tower systems. The mobile systems are available for emergency, supplemental, extended service and system analysis. Today, GE's Mobile Water Solutions help meet the water needs of industrial, municipal and commercial customers around the globe. For more information on GE Mobile Water Solutions, please visit, www.ge.com/water
A world leader in water and wastewater treatment and process systems, GE Water & Process Technologies offers a broad portfolio of global expertise and local capabilities.
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