About twenty professionals from different countries are participating this week in the second edition of the course "Effective training in desalination" given by the Institute of Water and Environmental Sciences of the University of Alicante. This is a project promoted by the Latin American Association for Desalination and Water Reuse (Aladyr) with the collaboration of the International Desalination Association and the Spanish Association for Desalination and Reuse.
The executive director of Aladyr, Rogile Makarem, explains that the objective of this collaboration is to offer "effective training in desalination that allows professionals from Latin America in the first instance, but also from other areas, to have the opportunity to get up close to everything that corresponds to the theoretical and scientific bases that accompanies training and learning in desalination”.
During the course, which began yesterday, Monday, June 5, and will end next Friday, June 9, 19 technical presentations will be given on aspects such as the latest trends in innovation and sustainability of desalination plants, the use of brine, and other environmental aspects of desalination. .
The course includes technical and management disciplines, such as effective plant control, cost analysis or energy consumption, and the use of renewable energy as a way to reduce environmental impact and operating costs.
Course participants will have the opportunity to visit the desalination facilities in Alicante, El Campello, Mutxamel and Torrevieja, as well as the desalination plant on the University of Alicante Campus.
The course is taught by 17 specialists in different topics related to desalination, including emeritus professor Daniel Prats Rico and professor Jose Luis Sánchez Lizaso, recognized experts in the field of desalination. Students from Brazil and Mexico participate in this second edition of the course. Venezuela, Argentina, Algeria, Spain and Portugal, personnel who work in companies that provide services, both in the public and private sectors, and engineering advisors, among others, who "through this course have the opportunity to learn about and learn from the Alicante's experience in the field of desalination and being able to replicate it successfully in their countries”, in the words of Rogile Makarem.
Regarding the environmental impact and the economic cost derived from the high energy consumption necessary to carry out the desalination process on a large scale, the Commonwealth of Canales del Tabilla has recently announced that over the next few years it will invest close to 200 million euros to supply of renewable energy to its desalination and water treatment plants with the aim of reducing its carbon footprint by 40%.
These photovoltaic implementation projects will be carried out in the two desalination plants in Alicante, the two desalination plants in San Pedro del Pinatar, the two reservoirs in Lo Romero (San Pedro del Pinatar), the water treatment plants in Campotéjar and Sierra de la Espada (Molina de Segura) and Torrealta (Orihuela); the two elevations of Valdelentisco, the elevation of Benferri and the elevation of Puerto Lumbreras.
The investment is included in the Plan for Energy Efficiency, whose revision has been approved by the Executive Committee of the Commonwealth, and which will last until 2030. The plan focuses its action on three main lines: the implementation of new power generation facilities renewable energy, actions to improve energy efficiency and optimization of electrical installations.
