Aguas Pacífico is driving the Aconcagua Project as a structural solution to secure water supply for both human consumption and industrial use. While Phase I, a desalination plant with a capacity of 1,000 l/s, is under development, the company is planning Phase II to add an additional 1,000 l/s of production, doubling the system’s total capacity. This expansion phase aims to strengthen the region’s water resilience by extending the existing infrastructure through an integrated and efficient design, aligned with sustainability criteria, operational continuity, and the use of proven desalination technologies.

Colbún implemented a reverse osmosis plant at the Nehuenco Power Complex to optimize water use in the cooling system of its generating units, enabling reuse during water scarcity periods and improving operational reliability. ​

The facility produces approximately 540 m³/h of treated water and, through an electrodeionization (EDI) stage, generates around 30 m³/h of ultra-pure water for high-requirement operational processes.

According to the Chilean Meteorological Service, over the past 10 years, the impact of climate change in our country has resulted in an average precipitation deficit of 20 to 30%, affecting the north in particular, which is facing a severe water shortage for both industrial use and human consumption.

In the Atacama Region, this depletion has led to the deterioration of the Copiapó River aquifers, resulting in a water crisis that affects the towns of Copiapó, Caldera, Chañaral, and Tierra Amarilla and their more than 210,000 residents.

The Proposal

Develop detailed engineering for the 85,000 m² desalination plant using BIM methodology, enabling the development and integration of the client’s modeling and providing access to information and visualization for all project participants. This approach offers the benefit of identifying conflicts and reducing errors in the construction of the desalination plant, while maintaining the flexibility and adaptability to client needs that characterizes P&A.

Results

The Sanitation Services Concession Company (ECONSSA) put out a bid for the execution of the project “Seawater Desalination Plant for the Atacama Region, Provinces of Copiapó and Chañaral,” located in Punta Zorro (Caldera), under an EPC contract, with the contract awarded to the INIMA-CVV Consortium. In January 2018, work began on the engineering phase of the project, which involved 9 months of design and construction (P&A) under a fast-track approach—that is, construction proceeded concurrently with engineering—ensuring a supply of drinking water for over 210,000 people in the Atacama Region.

With an estimated investment of US$140 million in the first phase, the project was designed to produce 1,200 l/s of drinking water through three construction phases: Phase 1: production capacity of 450 l/s of drinking water; Phase 2: total production capacity of 900 l/s of drinking water; Phase 3: production capacity of 1,200 l/s of drinking water, through the extraction of seawater and its desalination via the reverse osmosis process (obtaining fresh water from salt water). From there, the water—now desalinated and treated with the necessary chemicals to make it potable—will be transported via aqueducts to the population. According to the Econssa website, the plant is already operational.

As part of the Talara Refinery Modernisation Project, a seawater desalination plant was developed to supply potable, industrial and demineralised water for the new refinery’s process requirements.​

The facility was designed with a production capacity of 2,200 m³/day of desalinated water, becoming Peru’s first reverse osmosis plant for industrial use.

In 2005, the construction of the Spence Mining Company began and two years later it started production, consolidating itself over time as a relevant deposit in BHP’s investment portfolio.

In August 2017, BHP approved the Spence Growth Option (SGO) project, with an estimated investment of US$2.46 million, which was aligned with the mining company’s corporate strategy of having large, long-lived and low-cost operations.

With this, the site took a big step thanks to the construction of the SGO project, which allows Spence to project itself in the long term through the treatment of hypogene minerals through a concentrator plant, which operates in conjunction with the current FullSal mixed mineral leaching process.

Overall, the project comprised a new 95,000 tpd concentrator plant, extending the life of the Spence mine by more than 50 years, and the commissioning of the desalination plant.

The desalination plant, which considers the use of seawater for 100% of the mining process, uses reverse osmosis technology and has an approximate capacity of 1,000 l/s of water and required 154 km of water piping from the plant to the mine operation.

Pares&Alvarez developed basic and detailed engineering in instrumentation and control, electrical, civil-structural, mechanical and piping, among others, architectural design, 3D technology, procurement and on-site engineering.

On January 14, 2015, the company INIMA-CVV S.A. was awarded the EPC Marine Works and Desalination Plant contract, for the detailed engineering, supply of equipment and materials, construction and commissioning of a seawater desalination plant, tendered by Codelco, in the sector of km 14 of Route 1 from Tocopilla.

The objective of the state-owned company was to supply RT-Codelco’s industrial water reservoir, to provide water for its current operations and for its sixth structural project: RT Sulphide’s.

The project developed by PA Engineering considered the design of a desalination plant from the seawater intake to the product water, ready for impulsion. The detailed engineering necessary for the final design and detailed planning of the acquisitions, construction and commissioning of the desalination plant and its maritime seawater catchment and brine discharge works was developed. The maritime works were designed to support at least a future production of desalinated water of 163,350 m3/day, equivalent to 1,890 l/s. In turn, the plant would have the particularity of producing water in steps reaching up to 840 l/s, reaching a production of 2,177,280 m3/month.