YOKOGAWA Electric Corporation has won an order from the Kuwait Ministry of Electricity and Water to replace the control systems for the boilers, distillation units, and auxiliary facilities at the Shuwaikh seawater desalination plant.

Located on the coast, near Kuwait City, the plant has been in operation since 1953 and is a key part of Kuwait’s infrastructure. With the ability to desalinate up to 90,000 tonnes of seawater each day, this plant accounts for six per cent of the country’s desalination capacity.
This project aims to make this plant’s operations more efficient and reliable by replacing the aging control systems for the plant’s three boilers, three distillation units, and auxiliary facilities. Work on this project will commence in February next year and is expected to be completed in 2012.
This order is for a Yokogawa Centum series integrated production control system that will control all plant facilities; a ProSafe-RS safety instrumented system for the boilers’ burner management system; a PRM integrated device management software package to monitor plant facilities and predict when maintenance is necessary; and engineering, installation, and commissioning services.
Yokogawa says it won the order because its solutions best met the customer’s expectations and need; the reliability of its products, demonstrated over decades of use in industries such as oil, petrochemicals, and power; and its trusted project approach that brings together the expertise and technology of the entire group.
The control system market for desalination plants is expected to expand in the long term, mainly in the Middle East, due to growing demand that is the result of industrial development and population growth.