IDE Technologies to build desal plant in Australia

Kadima, Israel-based IDE Technologies announced today that it signed a deal to build a desalination plant worth over €100 million in Australia. IDE is a joint venture of Israel Corp.'s Israel Chemicals unit and the Delek Group.

IDE did not identify the company that it's building the desalination plant for, stating only that it's a "major industrial client."

The 140,000 cubic meter per day facility, which will be based on reverse osmosis technology, is scheduled to be completed in 2010.

"It establishes IDE's presence on the Australian continent, strengthens its worldwide deployment in line with the company's business strategy of global expansion and strengthens IDE's position as a world leader in the seawater desalination market," said Avshalom Felber, CEO of IDE.

The company said the project is one of the most complex in the world and one of the largest of its kind supplied by IDE to a foreign client. According to IDE, the quality of the feed water necessitates more precise and complex treatment than in similar installations elsewhere.

IDE said the Australian client will use the desalinated water for production processes.

Established in 1965, IDE specializes in commercial applications of thermal and membrane technologies for desalinating and converting sea and brackish water for drinking and process water. The company has supplied more than 385 plants of different types and capacities in 40 countries, and said the plants produce more than 1.6 million cubic meters per day.