THE Singapore branch of China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCE) has been awarded a S$237.6 million contract to construct two industrial liquids modules (ILMs) for the Tuas Water Reclamation Plant (WRP).

The contract includes the civil, structural and architectural works for the ILMs, which will have a treatment capacity of 150,000 cubic metres (cu m) per day of industrial used water, or the equivalent of 60 Olympic-sized swimming pools of water.

In a press statement on Tuesday, Singapore's national water agency PUB says this marks the sixth major construction contract it has awarded for Tuas WRP. It follows recent contracts awarded by PUB to the likes of Koh Brothers Building & Civil Engineering Contractor, Sinohydro Corporation as well as CES SDC, a member of the Chip Eng Seng group.

Headquartered in Beijing, China, CSCE was dubbed the world's largest construction company by revenue as at 2016. The firm's bid for Tuas WRP's ILMs was one of 11 offers from PUB's open tender exercise in May 2020.

Construction works on the ILMs are expected to commence on Dec 30, 2020, and PUB will commission the ILMs progressively by December 2025.

ILMs integrate membranes to allow used water to be treated using less space and fewer steps compared to conventional systems, in addition to producing a higher-quality treated effluent. Treated effluent from the ILMs will be further purified to industrial water and sent back to the industries for reuse.

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Upon completion of the ILMs, this will be the first time that the water agency is reclaiming industrial used water for reuse, and marks a significant step forward in boosting Singapore's capability to reclaim and recycle water, says PUB in its statement.

Tuas WRP will be equipped to receive both industrial and domestic used water streams from two separate deep tunnels for treatment. It will have an initial treatment capacity of 800,000 cu m per day.

The plant will be co-located with the National Environment Agency's Integrated Waste Management Facility to collectively form Tuas Nexus, which integrates used water and solid waste treatment processes to harness various synergies that are expected to improve overall plant performance and optimise land use.