Desalination of seawater into the leader of the marine economic industry chain

Statistics released recently by the State Oceanic Administration show that China's gross marine product exceeded 7 trillion yuan in 2016. According to public information on the website of the Ocean Bureau, the National Development and Reform Commission and the State Oceanic Administration jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Construction and Development of Demonstration Areas for Marine Economy", which clearly establishes 10-20 demonstration areas by 2020. Since then, the marine economic industrial chain, including desalination, has entered the fast lane of development.

Desalination of seawater into the leader of the marine economic industry chain

Born by the sea, rise to the sea. Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission and the State Oceanic Administration jointly issued the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan for National Marine Economic Development" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"), which determined the overall thinking, development goals and main tasks of China's marine economic development in the next four years.

The first step in formulating the "Planning" is to build a maritime power and expand the strategic needs of the blue economic space. The Plan further clarifies that by 2020, 10 to 20 marine economic demonstration zones will be established nationwide. The idea is to focus on policy advantages for differentiated development, focusing on optimizing the spatial layout of the marine economy, building a modern marine industrial system, and strengthening sea-related Explore new ideas and new models in infrastructure construction, building a blue ecological barrier, etc., and make it a leading area for emerging marine industries, a demonstration area for marine ecological environmental protection, and new momentum for the development of the marine economy.

The overall idea of the Marine Economic Demonstration Zone is to organically connect government management with market behavior. Fully implement the national marine economic survey, and do a good job in follow-up application development and analysis and evaluation work to further understand the marine economic "family." According to the previously announced second list of shortlisted demonstration cities for marine economic innovation and development, in addition to the Pudong New Area in Shanghai, many cities such as Ningbo, Shenzhen, and Haikou have been shortlisted and are expected to receive hundreds of millions of yuan in central financial funds stand by.

"Overall, although the growth rate of marine GDP has gradually slowed in the past two years, it is still slightly higher than the GDP growth rate over the same period. The development of the marine economy is changing from a speed type to a quality and efficiency type." Analysis by relevant experts. According to an earlier report by the Economic Reference Network, in the past 5 years, China's marine economy has developed rapidly, and the average annual growth rate of marine GDP has risen to 8.1%. As of the end of 2015, China ’s gross marine product reached 6.4669 trillion yuan, accounting for nearly 9.6% of GDP. The marine economy has become a new engine for supporting the growth of the national economy and a new engine for economic restructuring.

During the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" period, focusing on improving the quality and efficiency of the marine economy, we must actively promote the transformation and optimization of traditional industrial technologies. The marine economy will become a pillar industry of the national economy. As predicted by many domestic institutions, with low consumption of material resources, large growth potential, and good comprehensive benefits, the emerging marine industry has become a "dark horse" that drives the development of China's marine economy. But it cannot be ignored that despite its rapid development, the scale has not been able to grow.

More people and less water, and uneven spatial and temporal distribution of water resources are China's basic water regimes. Even after the formal supply of water from the middle and east routes of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project, the regional water resources gap is still huge. As an important supplement and strategic reserve of water resources, seawater desalination is an important way to solve the shortage of water resources in China, and it is also one of the long-term strategies that must be considered to solve the "water trap". Since China's first "Special Plan for Seawater Utilization" was promulgated and implemented in 2005, seawater utilization has made great progress under the concerted efforts of various departments.

"As of now, China's seawater desalination process equipment and system integration key technologies have made major breakthroughs, and key technical indicators such as system water consumption and operating costs have been synchronized with the world's advanced level." Zhang Zhanhai, Director of the Strategic Planning and Economic Division of the State Oceanic Administration It is pointed out that China's daily desalination capacity has reached 1 million tons, which is equivalent to the daily water consumption of several mega cities. "In essence, seawater desalination technology is a type of water treatment technology." Seawater desalination technology not only targets seawater, but also desalts brackish water in inland areas.

However, the development of the seawater desalination industry is difficult to meet the national planning expectations. According to previous reports from China Economic Net, in fact, the core problem is that the seawater desalination industry is still developing under market operation. Compared with the development of water conservancy and municipal utilities supported by national policies, from the production cost, the price of the network to the pipe network There is no competitive advantage in construction. Public information shows that the cost of seawater desalination in China is concentrated at 5 yuan / ton to 8 yuan / ton. Although it is close to the international level, the water price is still higher than that of tap water, which makes seawater desalination an emerging industry lacking a competitive advantage.

Therefore, accustomed to low water pricing, the public may find it difficult to accept desalinated water prices for a while. Generally, the cost of seawater desalination consists of investment costs, operation and maintenance costs, and energy consumption costs. However, because it was not included in the overall national water resources plan and did not enjoy the "policy dividend", water transfer and groundwater exploitation are still the first choice in many places. The relevant person in charge of the Science and Technology Department of the State Oceanic Administration pointed out that so far, desalinated water cannot enter the municipal pipe network on a large scale, and the proportion of water supply needs to be urgently improved. "It is recommended to establish a national and local coordination and coordination mechanism to gradually increase the proportion of seawater desalination."