SATISFYING THE WATER-SUPPLY DEMAND OF THE CHANNEL TUNNEL

When Europe's largest civil-engineering construction site, the Channel Tunnel, requested a guaranteed source of water during 1988, the Folke stone District Water Company was experiencing the first signs of the d rought conditions which were to prevail for the next three years. Whil st infrastructure changes allowed for supplies to be made available to the Channel Tunnel contractors, the increasing reduction of resources meant that an alternative supply of water was required. The solution to the problem was to utilize desalination by reverse osmosis of sea w ater taken from the English Channel. The process design and operation of this most arduous of feed water is discussed, demonstrating the suc cessful application of this technology.