Why desalination is important for pipelines

Maintaining a pipeline of any size, shape or complexity can be difficult unless you have effective tools and equipment to help you keep your product flowing fast and to your customers’ expectations – and pig technology has advanced to ensure that businesses with pipelines can be assured of efficient and effective product flow with minimal need for maintenance or regular consultation.  Some pipelines, particularly those which supply water to impoverished or needy communities, rely upon certain technology – pigging technology – to ensure that the product is safe and clean to use and consume at the other end of the process.  The process of cleaning raw seawater and ensuring that such water is cleared for consumption is known as desalination, and pigging can help in ensuring that fresh water always reaches the areas that need it the most.

Desalination is essentially the process of ensuring that pipelines can carry fresh, drinkable water to communities that has been passed through a special filtration process – as all water will start in the sea, and will therefore possess a high, undrinkable salt content that may cause health problems for drinkers at the other end of the pipeline.  Desalination plants are therefore in place to help remove all factors that make sea water unfit for human consumption – removing minerals, debris and other content that will render the product effectively unusable and undrinkable.  Keeping pipelines that pass sea water via desalination plants clean is essential – and therefore, regular pigging with a specialised heavy-duty pig will ensure that water can continue to travel through such pipelines with ease and efficiency.

Why Desalination is important

Desalination and cleaning of sea water pipelines needs to occur regularly, perhaps more so than other pipelines which may carry fuel or alternative product – this is because the debris level is likely to be higher than that of other sources, as sea water is likely to carry sediment, marine growth and plant life along with it – and if these rogue elements are allowed to accumulate within a pipeline, they will quickly clog and slow down water flow in no time at all.  As water is essential to the communities that need it, keeping the desalination process running at all times and keeping on top of pipeline cleaning in this instance needs to be regular and proactive.  After all, preventing clean water from reaching the people that need it could be putting lives at risk as much as causing considerable financial detriment to businesses that provide such product.

Pigging has become an essential aid in the cleaning and maintenance of pipelines that provide all types of product and services, and Pigtek provide specialist pigs for the cleaning and scraping of sea water pipelines to ensure that desalination and the transfer of clean, safe water can reach the people that need it the most.  For more information on specialist pigs and equipment that we can design, manufacture and provide for your business, call us today on +44 (0) 1246 850220 or send us a message via web form at your convenience – and our team will be happy to help you as far as we possibly can!