Philippines Fishing Harbor: 5 m³/day Grid-Powered Seawater RO for Domestic Water

Philippines · Reported in operation since 2021 · Customer identity withheld

Can a small coastal station make its own freshwater when grid power is available but a dependable freshwater supply is not? This KONCHE fishing-harbor project used a fixed, skid-mounted seawater reverse osmosis system designed to produce 5 m³/day for the daily domestic-water needs of a duty station and fishery supply point serving about 10–15 people. The project information reports operation since 2021. KONCHE was involved in the system's design or supply; the exact scope is not specified here. The 5 m³/day rating is equipment design capacity; it is not a measured daily consumption figure.

What problem did the fishing harbor need to solve?

The site already had mains electricity but lacked a reliable freshwater source. A compact land-based system could treat nearby seawater without requiring a boat-mounted watermaker. The intended use was domestic water for people working at the harbor, so treatment, disinfection and freshwater storage all mattered.

Was 5 m³/day selected for 10–15 people alone?

The supplied project information gives both the 5 m³/day design output and an estimated 10–15 people served. It does not give a measured daily demand, operating hours or tank drawdown record. A similar harbor should size the unit from actual drinking, cooking, washing and station demand, plus storage and operating hours. The number of people alone does not establish the required SWRO capacity.

How was seawater treated, and where should a harbor intake be checked?

The project process was seawater intake → multimedia filtration → cartridge filtration → single-pass SWRO → disinfection → freshwater tank. The skid also had automatic flushing, high- and low-pressure protection and a simple concentrate-discharge arrangement. The project information does not identify the actual intake location or provide feed-water test results. It would be wrong to assume that water was drawn from within the harbor basin or that a different harbor could use the same pretreatment unchanged.

For a new harbor, sample seawater at the proposed intake and check conditions that may affect membrane fouling. DuPont's RO technical manual identifies suspended matter and oil as potential foulants and calls for pretreatment to be selected from the actual feed-water composition. This is general design guidance, not a measured condition at the Philippine site.

What power, recovery and water-quality figures are available?

The project information reports approximately 3.8–4.2 kWh per m³ of product water and 22% recovery. These figures describe this installation as supplied to us; they should not be used as performance guarantees for other seawater sources or duty cycles. Mains power was available at this site, but no outage history or backup-power arrangement was provided. Whether a new site needs a generator or other backup must be decided from its service requirement and local power reliability.

The intended product water was for domestic use, with drinking-water quality as a project requirement. No public laboratory report or sampling record was supplied for this case, so this page does not claim independently verified compliance with a drinking-water standard. A new project needs a local water-quality target, sampling plan and acceptance test.

What should a similar fishing harbor define before requesting a system?

Provide the seawater analysis and proposed intake point; daily and peak water demand; required operating hours and storage volume; electrical supply and outage pattern; intended water use and applicable water-quality target; available skid space; and concentrate-discharge route. Those inputs determine whether a compact fixed SWRO skid is suitable and what the equipment supply boundary should include.

For the treatment approach, see KONCHE’s seawater desalination systems and seawater RO engineering guide. To review a site-specific scope, request project support.