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Busan Metropolitan City to Develop Plans for Utilizing Seawater Desalination Facilities… Seeking Ways to Coexist with the Local Community

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Busan Metropolitan City (Mayor Park Heong-joon) announced that it will hold a resident briefing session on the utilization of the seawater desalination facilities at 10:30 a.m. today (September 3) at the Gijang Seawater Desalination Plant (20 Daebyeon-ri, Gijang-eup).

At the event, Mayor Park Heong-joon will be joined by National Assembly member Jeong Dong-man, Gijang County Governor Jeong Jong-bok, Busan Metropolitan Councilors Park Jong-cheol and Lee Seung-woo, Gijang County Council Chairperson Park Hong-bok, representatives from major East Busan Industrial Complex companies including Korea Steel Co., Ltd., Hyosung Electric Co., Ltd., Geumyang, and Asan Innotek, as well as officials from related institutions.

This resident briefing session has been organized to directly explain to local residents the utilization plans for the seawater desalination facilities, which have remained non-operational for the past 11 years, to address concerns about the facilities, and to announce the full-scale launch of the project through the signing of MOUs with industrial water demand companies and related organizations.

During the briefing session, the strategic utilization plans for the seawater desalination facilities will be presented.

• 1.The first facility line will be developed into a demonstration facility for seawater desalination technology, serving as a testbed for future water industry innovation, including green hydrogen production, salinity gradient power generation, and brine resource recovery.

• 2.The second facility line will be converted into an industrial water supply facility that reuses treated wastewater from nearby sewage treatment plants, enabling companies in the East Busan Industrial Complex to use affordable industrial water instead of costly domestic water.

Following this, Busan Metropolitan City will sign an “MOU for Supplying Industrial Water to the East Busan Industrial Complex” with Korea Water Resources Corporation (K-water), Korea Steel Co., Ltd., Hyosung Electric Co., Ltd., Geumyang, Asan Innotek, Busan Environmental Corporation, and the East Busan Industrial Complex Development Council.

Through this agreement, related organizations and companies will closely cooperate to establish a stable supply system of industrial water for the East Busan Industrial Complex.

Meanwhile, Busan Metropolitan City plans to complete the utilization projects for the first and second facility lines by 2030. To this end, the first line project will be carried out in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment, including implementation procedures, securing project costs, and detailed design, while the second line project will be pursued through a Build-Transfer-Operate (BTO) method, involving proposal submissions and feasibility reviews.

Mayor Park is expected to emphasize, “I will foster the seawater desalination facilities, which are important assets of our region, as a platform for sustainable water cycle utilization and water industry innovation. I will also do my utmost to listen to and reflect the opinions of local residents so that the facilities can coexist with the community and create new value.”