Salt Separation Services awarded contract to manufacture desalination plants for Royal Navy

The reverse osmosis desalination plants and associated water treatment equipment for the Royal Navy

Salt Separation Services Ltd (SSS), a Rochdale-based SME, has recently been awarded the contract from BAE Systems to manufacture the Reverse Osmosis (RO) desalination plants and associated water treatment equipment for batch 2 of the Type 26 Frigates (Global Combat Ships) for the Royal Navy.

Each Frigate will be fitted with two RO plants, each providing 54 cubic metres (54,000 litres) of potable water per day from seawater and 0.6 cubic metres (6,000 litres) per day of high-quality technical water. In addition, a filtration package and chlorine dosing units will be provided for the treatment of embarked fresh water.

The UK Government committed to buy eight of the advanced Type 26 Global Combat Ships in its 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review, which will in time replace the anti-submarine warfare Type 23 Frigates.

In 2017, Salt Separation Services were awarded the contract for the supply of the above equipment for Type 26 batch 1. The company has recently completed the build and testing of ship set 3's equipment, ready to begin production of ship set 4  in Q2 2023 with the final ship set due to be delivered in 2029.

Type 26 will be globally deployable and capable of undertaking a wide range of roles from high-intensity warfare to humanitarian assistance, either operating independently or as part of a task group.

Salt Separation Services is actively involved in providing equipment and through life support to the UK’s Royal Navy with equipment also fitted on Type 23 Frigates, QE-class Aircraft Carriers, Landing Platform Dock ships, Mine Counter Measure Vessels and Single Role Minehunters.

Salt Separation Services says it is "extremely proud to be supporting our Royal Navy in these programmes and more."

This contract is one of the latest in a series of projects undertaken by SSS for the marine and offshore industries, having recently delivered three 300 cubic metres per day (300,000 litres) two-pass RO plants for a new cruise ship being manufactured in Germany.

SSS has also recently designed, manufactured, installed and commissioned a 700,000 litres per day RO plant on a cruise ship (to replace a 20-year-old plant with a smaller capacity). This plant was constructed in modules to facilitate installation into the ship during a recent dry-docking.