SHIJIAZHUANG - A large desalination project, capable of producing 10,000 tonnes of freshwater from seawater per day, started operations on Wednesday in Tangshan city, North China's Hebei province.

The thermal-membrane hybrid seawater desalination project, operated by Shougang Jingtang United Iron & Steel Co., Ltd., is hailed as an industrial breakthrough in the country's steel sector, a big consumer of water.

The new project combines the "thermal" and "membrane" approaches in seawater desalination: the former uses waste heat produced by factories to distill seawater, while the latter relies on ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis membranes, similar to household water purifiers, said Zhang Bo with the company's energy and environmental protection department.

The company said freshwater produced by the desalination facility would be directly used in the steel plant's smelting process. It will also provide daily water consumption for its employees.

Seawater desalination is a vital aid to steel plants, allowing them to tap into the vast seawater resources and reuse the waste heat to render the production more eco-friendly.