BEIJING — China had set up 135 seawater desalination projects by the end of 2020, with daily freshwater production reaching more than 1.65 million metric tons, a report said on Dec 6.

The annual report, released by the Ministry of Natural Resources on China's seawater utilization in 2020, pointed out that 14 new desalination projects were completed in 2020.

All the 135 projects are distributed in various coastal cities and islands with severe water shortage. Among them, 40 have the capacity to produce 10,000 tons or more of freshwater per day.

The freshwater produced by the projects is mainly used for high water consumption industries such as electricity production, petrochemicals and steel, as well as water for domestic consumption in island areas and coastal cities including Qingdao.

According to the report, China used 169.81 billion tons of seawater as coolant in nuclear and thermal power generating, steel and petrochemical industries in 2020, an increase of 21.2 billion tons over 2019.