Water. Desalination + reuse
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/100112
PROJECTS PROJECTS PROJECTPROGRESS MElbOuRnE PlanT TwO-ThiRdS OPERaTiOnal The performance test for the second treatment line at the Victorian seawater desalination plant in Melbourne, Australia, was successfully completed on 26 October 2012. With this second line now operational, the plant is producing 300,000 m3/day of drinking water for the city of Melbourne, less than one month after completion of the performance and reliability tests on the first line (see feature page 16). Start-up of the facility will continue with the third treatment line in order to reach the plant's full capacity of 450,000 m3/d. On 6 September 2012, AquaSure and Thiess Degremont Joint Venture announced that the plant had started producing drinking water that meets Australian drinking water guidelines and contract requirements as part of ongoing commissioning. The plant is currently scheduled to be fully operational by the end of 2012, with commissioning complete in February 2013. Following commissioning completion, water production will cease as the government has decided not to order water for 2012/13. alMOgORdO dESalinaTiOn PROJECT in TRain A mobile desalination facility to treat 4,000 acre-ft per year (af/y; 4.9 million m3/y) near Almogordo, New Mexico, moved closer to realisation when the City Commission approved an approach for a US$ 2.7 million loan/grant from the New Mexico Finance Authority on 1 November 2012. The desalination plant would be part of the Snake Tank Project, which would pump brackish groundwater to the plant from wellfields 8 miles (13 km) north of Tularosa. The project would provide approximately 3,200 af/y (3.95 million m3/y) of the city���s identified water resources shortfall by 2045 of 3,398 af/y (4.2 million m3/y). The Bureau of Land Management approved the environmental impact statement for the project in August 2012. TuRkS ���STROng inTEREST��� in gaza The Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), which is promoting the Gaza Desalination Facility in Palestine, says that the Turkish government has expressed its strong interest in supporting the project and a financial commitment will be discussed with the prime minister in the coming weeks. The UfM Secretariat, the Palestinian Water Authority and the Government of Turkey recently held talks on the technical and financial aspects of the Gaza project, which will require an investment of ��� 310 million. The Arab states and France have already committed financially, and the European Investment Bank is financing the technical assistance towards the implementation of the project. Twdb lOan fOR SawS PROJECT The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) has given a US$ 50 million loan to the San Antonio Water System (SAWS) towards its first-ever groundwater desalination plant in southern Bexar County. | 22 | Desalination & Water Reuse | August-September 2012 Announcing the loan on 18 October 2012, SAWS said that water would begin flowing from the US$ 229 million brackish-water reverse-osmosis plant in 2016. The facility will reach its full production capacity of 28,000 acre-feet (34.5 million m3) per year by 2026. Unlike San Antonio's Edwards Aquifer supply, the salty water in the Wilcox Aquifer is not subject to pumping restrictions during drought. The US$ 50 million loan is the third round of low-interest financing to be used for this water supply project. Previous TWDB loans totalling US$ 59 million went toward planning and design, and for drilling wells. The project is part of San Antonio's 50-year water management plan, a roadmap for securing the city's water future via new supplies and responsible water management. The city is the venue for the American Water Works Association/American Membrane Technology Association joint membrane conference in February 2013. laRgE RO aT hEaRT Of SCOTTSdalE The 7.1 MGD (26,900 m3/d) expansion of the City of Scottsdale���s Advanced Water Treatment (AWT) plant at its Water Campus is now fully operational creating a total of 20 MGD (75,700 m3/d) of reused wastewater. The expansion uses largeThe 16-in RO membranes at Scottsdale. diameter (16 in) membrane elements for a reduced water footprint in its reverse-osmosis systems. This new phase of the Water Campus AWT is currently the largest reuse system in the world using large-diameter elements. The membranes were supplied in June 2012 by CSM (Woongjin Chemical America Inc), engineering/consulting was by SPI and general construction was by Archer Western Contractors. The product water is used for aquifer recharge and golf course irrigation. adElaidE STandby SavingS ChallEngEd Putting the Adelaide Desalination Plant into standby mode will not reduce the amount SA Water���s customers pay by anything like the Aus$ 100 million/year (US$ 103 million) that has been claimed, says a report by the Essential Services Commission of South Australia (ESCOSA) released on 16 October 2012. Presenting the commission���s Issues Paper regarding SA Water���s regulatory business proposal, commission CEO Dr Paul Kerin said that, while ESCOSA supported the move, it would not result in major savings for customers in the first three years of the regulatory period. ���SA Water does not propose putting the ADP in standby mode until 1 January 2015, after running it at high capacity utilisation rates to the end of 2014 to fulfil warranty requirements,��� Kerin said. ���Therefore, there will be no savings at all until half-way through the first three-year regulatory period.��� He said that the claimed Aus$ 100 million annual saving would only be relevant if the previously planned alternative was to run the 100 million m3/year plant at 100% capacity. ���The commission understands that the SA Government���s 2012- 13 Drinking Water and Sewerages Prices Regulatory Statement, which was the basis on which the government indicated that it did not expect water prices to grow significantly faster than inflation, assumed that the plant would run at no more than 25% of capacity after warranty requirements are fulfilled,��� Kerin explained. Placing the desalination plant in standby mode would save only about Aus$ 10 million (US$ 10.3 million) a year relative to that alternative, he asserted. ���Therefore, placing the (plant) in standby mode for the last 18 months of the first regulatory period might reduce the amount SA Water���s customers pay by an average of about Aus$ 5 million (US$ 5.2 million) per annum over the first three-year regulatory period ��� not by $100 million per annum,��� Kerin concluded. dESalinaTiOn STudiEd FOR OklahOma X-FlOw COmmiSSiOnS PROduCEd-waTER uF CaRlSbad waTER PRiCE agREEd Three water-reuse projects for oilfields in China that use Pentair X-Flow ultrafiltration (UF) membrane technology have been commissioned recently. Produced-water treatment systems that incorporate X-Flow membrane technology, followed by either reverse osmosis or ion exchange, offer the opportunity to produce low-salinity reinjection water for enhanced oil recovery. This lower-salinity water can have a positive effect on the overall oil production volumes. At the Daqing Oil Field, the largest in China and one of the most productive oil fields in the world, a full-scale two-stage UF plant pretreats 5,000 m��/d of produced water to make it suitable for reinjection. At the same time, valuable chemicals are recovered. This oil field requires a large amount of injection water, about 25,000 m��/day. The limited water resources in the area make it necessary for the produced water to be reused. The same membrane technology is applied at the Yanan Fengfuchuan and Yanan Wangpiwan oilfields, where 1,500 m��/d and 1,200 m��/d respectively are treated. The Water Purchase Agreement for the proposed Carlsbad seawater reverse-osmosis desalination plant in California was released on 27 September 2012 by the San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA). The total price for the water ��� including costs to make improvements to the SDCWA���s pipelines and treatment plant to accommodate the new supply ��� is estimated at US$ 2,042-2,290 per acre-foot (US$ 1.65-1.86/m3) in 2012 dollars, depending on annual quantities purchased. This is slightly more at the lower end than previously estimated. The 189,000 m3/d Carlsbad plant will be developed by Poseidon Resources. The water would meet SDCWA���s long-term water supply reliability goal of having 7% of its region���s water supply met with seawater desalination by 2020. Under the agreement, the SDCWA will have no responsibility or liability for the design, permitting, financing, construction and operation of the project. It would purchase at least 48,000 acre-feet (59.2 million m3) of desalinated water annually at a predetermined price for 30 years once commercial operations begin. Water in excess of this amount would be purchased at the Water Authority���s discretion at a lower rate. The agreement can be extended by 3 years due to unexpected or uncontrolled events. At the end of the agreement, the SDCWA will be able to buy the plant for US$ 1. It also has an option to buy it after 10 years. Poseidon also will design and build a new 10-mile (16 km) pipeline to convey desalinated water to the SDCWA���s regional water delivery system. The authority will own and operate the new pipeline. The agreement can be terminated under a number of conditions, one of which is if the plant fails to pass acceptance tests by a certain date, as happened recently with the Adelaide desalination plant in Australia. The City of Oceanside voted on 7 November not to take up this option but to buy its Carlsbad water from SDCWA. Local supplies help improve water agencies��� water-supply reliability, especially during times of drought or shortages in imported water supplies. IDE Technologies is a major subcontractor for Carlsbad and will be responsible for engineering and procurement of the desalination technology and is also operation and maintenance contractor. The construction, start-up and performance testing schedule is 35 months. TEXaS TOwn PROPOSing diRECT REuSE The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) on 20 September 2012 approved loans totalling US$ 12 million to the City of Brownwood from the Texas Water Development Fund to finance wastewater system improvements, including possible direct potable wastewater reuse (DPR). Brownwood intends to use the funds to make improvements to its wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and the Slayden Street Lift Station. In addition, the city is proposing the development of a supplemental water supply treatment facility (SWSTF) for DPR. Initially, just over a quarter of the funding will be split between the WWTP improvements (US$ 3.08 million) and the engineering costs for the SWSTF (US$ 360,000), totalling US$ 3.44 million. Issuance and closing for the remainder of the funds must be concluded by 30 September 2014, giving the city nearly two years to determine whether to proceed with the SWSTF project. The city is not obligated to spend the funds if the project is not implemented. The TWDB also recently awarded a study project to Alan Plummer Associates Inc to create a guidance document to be used by utilities, agencies and consultants as a reference for the implementation of DPR projects in Texas. The Central Oklahoma Water Resources Authority (COWRA) in the USA is currently working with local company Guernsey Engineering and California���s Separation Processes Inc to do a feasibility study and pilot project to use brackish water from the Garber Wellington aquifer which underlies 3,000 sq miles (7,700 km2) of central Oklahoma. Shawn Lepard, a consultant working with the authority, told D&WR, ���We are seeking to get a more comprehensive idea of our groundwater quality before selecting a well field and discussing the size of any desalination facility.��� COWRA, which includes the municipalities of Mustang, Yukon, Calumet, Okarche and Canadian County, recently sent representatives to view two recently completed Guernsey desalination projects in Phoenix, Arizona. They also visited two Abengoa projects in Texas. August-September 2012 | Desalination & Water Reuse | 23 |