Water. Desalination + reuse
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/100112
BUSINESS Al Jubail is first Acciona contract in Saudi Arabia Spain���s Acciona Agua in consortium with Saudi Arabia���s BinLaden Group has been awarded the contract for the 100,000 m3/d SWRO-4 desalination plant at Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia. Awarded by Marafiq Power & Water Utility Company for Jubail & Yanbu, the contract is for design, construction and bringing into service of the seawater reverse-osmosis (SWRO) plant, which will serve the city of Al Jubail and its associated industrial complex.This is Acciona���s first ever contract in Saudi Arabia. The new SWRO plant is expected to come into operation at the end of 2014, the company said on 1 October 2012. Construction is expected to begin in the coming weeks. The Al Jubail industrial city already has two multistage flash desalination plants, and three RO facilities with a combined capacity of 84,000 m3/d. Sixteen bid for Texas seawater desalination The Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority (GBRA) in Texas, USA, has received 16 responses to its request for qualifications issued in April 2012 for a major seawater desalination project to supply the river basin with a fresh source of water. Bidders included experienced desalination engineers like CH2M Hill, Black & Veatch, GHD, Malcolm Pirnie, Tetra Tech and Seven Seas Water. James Lee Murphy, GBRA���s executive manager of water resources and utility operations, told D&WR that, given the number and sophistication of the responses, it was anticipated that they would be reviewed over the next two months and narrowed down to 3-6 firms. These would be interviewed and selected by mid-late January 2012. Seawater desalination projects are not included among recommended strategies in the Texas State Water Plan, but are listed in the category of ���requiring further study and funding,��� with actual development as far off as 2060. Data from the Texas Water Development Board indicate that about 44 desalination plants have been built for public water supplies in Texas, but none using seawater. WE ���Bill��� West Jr, GBRA general manager, was quoted earlier this year as saying, ���If the droughts of recent years have taught us anything, they should have taught us that shelving seawater desalination in the state water plan for the next 50 years is absolute folly.��� GBRA is therefore leading the effort to commission a feasibility study, led by Dr Les Shephard, director of the Sustainable Energy Research Institute at the University of Texas at San Antonio. ���We have to answer all the key questions about such a project,��� West said. ���First, can it be done? Second, how much will it cost? Third, where should it be located? Fourth, what are the possible environmental impacts and how can they be dealt with?��� Proposals sought for membrane-integrity test method The WateReuse Research Foundation has issued a Request for Proposals to create a method for testing the integrity of highpressure membranes used for nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) in water treatment and desalination. Proposals are due for the project, Standard Methods for Integrity Testing and On-line Monitoring of NF and RO Membranes - WateReuse-12-07, by 20 December 2012. WateReuse says there is a lack of online membrane integrity testing currently for high-pressure membranes, which has resulted in penalties for the drinking water industry. Although it is recognized that these high-pressure membranes may offer excellent pathogen removals, the lack of recognized on-line integrity has allowed regulators to permit the membrane processes with lower pathogen removals. The main goal of this project is to create a scientifically-based method(s) for the integrity testing of high-pressure membranes, including NF and RO membranes. Once developed, the goal is to have the methods adopted as industry standards and approved for higher pathogen removal credits by regulatory agencies. | 8 | Desalination & Water Reuse | November-December 2012 ADWEA issues RfP for Mirfa IWPP The Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority (ADWEA) in October issued a request for proposals from prequalified bidders for its new independent power generation and reverse osmosis (RO) water desalination plant at Al Mirfa. The greenfield project will have an expected net power generation of 1,100 MW, in addition to the present 400 MW, and 30 MIGD (136,000 m3/d) RO desalination capacity added to the 23 MIGD (105,000 m3/d) currently installed at the plant. Developers will be allowed to take on short-term loans to finance just the construction period, in expectation of being able to get cheaper long-term finance later to cover the operation and maintenance period. Pretreatment adaptation for Namibian SWRO plant A 400 m3/d seawater reverse-osmosis (RO) desalination plant in Walvis Bay, Namibia, is to be upgraded under a contract announced at the end of September 2012 by Aqua Services & Engineering (ASE). To cope with the source water���s high organic content, ASE, a company of Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies, will adapt an air-flotation filtration system for use as pretreatment. ���Our engineers will introduce a vortex mixer to generate micro bubbles, which are fed into the flocculated raw seawater stream,��� says Christian St��ck, managing director at ASE. ���This will help lighter organic particles float to the surface, and allow for heavier particles to settle.��� These settled particles will then be filtered by an ultrafine filtration bed where, unlike an additional pumping step, minimal break-up of the flocculated particles will occur. This pretreatment will ensure that the raw seawater, often affected by red tide and sulphur eruptions, meets the required standards for effective desalination in RO membranes. The plant, which will include an energyrecovery system, should be operational within 5-6 months and will provide much needed relief to Walvis Bay, where water scarcity has been a longstanding problem.