Water. Desalination + reuse
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/107986
REGIONS MIDDLE EAST ASIA Red-Dead transfer consultations due in mid-February Singapore offers grants for water-treatment SMEs Public consultations on the Red Sea-Dead Sea Water Conveyance project are due to start in mid-February 2013 following publication of the Draft Final Feasibility Study Report late in 2012 after its completion in July 2012. The study's authors, engineers Coyne et Bellier with Tractebel and energy consultant Kema, state that the reverse-osmosis (RO) desalination plant for the project will have an ultimate capacity of 850 million m3/year which is the optimum desalination capacity for a Red Sea water transfer to the Dead Sea of 2,000 million m3/year. Two configurations remain to be evaluated further from the three conveyance configurations originally considered: A high level desalination plant operating in series with a hydro power facility. This configuration minimises the pumping head required for delivery of potable water to the main demand centres. However the downside is that it also greatly reduces the available hydrostatic head available to drive the RO process. In this configuration the flow available to generate hydro power is the total Red Sea diversion flow less the volume of potable water produced. Since the volume of potable water produced increases with time in line with demand growth, the flow available to generate hydro electricity reduces with time by a corresponding amount. Ultimately the flow through the hydro plant is exclusively reject brine from the desalination process. A low level desalination plant operating in parallel with a hydro facility. This configuration allows the maximum hydrostatic head to drive the RO process and thus minimises the energy requirements. However, it entails a substantial additional pumping head (220-400 m depending on conveyance option) to deliver desalinated water to the higher elevation demand centres of the three beneficiary countries compared with the high level configuration. In this case the reject brine stream cannot be used to generate hydro electricity and the water flow available to generate power is the total Red Sea diversion flow less the input flow to the desalination plant. When potable water demands reach the maximum capacity of the desalination plant, 95% of the total Red Sea transfer flow is required to feed the desalination plant, and thus from this point in time (circa 2060) there will be very little flow available to generate hydro power. Israel/Canada pact to promote wastewater reuse Israel and Canada are to work together on wastewater reuse following a ministerial meeting on 9 December 2012 in Jerusalem. Dr Uzi Landau, minister of energy and water for Israel met Canada's environment minister, Peter Kent, to discuss a variety of political economic and environmental issues. They agreed to advance the United Nations resolution to double the percentage of wastewater reused around the world. Landau briefed Kent on the efforts invested by Israel in improving the environment, with an emphasis on water. "Israel is a world record holder in reusing treated sewage water for irrigation. Some 90% of our sewage is treated, and 75% of this is reused for agriculture. We use the little water we have twice," he said. Kent responded, "It would be great if we could work together to promote the subject, with an emphasis on assistance to third world countries." Canada supported Israel in the UN recently by voting against the Palestinian bid for UN non-member observer status, which was nevertheless carried. AFRICA Deadline stretched for IWA's Namibia reuse conference The International Water Association (IWA) has extended the deadline for submission of outline papers for the 9th IWA International Conference on Water Reclamation & Reuse. The conference will take place from 2731 October 2013 in Windhoek, Namibia. Additional information on the conference can be found at the conference website http://iwareuse2013.com/ | 22 | Desalination & Water Reuse | February-March 2013 An inaugural grant call was launched by SPRING Singapore (SPRING) and PUB, Singapore's National Water Agency, through the Environment and Water Industry Programme Office, for Singapore enterprises to develop innovative water treatment technologies. This is the first grant call for water technologies that is targeted at small/medium enterprises (SMEs). While Singapore SMEs have come up with innovative water technologies in recent years, this grant call aims to foster further innovation in SMEs in the area of used water research and development. At the same time, it allows PUB to leverage the private sector's experience, expertise and network to develop the next generation of used water treatment technologies to meet Singapore's water challenges and support the growth of the water industry. Projects leading to the development of innovative used water treatment technologies will be funded under SPRING's Technology Innovation Programme and the Technology Enterprise Commercialisation Scheme. For this first grant call, PUB is offering awardees the opportunity to test bed their technologies alongside existing treatment processes in PUB's facilities. This allows companies to work with actual used water flows collected from homes and industries. Through this experience, awardees will also be able to build up their track record, thereby increasing the marketability of their products. An example of an SME that has benefitted from these schemes is Natflow Pte Ltd. Under the Environment & Water Research Programme's Incentive for Research & Innovation Scheme, Natflow developed an alternative methodology to low-energy desalination by combining the heating, cooling and desalination processes at a single plant. PUB's chief technology officer, Harry Seah, said, "PUB is always on the lookout for innovative, high performing technological solutions that will help enhance used water management in Singapore. Used water treatment is an energy-intensive and complex process and we are focused on developing technologies that will not only reduce energy consumption, but also reduce chemical use and waste in the process. We strongly encourage SMEs to come forward with their innovative ideas, and work with us to further develop and commercialise these ideas."