Water. Desalination + reuse
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/749211
14 On Site December 2016 Water. desalination + reuse Investment in plant expansion is carefully targeted THE FACTS • Designed, built and is operated by Utilities Development Company, part of the Al Kharafi Group of companies • Operated and maintained day-to- day under subcontract by GE for 30 years • Sulaibiya is the largest household wastewater reclamation plant using RO in the world THE FIGURES • Sulaibiya is undergoing a major expansion to increase treatment capacity from the existing 375,000 m3/d • Approximately 60 per cent of Kuwait's domestic wastewater fl ows to the plant Technology and design Kuwait's reuse facility is poised to get bigger • Government wants to expand the country's capacity of water reclamation • Reclaimed water is used for industry, including oil and heavy oil extraction • Kuwait is a world leader in water reuse When fi rst commissioned, the Sulaibiya Wastewater Treat- ment and Reclamation Plant was a pioneering project in the Middle East and North Africa region, where it was the fi rst infrastructure facility of its size to be executed as a build- own-transfer (BOT) contract. By adopting a BOT contract- ing structure, the government aimed to expedite project fi nancing and delivery, and to mitigate its exposure to project risk. The plant project was con- tracted by Kuwait's Ministry of Public Works through the Utilities Development Com- pany (UDC). The UDC is jointly owned by Kharafi Group and GE; Kharafi National owns a 75 per cent stake, and GE owns the remaining 25 per cent. UDC granted an engineer, procure, and construct con- tract to Kharafi National, and an operations and mainte- nance contract to Kharafi National, which subcontracts the membrane operations and maintenance to GE. The project received fund- ing of KD114 million ($377 mil- lion) from a consortium of local Kuwaiti banks, a fi nanc- ing package that is thought to have been the largest ever such loan for a project of this kind in Kuwait. The govern- ment believes that by using a BOT structure, it has saved $11 billion over the life of the plant. • Plant is o en operating at above its designed capacity The government opted for a BOT contract because it "wanted to use its money on desalination and have the developer deal with operations and maintenance", said GE Water & Process Technologies commercial development leader Ali Ben Haj Hamida, speaking at the IDA International Water Reuse and Recycling Conference, in France, 2016. The plant was commissioned in 2005 by the then Emir of Kuwait, Jaber Al- Ahmad Al-Sabah. The project as a whole comprises a preliminary treatment and pumping station at Ardiya, and then a 25km pipeline conveys water to Sulaibiya, ' rst to a biological treatment plant and then to the reclamation plant, where it goes through an ultra-' ltration and reverse osmosis process. The plant covers the catchment areas of Ardiya, Jahara and Rekka, and it currently receives 60 per cent of Kuwait's domestic wastewater. The decision to expand the Sulaibiya Plant was made because Kuwait wants to improve on its water use e" ciency. GE proposed a potential new solution for the plant expansion project, and was asked to conduct a pilot, which lasted for a year. The scope of the pilot was to test technologies the ultra-' ltration/ RO stage of water processing. The advanced wastewater treatment and recycling plant at Sulaibiya is expanding, replacing pressurised systems with submerged hollow fi bre ultra fi ltration membranes