Water. Desalination + reuse
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Water. desalination + reuse December 2016 On Site 17 Kuwait is extending its reuse capacity The piloT • A year-long pilot was conducted to test new solutions activity ocean water • GE wanted to convince all project partners of the benefits of its proposed approach The goals • To increase capacity of the water reclamation plant to 600,000 m3/d • To reduce the overall cost of operations • Expansion works are expected to be completed in 2017 The Kuwaiti authorities wanted to expand the capacity of the plant, and there was a question over whether to roll out more of the existing technologies or to take a step forward and use newer products. The option to make use of new developments also presented an opportunity potentially to reduce costs, including reducing the footprint of the plant, and cutting construction costs, maintenance costs, and other operational costs including energy. Expansion project GE conducted a year-long pilot to demonstrate the efficiency of its proposed technological solutions. The pilot project focused on upgrading the ultra-filtration systems, replacing the existing pressurised systems with submerged hollow fibre ultra- filtration technology, namely the GE ZeeWeed 1000 ultra-filtration system. "The aim of expanding the plant with GE's advanced technologies is to increase the wastewater treatment capacity with greater efficiency and reduced environmental footprint," says Nauman Rashid, marketing director, Middle East and Africa, for GE Water & Process Technologies. "The ZeeWeed system is ideal for retrofits and large plants," he adds. The benefits of the GE system for the Sulaibiya site include that it handles higher solids loading, and feed quality variability, better than a pressurised system, and that it has lower lifecycle cost for plants of more than 1,000 m3/d. Additionally, the footprint is smaller, meaning that costs are lower owing to reduced heating, ventilation, and air conditioning costs, lower social costs, and a faster construction period. Specifically, the submerged ZW 1000 design uses 14 trains with 280 major valves, which is less kit than would be used with an equivalent pressurised ultra- filtration design. The technology is applicable in "direct filtration, coagulation, tertiary filtration, multi-media filter retrofits, and pre-treatment for reverse osmosis," Rashid says. This article is based on a presentation given at the International Desalination Association (IDA) International Water Reuse and Recycling Conference, in Nice, France, 2016, and subsequently published in the conference proceedings. The RO membrane stacks at Sulaibiya Plant The RO water recycling plant at Sulaibiya covers the catchment areas of Ardiya, Jahara, and Rekka around Kuwait Bay, and currently receives 60 per cent of Kuwait's domestic wastewater. looK Preliminary pumping station at Ardiya looK Sulaibiya Wastewater Treatment and Recycling plant services Kuwait City and surrounds