Water. Desalination + reuse
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/827133
14 On Site June 2017 Water.desalination+reuse Jordan gets its first desal facility The new seawater desalination plant was opened by Jordan's prime minister, Hani Al-Mulki (centre, le ), with (from le ), Tarek Dehays, AquaTreat chief executive; Hazim el Nasser, minister of water and irrigation; and (centre, right) Rateb Adwan, assistant director general for quality and desalination. Whatever technical information comes out is going to be important, because it's the first trial of seawater desalination in the Gulf of Aqaba. Tarek Dehays AquaTreat chief executive The SWRO planT iS puRifying high SaliniTy WaTeRS The challengeS • Gulf of Aqaba is a semi-closed and high salinity body of water • Plant uses cooling outtake water from KEMAPCO fertiliser business as its intake water • Jordan's first RO plant blazes a trail for the technology in the country The first seawater desalination plant in Jordan, in the Gulf of Aqaba, began production in April 2017. Jordanian water treatment company AquaTreat, which has previously delivered seawater desalination projects for oil companies in the Arabian Gulf, provided all engineering, construction, and technology. The plant uses a conventional system of microfiltration, ultrafiltration, and reverse osmosis (MF-UF-RO), and has capacity of 15,000 m3/d. The facility uses the cooling water outtake from Arab Fertilisers & Chemicals Industries (KEMAPCO)'s process as its intake water, and returns the RO brine to the fertiliser company's drain. "It is seawater, it's three degrees warmer, plus it's chlorinated. KEMAPCO does its own screening on its PROJecT OveRview intake, and they chlorinate it," says Tarek Dehays AquaTreat chief executive. "The Gulf of Aqaba is a closed gulf in a way. The salinity of the water is higher than normal open water. We're reaching 40,000 to 44,000 parts per million (PPM) intake. A™er lime addition and post treatment, our RO output is 210 to 220 PPM," he says. Water utility Aqaba Water Company buys 70 per cent of the desalinated water, and Arab Fertilisers & Chemicals Industries (KEMAPCO) takes 30 per cent. pROjecT SeTS a pRecedenT influenceR • Developers of tourist villages are pushing for permissions • Data from the AquaTreat plant could provide insight to Red Sea- Dead Sea mega project • country's first SwRO is "self- affirmation" of capability Water supplies in Jordan are increasingly under pressure, including from large numbers of refugees who have been arriving from Syria over the past six years. Now that the Aqaba project has nudged open the door, developers may find it easier to push ahead with future desalination projects, whether for drinking and sanitation for local populations, or for business and industry. One area of demand is from property developers that want to build tourist complexes, and are in talks with the government for permissions to build desalination facilities. The other development on the horizon is the Red Sea- Dead Sea mega project, a major infrastructure scheme that aims to protect the Dead Sea and to boost water supply for Israel, MARkeT OPPORTuNiTieS Jordan, and Palestine. The proposal is for a 220,000 m3/d SWRO desalination plant on the Gulf of Aqaba, whose brine will be piped 180 kilometres across the country to replenish the Dead Sea. AquaTreat's project can be seen a positive step towards realising the Red- Dead project, because it puts down a marker for desalination technology in Jordan. "Whatever technical information is coming out is going to be important for the country, because it's the first trial for desalinated water in the Gulf of Aqaba, which is a very sensitive ecosystem, a very closed gulf. It's at the end of the Red Sea, so it's a very particular kind of water from a technical point of view, and it will be interesting for everybody to see the output, how can this water be dealt with, and what problems might arise over time," Tarek says. "Jordan now has its own desalination plant, Jordanian built, Jordanian consumed. This is a self- affirmation that we can do it."