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Water Desalination ReporT

Saudi Arabia

IWPP put on hold

A planned power and desalination plant at Jubail on SaudiArabias east coast has been postponed for the time being,

reports Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC)

governor Feheid Alshareef. The plant, which was to have

produced 340,000 m3/d (90 MGD) of water and 1,100

MW of power, has been combined with another project

at Jubail being undertaken by Maraq. The Maraq

project, which involves construction of an 800,000 m3/d

(211 MGD) desal plant and 2,500 MW power facility,

attracted three offers in late April, including one based

on MED technology (WDR 15 May, issue 19).

Of the 800,000 m3/d of water produced in the Maraqplant, 500,000 m3/d will be supplied to SWCC and the

Water & Electricity Company (WEC), the off-taker of

power and water from the Kingdoms IWPPs. For the

time being, the Jubail IWPP is postponed as the water

quantity needed will be met by the Maraq project,

said Alshareef.

Alshareef also reported that a proposed 30,000 m3/d (8

MGD) desalination facility for the oil city of Khafji,

also on the Kingdoms east coast, is under technical and

economic evaluation. The plant would supply water to

areas inside the Eastern Province. An alternative, whichis also under consideration, is to get the water through a

pipeline from the town of Nairea in the Eastern Province

and connect Khafji to the Ras Azzour, Nairea, Hafr Al-

Batn, Riyadh pipeline system.

California

SWRO project takes next step

The Municipal Water District of Orange County

(MWDOC) will issue RFPs on Tuesday of this week

for a preliminary engineering report to determine the

feasibility for a full-scale 25 MGD seawater desalination

plant to be located at Dana Point. Project deliverables

are understood to include six technical memos (TM)

addressing the following areas:

TM-1 Feedwater supply system evaluation of slant-well,

subsurface intake arrangement currently being tested.

TM-2 SWRO desalination, pretreatment and post-

treatment systems.

TM-3 Distribution pumping connection to the regional

distribution system.

TM-4 Concentrate and residuals disposal arrangement,

with the preferred approach involving concentrate co-

discharge with wastewater plant efuent.

TM-5 Power supply system evaluation.

TM-6 Preliminary cost estimate for a 25 MGD seawater

desalination plant.

Only the above described engineering report will be

authorized under this contract, however consultantswill be encouraged to submit information on a proposed

team that could continue on in the role of Owners

Representative (OR) if the project moves forward. If that

occurs, the OR will be responsible for developing a pilot

plant design, engineering studies, handling permitting

requirements, and preparing a 10 to 30 percent cost

estimate and DBO bid package.

The budget for this portion of the project is estimated

at $200,000 and responses will be due by 20 June. For

further information, or to obtain the RFP, contact Richard

Bell at rbell@mwdoc.com

Jordan

Local rm provides ro expertise

After completing the rst full year of operation at the Abu

Zeghan Brackish Wells Desalination Plant, AquaTreats

Tarek Abu Dehays told WDR that the company was

looking forward to operating the system for the next four

years of the contract, and possibly longer.

The 60,000 m3/d (15.8 MGD) BWRO plant was installed

on a design, build basis in October 2004 for $4.99 million,which included an initial operating services contract.

On 26 April 2005, AquaTreat was awarded a $7 million

contract to operate the plant for the next ve years.

Although the operations contract includes all labor and

chemical costs, the electrical costs are the responsibility

of Jordans Ministry of Water & Irrigation.

Tom Pankratz, Editor, P.O. Box 75064, Houston, Texas 77234-5064 USA

Telephone: +1-281-857-6571, www.globalwaterintel.com/wdr, email: tp@globalwaterintel.com

2006 Media Analytics. Published in cooperation with Global Water Intelligence

22 May 2006Volume 42, Number 20

The international weekly for desalination and advanced water treatment since 1965

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Dehays describes the system, Seven brackish wells

furnish the plant with feedwater that has a TDS ranging

from 5,000 to 7,000 mg/L. The water is high in sulphates,

bicarbonates, CO2

and iron, and has a high temperature.

We rst pre-aerate the water to oxidize the iron then it isltered in one of 15 horizontal pressure lters, followed

by 5-micron cartridge lters. Filtrate is then injected

with an anti-scalant and pressurized using ve high

pressure pumps, each with a capacity of 500 m3/hr and

an operating head of 23 bars (335 psi).

The two-stage RO plant operates at a 75% recovery with

RO concentrate and lter backwash water are discharged

to the Dead Sea via a low-ow river referred to in Arabic

as a wadi.

Like the nearby Wadi Main BWRO plant (WDR, 27

March, issue 12) scheduled to be commissioned later this

year, the Abu Zeghan product water must pump up to the

city of Amman, a change in elevation of 1,125 meters

(3,690 ft).

Colorado

UF with & without pretreatment

Consolidated Mutual Water Company (CMWC) in has

selected Zenon UF membranes for a new, 15 MGD

(56,775 m3/d) surface water treatment plant in Lakewood,

Colorado. CMWC is a nonprot corporation that followsthe original pattern of early cooperatives where the

ownership is held by its water users. Since it was rst

formed by the merger of four water companies in 1910,

ten other water systems have joined the company.

The new water system will treat reservoir water that is

prone to turbidity, algae and manganese excursions. Prior

to selecting the new system, a pilot study involving Pall,

Memcor and Zenon systems was conducted. Based on a

20-year life cycle cost analysis, a $3.9 million Zeeweed

1000 system was selected. Zenon regional manager Ron

Maness told WDR that The system will operate withoutocculation or sedimentation for the rst years operation.

After the pretreatment system has been constructed, we

believe the ux will be able to be increased by a minimum

of 15 percent. The resulting increased capacity and long

cycles between chemical cleanings should easily offset

the cost of the pretreatment systems capital cost.

The project is scheduled for an early 2008 startup, and

the project engineer/manager were Malcolm Pirnies

Jack Bryck (Phoenix) and Laurie Sullivan (Denver).

Israel

SWRO product quality options

Bids for Hadera desalination project have been extended

from 31 May until the end of June. The three teams

understood to be bidding include GE, Inima/Aqualia and

IDE Technologies. Specications outline a 272,765 m3/d

(72 MGD) SWRO project similar to Ashkelon, but with

a slightly different product water quality specication.

Requirements are to achieve a product water boron

concentration of less than 0.3 mg/L to satisfy agricultural

concerns. An interesting twist is having a choice to

produce water with a chloride concentration of either 20

mg/L or 70 mg/L. The same boron requirement applies

to both options, but the higher chloride concentration

will carry an automatic penalty of $0.015/ m3.

It would seem that the boron limit which is lower than

the WHO 0.5 mg/L guideline would be the limiting

requirement here. The question seems to be: will a

partial second pass followed by boron selective ion

exchange have a lower evaluated tariff when the penalty

is applied? Bidders must choose one chloride level to

base their design upon so well have to wait and see if

competing congurations and technologies are offered.

RO Warranties

The value of paperA warrantys purpose is to ensure a buyer receives the

quality and performance they have been promised for

a reasonable period of time. Fundamentally, membrane

warranties are good for business and should protect both

the manufacturer and end user. If a membrane warranty

is to be practical, effective and enforceable, certain

commercial facts of life must be recognized. Although

the clich that a membrane warranty is not worth the

value of the paper on which it is printed is commonly

heard, can a manufacturer really be expected to provide

a meaningful guarantee for conditions or performancebeyond its reasonable control?

When RO membranes were rst introduced in the 1960s,

they were sold with a fairly simple, 12-month materials

and workmanship (M&W) warranty. Although the

early systems operated well enough that the industry

continued to grow, there was still a lot to learn about

the importance of pretreatment and proper O&M, and

scaling and/or fouling issues contributed to more than

their fair share of warranty claims.

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In response to these problems, the original equipment

manufacturers (OEM), consultants and end users started

asking for a performance warranty that went beyond a

simple M&W warranty. DuPont Permasep offered a three

year prorated warranty on individual membrane elementsin the early 1970s. Torays Randy Truby told WDR, I

wrote my rst 36-month performance warranty in 1976.

Those early warranties offered to replace elements up

to one full load, or 100 percent limit of liability, on a

battery-basis where the prorated fee was equal to the

time the elements met performance criteria in terms of a

minimum ow and salt rejection. If an element lasted 18

months, it was replaced at half price.

Another industry expert agrees, noting, In the old days,

warranty issues were easy: if a membrane failed in less

than three years, it was replaced, even when the servicewas severe. But as the system sizes grew, the stakes

increased and membrane warranties can now easily end

up in arbitration.

Membrane warranties have evolved into systems

warranties covering the full complement of membranes

operating on a specied feedwater under a range of

conditions to meet minimum ow and salt rejection

characteristics. Variations in warranty provisions may

mean that each train or stage in a system may have a

unique warranty where its possible for individual

elements to be underperforming, but if the entire train/stage meets the specication, the individual element(s)

would not have to be replaced.

These warranties can be very wordy as manufacturers

try to dene and limit the range of operating conditions

and prescribe specic remediation or maintenance steps

required by the operator. In some cases, a warranty may

read like a design manual; a situation that seems to make

everyone nervous, especially if end users interpret it as a

confusing array of contradictory limitations or believes

that a 15-minute excursion beyond a specied SDI limit

will void a warranty. Truby says this is usually not thecase, Most warranties have provisions where a brief

excursion outside the operating boundaries does not void

the warranty unless membrane damage has occurred.

Hydranautics contract specialist Scott Jackson toldWDR,

Membrane companies manufacture a product that is

incorporated into a system designed, manufactured,

operated and maintained by others, and we usually have

no control whatsoever over their activities. Keep in mind

that in todays market, RO membranes represent less than

ten percent of the total brackish system cost and no

more than ve percent of a seawater systems cost. At

the same time, membrane manufacturers are routinely

expected to bear the bulk of the nancial risk for the

long-term performance of the complete system.

Recently, some manufacturers have even been asked

to supply an evergreen warranty that requires each

element that is replaced under a ve-year performance

warranty include an additional ve-year warranty.

Because such an arrangement carries a liability in

excess of 100 percent, most manufactures usually

refuse. From a technical standpoint, it is also a

questionable practice to replace only some individual

elements within a pressure vessel. Mixing new and old

elements leads to an imbalance of ux and differential

pressures where new elements tend to produce morewater at lower pressure and over-ux while the older

elements may see less feedwater. This could result in

accelerated fouling or scaling. Element replacement

should be done with an eye to balancing the loading

of old and new elements if they are to be mixed in the

same train.

Most membrane warranties are now required to

normalize operating data as a condition of warranty.

Normalization occurs when a membranes performance

at a current operating condition is stated against its

expected performance based on the design conditions.Some membrane companies have the capability to

access real-time membrane performance data over the

internet to guide end users in the operation of their

plants.

Jackson correctly notes, Todays generation of

membrane products provide superior, stable, and very

long term performance when operated on the feedwater

quality specied by the membrane manufacturers,

under the proper hydraulic conditions, and with regular

and proper maintenance.

It is this newspapers view that the trend to place evergreater and longer term nancial risk on the membrane

manufacturers does not serve either the end users,

OEMs, consultants or membrane manufacturers. It is a

bit like the current US health care system that everyone

doctors, hospitals and patients seem to dislike:

substantial additional cost is added to the health care

system and the only ones who prot are insurance

companies and lawyers.

The more elaborate and safe a warranty appears, the

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more it will inevitably cost. Assuming membranes

are purchased from a reputable manufacturer who

practices good quality control, the best warranty

prevention strategy appears to be a sound design with

proper pretreatment and accurate, normalized data

monitoring, and one in which the end user, consultant,

OEM and membrane manufacture understand they arein a long-term partnership.

In brief

Poseidon Resources is continuing with the evaluation of

the EPC proposals for the Carlsbad and Huntington

Beach SWRO projects. Although one expected bidder

reportedly didnt submit a proposal, the other turnkey

offers were in line with previous indicative pricing.

EPC contracts are still planned to be awarded at the

end of June. Poseidon also told WDR that it received

the draft NPDES permit for Carlsbad last week.Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Department

(ADWEA) has opened talks with Suez Energy, the

second-ranked bidder, relating to the acquisition of

the Fujairah IWPP in the UAE. The Suez offer is

0.4 percent higher than the $1.343.8 million apparent

low bid for the 454,000 m3/d (100 MIGD) hybrid

desalination plant and 662 MW power plant offered

by SembCorp Utilities of Singapore. SembCorp is

said to remain condent of a contract award.

The National Water Research Institute (NWRI)

has named Dr Philip C. Singer of the University ofNorth Carolina as this years recipient of the Athalie

Richardson Irvine Clarke Prize for excellence in water

research. His water research activities have spanned

a broad range of water quality issues, particularly in

areas of drinking water disinfection. The award will

be presented in a ceremony on 13 July.

Chemical engineering students at Qatar University

presented their senior projects to university and

industry representatives last week. Projects included

those from Mohamed al-Shahwani (An experimental

study in dynamics of desalination using MED),Mohamed al-Mohamady (Desalination of brackish

water using RO), and Lee Hodder (Sustainable

industrial water treatment pilot plant design).

Alberta, Canadas Court of the Queens Bench has

issued a nal order approving the acquisition of

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Zenons outstanding common and non-voting shares

by GE. The court determined the terms and conditions

of the acquisition to be fair and reasonable to the

security holders. The arrangement is expected to be

completed about 1 June.

To promote water conservation, San Diegos

Olivenhain Municipal Water District awarded giftcerticates to local residents who did the best job in

installing water-wise landscapes. Residents were

judged on the basis of water conservation and function

using local plants, energy efciency, and the use of

water harvesting designs. 50 to 70 percent of household

water in the area is used outdoors. Information on

water conservation landscape techniques are available

at http://www.bewaterwise.com/

People

Christ Kennicott Water Technology has announced

that Scott Barrie has joined the company to support

its growth in the municipal water sector, including an

expanding interest in the desalination market. Barrie

was with Weir Westgarth for 17 years and will now be

based in Christs newly established Glasgow, Scotland

ofce. He can be contacted at Scott.Barrie@christwt.

co.uk

Robert J. Quint was named director of operations for

the US Bureau of Reclamation. He began his career

Reclamation in 1978 and served as regional liaison

ofcer and chief of staff. He also spent 2005 in Iraq as

senior consultant to the Ministry of Water Resources.

Transition

Long time desalter Ron Magnani, passed away last

week from injuries received in an automobile accident.

Ron worked for Hydranautics from 1980 to 1995 where

his last project was the successful construction and

installation of the Oceanside, California BWRO. He

joined TriSep in 1995 where he managed engineering

and facilities. He was also responsible for converting

the equipment used to produce at sheet membranes.

TriSep general manager Peter Knappe told WDR, Ron

was an energetic and passionate person who loved the

water industry. Ron was 62 years old and leaves two

children, Jonathon and Alicia. A service was held at the

Santa Barbara Mission last Wednesday.

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