wave Insights from Veolia Water Technologies #2 RESOURCING THE WORLD California drought: What we re learning The largest hybrid desalination plant in the world Energy-efficient pilot project with Masdar CREATING VALUE FOR INDUSTRY Seawater sulfate removal goes deep Fighting resource scarcity, one battle at a time WATER TECHNOLOGIES
Innovative Water Solutions WATER TECHNOLOGIES Through its innovative solutions, Veolia Water Technologies enables industry, local authorities and citizens to optimize their use of resources for more efficient, environmentally-friendly and socially responsible outcomes. We understand the importance of increasing the value of water and we do so by supplying high quality water, treating and reusing wastewater, producing and/or recovering energy, extracting raw materials and capitalizing on valuable byproducts. www.veoliawatertechnologies.com
wave Insights from Veolia Water Technologies 3 Seawater desalination represents an increasingly important solution to the rising water scarcity afflicting many of the world s regions. WORLD LEADER THROUGH TECHNOLOGY With more than 100 years of experience, numerous patented technologies and extensive knowledge in desalination, Veolia Water Technologies is the world leader in assisting municipalities and industries implement desalination strategies. Veolia s desalination offering covers the whole spectrum of the market, from the smallest to the largest production capacity. Veolia subsidiaries build seawater or brackish water desalination plants using three types of solutions: Multiple Effect Distillation (MED), Reverse Osmosis (RO) and Hybrid Desalination which combines MED and RO to optimize electricity use, reducing production costs. Veolia subsidiary SIDEM is the world leader in large-scale thermal desalination and, through its commitment to in-house research & development, has been able to take the lead and maintain a technological gap in the field of desalination plants based on multiple effect technology. Some key references include Marafiq Jubail in Saudi Arabia, Az Zour North in Kuwait, Ras Laffan C in Qatar and Al Hidd in Bahrain. CREATING VALUE Veolia is also a major player in the RO membrane market, having built (and in some cases operating) some of the largest SWRO desalination plants in the world including Ashkelon in Israel, Sydney Kurnell and Gold Coast in Australia, Basrah P4 in Iraq, Sadara Marafiq in Saudi Arabia, Az Zour South in Kuwait and Sur in Oman. Veolia is the only company in the world to master both MED and RO to offer energyefficient hybrid desalination. This solution was implemented in 2010 at the Fujairah 2 plant in the UAE, producing 455,000 m³/d of desalinated water by MED and 136,000 m³/d by RO membranes. In the industrial market, Veolia is able to cover a number of niche applications such as Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) through its HPD evaporation & crystallization processes, and sulfate reduction membrane systems for offshore oil & gas extraction. Veolia, through its subsidiary SIDEM, is also an industry partner collaborating on Masdar s ambitious Renewable Energy Water Desalination Program which aims to implement renewable energy-powered desalination plants in the UAE.
4 WAVE #02 06 CONTENTS 08 12 17 06 California drought: what we re learning 12 Desalination Dashboard 08 Seawater Sulfate Removal Goes Deep 10 The largest hybrid desalination plant in the world
CONTENTS 5 14 20 10 22 14 17 20 22 Energy-efficient pilot project with Masdar Fighting resource scarity, one battle at a time Beach wells for large-scale RO plant Preserving water reources through desalination
6 WAVE #02 California drought: What we re learning An opinion piece by Ed Pinero, SVP Sustainability of Veolia North America The severe drought currently underway in California has taught us many lessons in the areas of planning, governance, behavior, awareness, policy, and of course the science of the environment. include the implications of drought. This means understanding current and projected demand and ensuring that through efficiency, storage, and reuse, there is enough water to go around. Awareness needs to be increased While water is scarce and in highdemand in California right now, drought and water shortages are not new to the state. What s unique now is that the drought coincides with an expanding state economy that could be impacted. Droughts are inevitable and natural; and they re not solely due to manmade climate change. So the solution lies in preparing for drought, not simply hoping it doesn t happen. Water resource strategic planning has to Enough water to go around affects many sectors not just drinking water needs, which actually represent less than 10 percent of freshwater use. Food production, energy generation and industry account for the rest. So, when water is short, there must be governance and policy mechanisms in place to prioritize allocations to all these sectors. This is not easy because some of these sectors have significant impact on quality of life and the economy. California s economy is the seventh-largest in the world, so imagine the implications of curtailing agriculture and food protection in the state. Or imagine limiting industry usage in Silicon Valley, home to a very water-intensive industry. There are two lessons I think are most important. One is that awareness needs
RESOURCING THE WORLD 7 to be increased so people understand the true urgency around droughts and growth. Having to reduce lawn watering or car washing is not really a crisis or sacrifice; it s an inconvenience. Look at Sao Paulo, Brazil, where drought has resulted in interruptions in basic water supply to homes and major disruptions in commerce. The messaging and recommendations have to be more aggressive about more wholesale efficiency improvements. The recent commitment by farmers to use less water is very encouraging. Secondly, planning has to be long term and strategic, not reactionary. California ironically sits adjacent to one of the largest bodies of water in the world, the Pacific Ocean, but it is salty. California also generates much wastewater due to its population. But we know droughts are coming and without policies, infrastructure and mechanisms to allow wider scale use of desalination and reuse of treated water, these resources go untapped. Establishing the governance and infrastructure to do this takes time. It cannot be built overnight, especially in the middle of the drought when everyone is in panic mode. Sustainability is the balance of environmental, economic and societal needs. Focusing on only one or two of these aspects can lead to trouble. Contrast this situation to Australia, another strong economy in a drought and water shortage-prone area. What has made them successful is their strategic and long-term embracing of reuse and desalination as sustainable solutions. Planning has to be long term and strategic, not reactionary
8 WAVE #02 Seawater sulfate removal goes deep
CREATING VALUE FOR INDUSTRY 9 Among the major challenges in the increasingly complex environment of offshore oil systems are the space and weight limitations on what the industry calls topsides: oil platforms and Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) units. With the need to find room for items such as oil and gas processing facilities, power generation utilities, crew living quarters, safety and drilling equipment, the trend in the industry is to look to subsea production systems in which the equipment can be installed under water, on the seabed. One such process that has been shown to be suitable to make the underwater dive is the technology for removing sulfates from seawater, prior to injection into the oil reservoir. The seawater is injected to maintain the pressure in the reservoir, a process known as waterflooding, to increase the oil-production rate and, ultimately, the oil recovery. SPRINGS (Subsea Process and Injection Gear for Seawater) is the underwater membrane solution for sulfate removal, the first time the treatment has been applied in subsea processing. The technology, developed through a joint research program between Total, Saipem and Veolia, has completed a successful subsea deep-water test program and is being readied for full-scale deployment. In addition to reducing topsides space and weight demands, major advantages offered by SPRINGS include simplification of the pretreatment and greater flexibility in the water injection pattern for improved sweeping of the reservoir. Pretreatment is simplified as the higher-quality water from the ocean depths reduces the filtration requirement upstream of the membranes. Placing a dedicated SPRINGS module local to each injection well allows the injection water quality and capacity to be matched to the needs of the reservoir for optimal sweeping. Underwater membrane solution for sulfate removal Sulfate removal is crucial as a scale-control measure in reservoirs containing high levels of barium or calcium to prevent any precipitation or mineral deposition as well as to prevent well souring caused by sulfatereducing bacteria. Seawater sulfate removal units using specialized nanofiltration (NF) membrane systems are widely deployed today on topsides. The standard SPRINGS module has a capacity to treat up to 60,000 barrels of seawater per day. Initial applications are expected to occur either on existing production facilities where a subsea solution may be the only technically or financially viable option for water injection, or on new developments that require long tie-backs to small, remote oil fields for which a subsea solution may be the best economic option. SPRINGS
10 WAVE #02 The largest hybrid desalination plant in the world The most energy-efficient desalination solution Fujairah 2 is the largest hybrid desalination plant in the world, with a capacity equivalent to 595,000 m 3 /day of potable water. The hybrid desalination plant is exceptional not only due to its size but also because it combines the two technologies, Multiple Effect Distillation (MED) and Reverse Osmosis (RO), to which is added a pretreatment Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) system. This state-of-the-art combination has proven to be a solution which meets the requirement for a constant, high quality potable water output, despite vast seasonal variations in the power output as well as algae bloom periods. The desalination plant is linked to a 2,000 MW power plant. The high drinking water demand in the UAE does not vary substantially with the seasons whereas the power demand does: during summer, the power demand is high due to the use of air-conditioning while it is lower during the winter months. Therefore, an innovative hybrid solution including MED and RO was called for to best match the demands from a cost as well as a performance perspective. The hybrid design is the most energy-efficient solution for production of desalinated water today. The MED system composes the first section of the desalination plant and is the largest system of the two. It includes 12 MED units that are driven using steam extracted from the two condensing steam turbines and from the exhaust of the back pressure steam turbine. This provides maximum output from the MED units during the summer. The second part of the desalination plant is based on RO and is driven by power rather than steam hence it can be operated independently of steam output and be used during winter to maintain water output when power demand is low.
RESOURCING THE WORLD 11 Spidflow : a new generation of rapid flotation technology spotlight Red-tide events are often a problem in the region and as such, the leading-edge technical solution put in place at Fujairah 2 also features an innovative pretreatment solution upstream of the RO system: Veolia s Spidflow Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF). Clarification of water containing low density particles is a delicate step, especially during episodes of fast algae growth. Spidflow specifically fits seawater desalination pretreatment as an upstream step of a reverse osmosis membrane treatment chain. It is especially efficient during red-tide algal bloom periods and provides unequalled water treatment efficiency by eliminating over 99% of algae. The efficiency was confirmed during strong algae blooms in February 2011 and March 2013, when Fujairah 2 was able to maintain its daily production capacity while other plants in the region were forced to shut down or greatly reduce their production.
12 WAVE #02 Over 75% of the earth s surface is covered in water: 97% is seawater and only 3% is fresh water 10 countries combine of world s 60% potable water resources 1 billion people live in regions exposed to significant water scarcity representing 22% of the world's GDP Experts estimate that these zones will represent 45% of the GDP in 2050 Installed capacities have increased dramatically since the first desalination technologies appeared in the 60 s, amounting to 74.7 million m³/d today 55% is used by utilities while 43% goes to cover industrial needs Veolia is the global leader in desalination: 12.9 million m 3 /d of contracted capacity in 108 countries, representing 17% of the world s capacity 2,200 desalination units installed There are 2 main technologies to produce potable water from seawater: Hybrid solutions combine advantages of both technologies Thermal technologies (distillation): 30% Membrane technologies (reverse osmosis): 65%
RESOURCING THE WORLD 13 Veolia Desalination Flagships MED Plant Marafiq IWPP, Jubail Az Zour North IWPP Al Fujairah 2 IWPP Ras Laffan C IWPP Country Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Capacity in MLD Operation Start 800 2010 Kuwait 486 2016 United Arab Emirates / Fujairah 455 2010 Qatar 286 2010 Al Hidd IWPP Bahrain 272 2007 Al Taweelah A1 Zawai Derna & Sussa Layyah D12/D13 Ras Al Kaimah United Arab Emirates / Abu Dhabi 240 2002 Libya 160 2009 United Arab Emirates / Sharjah United Arab Emirates / Ajman 77 2006 / 2007 68 2005 RO Plant Country Capacity in MLD Operation Start Ashkelon Israel 392* 2005 / 2010 Sydney Kurnell Australia 250 2010 Basrah P4 Iraq 199 2016 Sadara Marafiq, Jubail Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 179 2015 Al Fujairah 2 United Arab Emirates 136 2010 Az Zour South Kuwait 136 2014 Sur Oman 128** 2009/2016 Gold Coast Australia 125 2010 Campo de Dalías Spain 97 2013 * 2010 Latest expansion ** 2016 Latest expansion
14 WAVE #02 Energy-efficient pilot project with Masdar Located 30 kilometers from Abu Dhabi in the midst of an inhospitable desert, Masdar City aims to be the world s first sustainable smart city, with no carbon footprint. Construction in the United Arab Emirates began in 2008 and is scheduled for completion in 2025. Solar energy and smart buildings will be used to meet Masdar City s goal of zero waste, zero carbon. Masdar has selected Veolia, through its desalination specialist SIDEM, as an industry partner to collaborate on the ambitious Renewable Energy Water Desalination Program launched early 2013. The pilot program aims to test and develop advanced, energy-efficient seawater desalination technologies suitable to be powered by renewable energy sources. The long-term goal of the program is to implement renewable energy-powered desalination plants in the UAE. As technology partners, Veolia and Masdar are sharing the costs to build and operate a pilot plant - the first step of this partnership - that will have the same characteristics as future large scale innovative and low energy consumption desalination plants. Henri Casalis is SIDEM s Project Manager at Masdar. We asked him about the project, the progress made and the future steps. Can you briefly outline the background behind the SIDEM-Veolia project in Abu Dhabi as part of the Masdar Renewable Energy Seawater Desalination Program? Veolia has always been very active in developing new technologies in all disciplines of water treatment. As a major player in desalination for the past several decades, using various processes, Veolia is very involved in the coming challenges of desalination which are linked to environmental protection and energy savings. These are two major components that still have to be improved for the ever-growing desalination demand in water-scarce regions. Our commitment to "Resourcing the World" drives our innovations so when we found out
RESOURCING THE WORLD 15 about Masdar s bid for the development of new desalination technologies, we applied without hesitation as we were eager to implement ongoing developments on several process parts. The project is a so-called pilot plant, which is in fact the exact replica of a large-scale plant, able to produce potable water with the same operation constraints as a large plant. This means that we have to build a small desalination plant that we will operate for more than one year to test its reliability and availability and also to further test the reactions of the plant at its operation limits; the aim being to test the plant beyond the expected operation parameters we are confident with today. It is therefore an ambitious request by Masdar, who expects this program to lead to the discovery of new technologies, pushing them to their operation limits. What energy-efficient or renewable-energy based desalination technology is being developed and used as part of the project? Desalination requires a lot of energy but thankfully, we have come a long way since the early days of desalination and today, around 95% of this energy can be recovered. Various recovery technologies currently coexist, and we will implement a new one that has a better efficiency as it combines advantages of the existing ones. Renewable energy will not be implemented on this program but it can easily be done in the future. It has to be kept in mind that the use of renewable energy doesn t necessarily have to be by means of a dedicated power plant combined with a desalination plant: in the future it is more likely to be one or several renewable energy power plants, with production capacities in proportion with the energy demand, connected on the general power grid. The obvious drawback of solar and wind power is that they cannot feed the plant on a continuous basis, requiring an extra-feeding from the grid, which is why these renewable power plants have to be connected to the grid and not directly to the desalination plant s substation. Another challenge for solar panel plants will be to figure out how to avoid dust affecting the capacity of the panels, as unfortunately dust goes with dry and sunny areas. Dust is mainly removed manually today, which requires manpower; low energy and automatic dust removal systems are still to be developed for panels. Wind farms do not have this drawback but do represent a noise nuisance even when installed few kilometers away from houses, which implies wind farms can only be built in remote areas, compared to solar panel.
16 WAVE #02 In your view, what are the main advantages of the technology you are testing? The technologies we will implement are new but not experimental, in the sense that we know they will work with a high level of reliability and will not require an additional 5 to 10 years to have them implemented on large-scale plants. We consider they can almost be implemented on large-scale plants today. These technologies all converge to better power efficiency and at the same time, to extended lifetime of the plant. Desalination membranes are sensitive to water quality and their clogging is not as easy to handle as many want to believe, especially in regions where the sea water is warm and rich in organic matters. We refuse to fall into the trend of believing that pretreatment membranes solve any problem just because their filtering mesh is very small. Treating water is not just about removing particles: the clogging of RO membranes is linked to organic matters and bacteria that pass through the pretreatment membranes and develop colonies downstream. Classical technologies do not have this drawback even if perceived as less sophisticated; sophistication does not always go with improvement. What progress have you made on the project so far? And, what is next? The first components were delivered to the site in February and assembly time was quite short thanks to a modular design. Construction was completed at the end of April and after pretreatment commissioning, the plant was started-up at the end of June. Today, the plant is producing potable water! what a large plant could achieve in terms of availability and main performances. The pretreatment filtration is maintaining a good Silt Density Index at all times to protect our Reverse Osmosis membranes while the intervals between filter backwashes are kept very large. Following the Operations phase will be a Research and Development period during which we will use all the opportunities given by our design to push the limits of our system and try to reach the very best energy consumption and plant recovery possible, and learn from it. Looking ahead, what do you think are the prospects for the use of energy-efficient and renewable energy-based desalination technology across the Middle East? The Gulf countries have long understood the necessary use of renewable energy, especially that from the sun which is a major resource for them. They are actually very proactive in this field and are pushing the industry to develop better, larger and more reliable units. So our natural prospects for renewable energies are first in the Gulf and also in other areas of the world where water scarcity is combined with a lot of sun and/or wind. As far as our new technologies are concerned we are ready to implement them on all our desalination plants. We are currently undertaking a reliability and optimization period prior to starting the Operations phase of the project which will take place over the next 9 months. We will demonstrate on the Pilot Plant scale
CREATING VALUE FOR INDUSTRY 17 Fighting resource scarcity, one battle at a time Big problems call for big ambitions. With the planet confronted by global warming, world hunger, exploding urbanization and resource scarcity, Veolia s newly adopted mission description, Resourcing the World, seems appropriately scaled. The global tagline reflects the company s determination to help break society s resource consumption dependency and switch to a sustainable use-and-recover approach. The performance-improving solutions Veolia delivers to its customers provide access to needed resources while at the same time preserving and replenishing them. and creating new, more efficient, better balanced and more sustainable growth models is an ongoing commitment, says Veolia Water Technologies Senior Executive Vice President, Klaus Andersen. It s a campaign we fight one battle at a time, project by project, delivering solutions that can then be leveraged throughout the world. Not that the company plans to respond to all of the planet s challenges all at once. Rethinking our relationship with resources
18 WAVE #02 The plant is designed to process 66,700 barrels per day of produced water On the front lines: water scarcity The combination of resource stewardship with performance improvement is visible in Veolia s ability to help fulfill the needs of industrial customers for one of the earth s vital but increasingly stressed resources: water. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates that 1.5 billion people today live in areas seriously affected by water scarcity with that number projected to increase to almost 4 billion by 2050, absent adoption of more sustainable practices. As water is increasingly a global environmental and humanitarian challenge, access and use of the resource is becoming a major issue for many industrial customers. Veolia s ability to deliver sustainable solutions that protect water resources is a real competitiveness driver. Enabling sustainable oilfield expansion In the San Ardo Field in Monterey County, California, Chevron needed a solution for its water needs to enable increased oil production. The 2,500-acre field is the 13th largest oil field in the state, with an estimated ultimate oil recovery of 530 million barrels. Chevron s oil production had been declining in recent years, due to limited capacity for disposing of the produced water that comes to the surface as part of the oil and gas extraction process. The challenge for producing the remaining heavy oil was to remove the excess water from the reservoir, which can range from 10 to 20 times the oil production rate. Working with Chevron, Veolia designed and built a new membrane-based water desalination facility to allow a portion of the produced water to be treated and discharged to a shallow fresh water aquifer (pictured left). The project, commissioned in October 2007, was the first produced water desalination facility in the world to use Veolia s OPUS technology, which has proven to be a reliable and robust process for successfully treating produced water for surface discharge. OPUS combines high-rate chemical softening, with filtration, ion exchange and reverse osmosis. The plant is designed to process 66,700 barrels per day of produced water with a recovery factor of 75%, translating into an effluent treated water rate of 50,000 barrels per day. The multiple-treatment process is effective in removing contaminants to meet the requirements for beneficial reuse discharge to aquifer recharge basins via post-treatment constructed wetlands. This is a priority particularly evident in the dynamic energy area, as illustrated through some recently completed projects. The implementation of the OPUS water reclamation technology / desalination allowed Chevron to meet its water needs with recycled water and expand its current area of steam-enhanced production into idled,
CREATING VALUE FOR INDUSTRY 19 previously developed portions of the field. In more recent development for oil and gas application, OPUS II streamlines pretreatment through the use of CeraMem ceramic membranes to improve oil removal. water. These particles float to the surface as a froth and are skimmed into a launder. The introduction of gas is performed by an eductor, which uses effluent as its motive fluid, provided by one of the two recirculation pumps located on a companion skid package. OPUS II streamlines pretreatment through the use of CeraMem ceramic membranes to improve oil removal. Helping to ensure clean oil sands development In Alberta s Athabasca region, Veolia is helping independent oil and gas exploration production company Devon Energy Corporation conserve water resources and reduce the footprint of producing oil from oil sands. Veolia s Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) is enabling Devon to produce up to 35,000 barrels per day of bitumen at its Jackfish 2 Project, where total recoverable reserves are estimated at over 300 million barrels. Devon needed a solution that is robust, compact, easy to install and simple to maintain to separate oil and gas from water and other waste. Veolia s response included the design, engineering, fabrication and supply of a full size AUTOFLOT Model AHP280 Induced Gas Flotation (ISF) unit. The unit separates oil from produced water or other oily water streams. Hydrophobic particles attaches to the small gas bubbles added into a mixture of oil, fine solids and With the use of Veolia s proprietary filtering and separating technology, it is helping improve access to resources by Devon in recycling and reusing the water required in the SAGD process. Based upon the successful integration of the ISF on Jackfish 2, Devon also asked Veolia to provide a second ISF unit for its Jackfish 3 project. Long-running commitment While projects such as these underline how technology solutions can help drive new behaviors, it s not a new role for Veolia. For over 160 years, Veolia has been helping cities and industries worldwide manage, optimize and make the most of their water resources. Resourcing the World simply captures this commitment and better communicates the company s determination to be part of the solution to the natural resource challenges it faces. A mission the company is obviously tackling with passion and enthusiasm...one battle at a time.
20 WAVE #02 - - Beach - wells - for large-scale RO plant Natural filtration provided by beach well catchment system Desalination of seawater provides a viable solution when faced with potable water scarcity. Thanks to innovative technologies, desalination has become increasingly more ecologically and economically efficient. Limited resources and growing needs for water have triggered an increased focus on water conservation in the Sultanate of Oman. The Sur Desalination Plant has put much effort into reducing the environmental impact of the desalination process. To that end, two avenues were selected an innovative water intake based on beach wells and an energy recuperation and reuse system through Energy Recovery Devices (ERD). Project background In 2007, Veolia was awarded the contract to Build, Own and Operate Sur s Desalination plant, the first independent desalination project in Oman. Work and commissioning were completed in January 2010 and Veolia has been operating the plant since, on a 20-year contract, providing 80,000 m 3 /d of drinking water to the region s 350,000 inhabitants. In 2014, Veolia in partnership with the national Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP) celebrated the extension of the contract and announced that an additional 51,000 m 3 /d would be added to the existing capacity, bringing the total to 131,000 m 3 /d.
RESOURCING THE WORLD 21 An innovative approach Sur is the world s biggest RO plant connected to beach wells, an innovative water intake system based on natural filtration. Rather than pumping water from the sea through open intake pipes, 80-meter deep beach wells pump it directly onshore from the ground. The natural sand filtration allows for a lighter pretreatment and provides a better water quality: the highly-flexible pumping design ensures constant salinity, low temperature variation and low ph, making for a very stable quality of seawater, even during red-tide algal bloom periods or oil and hydrocarbons spillage in the area. The durability of the RO membranes is optimized thanks to very low colloidal clogging. The highquality raw seawater also allows for much lower pretreatment process installation costs as well as a decrease of 64% in the total chemical consumption for this treatment step. The high-pressure pumps used in the reverse osmosis process tend to require a lot of energy, so reducing the energy consumption of the plant was a key requirement at Sur. To optimize and reduce the final product price and the impact on the environment, highlyefficient Energy Recovery Devices (ERD) were integrated in the RO building. With 24 energy recovery facilities, the DWEER ERD system allows a high recovery grade of 97% of the energy, and vibrations and noise diminution below 85 DB. One of the main challenges at Sur was to reduce the environmental impact of the desalination process. Veolia provided an innovative solution covering the whole production cycle, from water intake to the reduction of energy consumption and recuperation. High performance Energy Recovery Devices
22 WAVE #02 Preserving water resources through desalination Reduces water collection from aquifers to comply with Spain s sustainability commitment Located in Almeria, Spain, the Campo Dalias reverse osmosis desalination plant was completed in November 2014. With a nominal production capacity in the current phase of 30 Hm 3 /year and a daily production rate of 97,200 m 3, it is the fifth largest facility of its kind in Spain. Designed and built by Veolia Water Technologies Spanish office as part of a joint venture, the Campo Dalias desalination facility is part of a national desalination program launched by the Spanish Ministry for Agriculture, Food and Environment, called Programa Agua. This program, promoted by state owned company ACUAMED, aims to drive a water policy reorientation that takes advantage of available water resources in order to fight water shortages and drought conditions in the southeast of the country. The Campo Dalias treatment line is comprised of an open water intake from Mediterranean Sea via submarine pipe, double-stage multimedia pressure filtration and a double-pass reverse osmosis process. This first pass consists of six reverse osmosis skids equipped with an Energy Recovery System (ERS) in the form of isobaric chambers. This allows for recovery of up to 95% of the brine pressure which is then transferred to the feed in order to reduce pumping requirements. The brine of the first pass is discharged back to the sea via submarine pipe. The second pass reverse osmosis, also comprised of six skids, is dedicated toward reducing the boron concentration in the permeate water in order to comply with irrigation requirements. The desalinated water is then post-treated through remineralization and an added final disinfection step ensures the product water reaches the delivery points in suitable conditions for both human consumption and irrigation. The product water distribution network is also part of the work scope which includes the execution of a product water pumping station, a 4.5 km pressure pipeline, an elevated storage tank and a 40 km gravity distribution network which delivers the product water to end users. The treated water is used for both irrigation and drinking water applications, contributing to reducing water collection from aquifers thus allowing for natural regeneration and complying with the Spanish Ministry of Environment s water sustainability commitment. Commissioning of the plant is ongoing until October 2015 with O&M works expected to come into force in November. From then, Veolia Water Technologies will operate the Campo Dalias plant for 15 years.
Publication Director: Axel Ensinger Chief editor: Clément Leveaux Coordination: Manon Painchaud, Séverine Le Bideau Contributors to this issue: Dr. Mourad Ben Boudinar, Henri Casalis, William Mengebier, Manon Painchaud, Ed Pinero Design: Veolia Water Technologies Graphic Design Team Photo credits: Veolia photo library / Christophe Besson / Christophe Majani d Inguimbert / Stephane Lavoue / Jean-Francois Pellegry / Imag in / R. Secco / Fotolia Cover: Veolia photo library / Stephane Lavoue Printing: AlphaGraphics 09/2015
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