Water Desalination ReporT

The international weekly for desalination and advanced water treatment since 1965
Volume 42, Number 20 22 May 2006

Saudi Arabia IWPP put on hold

A planned power and desalination plant at Jubail on Saudi Arabias 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 Marafiq. The Marafiq 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 Marafiq plant, 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 Marafiq 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, which is 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 AlBatn, Riyadh pipeline system.

TM-2 SWRO desalination, pretreatment and posttreatment systems. TM-3 Distribution pumping connection to the regional distribution system. TM-4 Concentrate and residuals disposal arrangement, with the preferred approach involving concentrate codischarge with wastewater plant effluent. 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 consultants will 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 firm provides ro expertise

After completing the first 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 five years. Although the operations contract includes all labor and chemical costs, the electrical costs are the responsibility of Jordans Ministry of Water & Irrigation.

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.

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.

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WATER DESALINATION REPORT - 22 May 2006

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 first pre-aerate the water to oxidize the iron then it is filtered in one of 15 horizontal pressure filters, followed by 5-micron cartridge filters. Filtrate is then injected with an anti-scalant and pressurized using five 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 filter backwash water are discharged to the Dead Sea via a low-flow 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).

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. Specifications outline a 272,765 m3/d (72 MGD) SWRO project similar to Ashkelon, but with a slightly different product water quality specification. 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 configurations and technologies are offered.

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 nonprofit corporation that follows the original pattern of early cooperatives where the ownership is held by its water users. Since it was first 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 without flocculation or sedimentation for the first years operation. After the pretreatment system has been constructed, we believe the flux 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).

RO Warranties The value of paper

A 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 performance beyond its reasonable control? When RO membranes were first 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 elements in the early 1970s. Torays Randy Truby told WDR, I wrote my first 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 flow 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 service was 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 specified feedwater under a range of conditions to meet minimum flow 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 specification, the individual element(s) would not have to be replaced. These warranties can be very wordy as manufacturers try to define and limit the range of operating conditions and prescribe specific 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 specified SDI limit will void a warranty. Truby says this is usually not the case, 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 told WDR, 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 five percent of a seawater systems cost. At the same time, membrane manufacturers are routinely expected to bear the bulk of the financial 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 five-year performance warranty include an additional five-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 flux and differential pressures where new elements tend to produce more water at lower pressure and over-flux 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 specified 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 ever greater and longer term financial 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 profit 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 are in a long-term partnership.

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 gift certificates 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 efficiency, 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/

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 confident of a contract award. The National Water Research Institute (NWRI) has named Dr Philip C. Singer of the University of North 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 final order approving the acquisition of

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 office. 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 officer 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 flat 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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