A desalination plant Veolia Environnement has just completed in Bahrain.

DESALINATION

Desalination distilled: basic facts and the role of stainless steel

Desalination is growing at a phenomenal pace, thus representing a major opportunity for stainless steel suppliers. Stainless Steel World looks at the What, Where and How of desalination and outlines the role played by CRAs and titanium.

Growing world population, pollution, climate change and industrialisation are among the factors behind what is generally acknowledged as a global water crisis1. Obviously, freshwater conservation is vitally necessary to ensure adequate supplies of drinking water, but desalination is also increasingly seen as part of the solution.

Why is desalination needed?

USA and Spain. The Middle East, China, Japan and Australia are all significant growth areas.2

Who is providing it?

The worlds top five desalination companies since 2000 in terms of capacity supplied have been Veolia Environnement (France), Fisia Italimpianti (Italy), Doosan Hydro (USA) GE Water (USA) and Suez Environnement (France). Several desalination companies are also located in Spain.

Where are desalination plants being built?

The top four countries for desalination projects are Saudi Arabia (which relies on desalination for 70% of its water), UAE,
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Desalination projects are mushrooming at an almost exponential rate. The amount of contracted (planned) capacity grew by a staggering 43% in 2006-7 and by 39% in 2007-8.3 Also, plants are getting bigger, which reduces costs. Here again, the rate of increase is phenomenal: average plant capacity increased from 166,400 m3/d in 2006 to 294,400 m3/d this year, a 77% increase. Estimates about the number of desalination plants vary, but according to the IDA there were 13,869 in the world as of 30 June 2008. Apart from land installations, desalination units on ships provide drinking water and boiler feedwater. Global Water Intelligence has predicted a compound annual growth rate of around 13% a year from a 2006 base.4
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How fast is desalination growing?

The main techniques used to separate salt and other undesired substances from water are: 1. Reverse osmosis (RO). Water is pushed at high pressure through a semi-permeable polymer membrane at a pressure greater than the osmotic pressure caused by the dissolved salts. The membranes let water through but reject the passage of salt ions. RO can be divided into SWRO (seawater RO) and BWRO (brackish water RO). The osmotic pressure of brackish waters is much lower than that of seawater or brine. 2. Electrodialysis (ED). Like RO, this is a membrane separation process. The waters ionic components are isolated through the use of semi-permeable, ionselective membranes operating in a DC electric field. 3. Multiple effect distillation (MED). A thinfilm evaporation process where the vapour formed in one chamber condenses in the next, providing a heat source for further evaporation. Because
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How does desalination work?

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Energy Recoverys PX pressure exchanger is reducing energy consumption in desalination plants. It uses a super-austenitic, AL-6XN, in its construction. Process trains at the Tampa Bay Water desalination plant. Courtesy Tampa Bay Water.

the boiling point of water decreases as pressure decreases, the vapour boiled off in one vessel can be used to heat the next one. When a compressor is used, the technology is known as MED-TVC (thermal vapour compression) and MEDMVC (mechanical vapour compression). 4. Multistage flash evaporation (MSF). Like MED, this is a thermal processes that produces distilled water. A stream of brine flows through the bottom of a succession of chambers, each operating at a successively lower pressure than the previous. A proportion of it flashes into steam and is then condensed. As of October 2008, 59% of the worlds desalination plants were using RO technology, 27% MSF, 9% MED, 4% ED and 1% other technologies. Since 2004, MED capacity has increased by 90%.

What are the conditions, and what materials and equipment do they require?

1. Conditions. Saltwater causes localised corrosion (pitting, crevice and intergranular). An additional hazard in high-temperature saltwater (as found in the Arabian peninsular) is stress corrosion cracking. Sand can cause erosion. 2. Equipment. Pumps and valves are mostly cast in 316L (or 316 for brackish water or product water). Unlike steam-driven processes (MED and MSF), membrane processes (RO and ED) require electrically driven pumps to push the water through the membrane. In SWRO, a pressure of

around 70 bar (1000 psi) is required. Main feed pumps are usually of the multistage centrifugal type. In MSF, brine recirculation pumps are used and the material requirements are tougher than for RO because the brine is recycled at 80C and is very corrosive. 3. Materials. From the early desalination plants, built just after World War II, to the present, there has been a marked trend away from carbon steel in favour of stainless 300 grades. In time, however, it was found that the 300 grades were unable to withstand the most severe corrosion conditions. For instance in 1994 it was revealed that 316L liner plates in the flash chambers of a MSF plant on the Arabian Gulf coast had developed severe corrosion within six years of operation.5

What are the snags?

1. Costs. Desalination consumes large amounts of energy. RO involves no phase changes, so is less energy-consuming than distillation. Also, ongoing advances in RO and MED technologies are reducing both costs and energy consumption. For instance, Energy Recoverys PX pressure exchanger (which is made of alumina ceramic, FRP and AL-6XN superaustenitic stainless steel) recaptures energy from the waste stream and redirects it back into the system (see photo). Costs can be further reduced by using the turbines of power stations to power desalination units (cogeneration). Hybrid plants couple a combination of SWRO and MSF with power generation. 2. Pollution. Excessive discharges of salt or brine can upset the ecological balance. 3. Emissions. The processes are energyintensive and give off greenhouse-gas emissions. Desalination using solar power is a solution that is being studied.
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An evaporation chamber by Aquatech for the Ras Tanura LT-MED desalination plant in Saudi Arabia. Photo courtesy: Aquatech.
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supplied duplex grades for several desalination plants in the Middle East. One of these, the Al Hidd plant in Bahrain, was the first to use evaporators made of solid duplex instead of mild steel clad with 316. Outokumpu offers a package of duplex steels of varying degrees of corrosion resistance, depending on the application. For the Shuweihat 2 desalination and power project, UAE, Outokumpu supplied molygrade 2205 duplex for the most severe applications, and LDX 2101 lean duplex for less corrosive areas. Lean duplex 2304 was also supplied for piping, though, according to Hachemi Loucif, Head of Desalination Business at Outokumpu, in time it is likely to be superseded by LDX 2101, which is cheaper and has superior mechanical properties.

What future opportunities exist for stainless steel suppliers?

A desalination plant in Sydney, Australia, built by Veoilia Environnement.

To replace the 300 grades that had failed in severe corrosion conditions, austenitic grades such as 904L and super-austenitics such as 254 SMO (6 moly) were introduced. 254 SMO, which has been widely used in desalination plants since the 1980s, is resistant to chloride stress corrosion cracking, pitting and crevice corrosion and is twice as strong as 300 series stainless steels. 254 SMO is replacing 316L in highpressure piping systems as it can more easily withstand crevice and pitting corrosion. Austenitics became expensive during the recent surge in the Ni price, so end users started to consider duplex as an alternative. Another advantage of duplex is that it

combines corrosion resistance and a favourable weight/strength ratio. For instance, Sandvik has carried out tests showing that SAF 2507 super-duplex has superior resistance to erosion corrosion than austenitics. Lean duplex 2304 has successfully replaced Mo-free Type 304 in desalination as in other industrial sectors. RA Alloys ZERON 100 (UNS S 32760) super-duplex grade has been used in RO plants for high-pressure seawater feed pipe work, seawater intake pumps, high-pressure seawater feed pumps, energy recovery devices and manifolds, valves, and cartridge filter vessels. Outokumpu has been a keen promoter of duplex in desalination plants and has

Given that thirst for water is increasing and the amount of water in the world is not increasing, desalination and water treatment in general look set to remain growth industries. And as long as the water industry remains aware of the favourable life-cycle costs of stainless steel, the opportunities for suppliers of stainless steel, and especially of duplex grades, can only increase.

Table 1 Typical applications of CRAs in desalination plants.

Shells of seawater heat exchangers, water boxes, thermal 316L compressors, pumps High-pressure pumps Duplex 2205 and EN 1.4517 Chemical washing pumps 316Ti and EN 1.4408 Saltwater pressurisation pumps used for sand filtering and 904L, EN 1.4593 for treated water Preheater shell and tube plates 316L, duplex Preheater tubes 316L,Ti or NiCu alloy, duplex Evaporator shells in MSF and MED plants; high-pressure 254 SMO, duplex piping in RO plants Evaporator chamber (bottom) Duplex 2205 Evaporator chamber (top) Duplex LDX 2101 Heat exchanger evaporator/exchanger SAF 2507 Heat exchanger tubes Ti High-pressure seawater feed pipe work, seawater intake ZERON 100 pumps, high-pressure seawater feed pumps, energy recovery devices and manifolds, valves, and cartridge filter vessels Piping Duplex 2304
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1 See my article on water in the January/February 2008 issue of Stainless Steel World. 2 www.idadesal.org/PDF/ida%20 desalination%20snapshot_october%20 2008.pdf. 3 www.idadesal.org/images/global% 20water%20crisis%20promotes%20 desalination%20boom_final_10%2016. pdf. 4 www.sprottmoly.com/pdf/11_07 _moly_writeup.pdf. 5 http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=affiche N&cpsidt=3398385.

References

A semipermeable membrane coil used in reverse osmosis (RO) desalination.

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