The Geida Consortium, consisting of Befesa CTA, ACS Cobra-Tedagua and Sadyt, chose Hydranautics’ SWC5 for new desalination plants at Skikda and Beni Safe. Both are being built at strategic locations along Algeria’s Mediterranean coast. Together, these plants will produce over 300,000m3/d (79 MGD) of potable water.
The seawater composite SWC5 provides higher salt rejection at a higher rate of flow with a 92 percent boron rejection rate. The SWC5 is a cost-saving solution for municipal and industrial applications providing 30m3/d (9,000 gpd) at 99.8 percent nominal salt rejection at low operating pressures.
Algeria has never had enough water for its people. Since the Berbers first arrived in 10,000 BC, provisioning daily life with clean water has been a constant struggle for this North African coastal country. Centuries of drought and mismanagement have depleted ground water supplies and dam reserves to sub-critical levels.
Today, many cities - including Algiers, have water systems that work only a handful of days out of each week. The World Health Organization considers a country “water stressed” at below an annual availability of 1,700 cubic meters of clean water per person. Without immediate change, Algeria is predicted to drop to levels of less than 1,000 cubic meters by 2025.
Desalination is a significant part of Algeria’s water solution and Nitto Denko/Hydranautics is at the forefront of that effort, with more than 26,250 SWC5 reverse osmosis desalination membrane elements coming online in Algerian desalination plants by 2008.
Hydranautics is based in Oceanside, California, USA.
RO seawater desalination plant awarded
Veolia Water, with the support of its Omani partner Suhail Bahwan Group, won a build, own and operate (BOO) contract for a major reverse osmosis desalination plant near Sur, Oman.
The Sultanate of Oman’s Ministry of National Economy awarded the 22-year operating contract, which should represent an estimated global consolidated revenue of 434 million euros for Veolia Water, including the construction of the new plant.
The plant will have a capacity of 80,200m3/day and will supply drinking water to the 350,000 people residing in the Sharqiyah region. Veolia Water Solutions &Technologies (VWS), in a consortium with Bahwan Engineering Company, will build the plant for a total of 111 million euros. VWS is in charge of process design and equipment purchasing with Bahwan Engineering Company responsible for construction and equipment installation.
Most of the seawater will be drawn from some 20 wells sunk along the coast with additional water taken directly from the sea. This complementary supply method will offer greater flexibility in terms of the flow of water produced and will increase plant safety, especially in summer when algae proliferate.
In the new plant, seawater will be subjected to pretreatment by air flotation and pressure filtration to remove algae and residue. It will then be desalinated by forcing it under very high pressure through two stages of reverse osmosis (eight reverse osmosis trains in the first stage and four in the second). The water will then be re-mineralized in a post-treatment phase. Energy recovery has been designed into the project to optimize the plant’s energy and environmental performance. This will provide a significant proportion of the energy required to operate the plant.
Veolia Water, in association with a Suhail Bahwan subsidiary, will initially operate the existing plant (12,000m3/day), before moving to the new plant when it comes on line at the beginning of 2009.
GB Environmental wins technology award
Frost & Sullivan’s 2006 European Excellence in Technology of the Year Award in the field of ultraviolet technology (UV) was given to the UK company GB Environmental.
The award recognizes the advances GB Environmental has made in developing new UV disinfectors, referred to as second-generation designs.
According to Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Rebecca Bright: “When applied to either the air or water supply, GB Environmental’s patented UV technology kills micro-organisms that chemical disinfection processes find difficult to eliminate. The company’s technology uses UV light at 220nm to 280nm to disrupt the DNA structure of any microorganism present, rendering it harmless. This in itself is not a new development, but GB Environmental’s invention of its patented Tioxispring™ cleaning mechanism, ensures that microorganisms are exposed to the maximum amount of UV light at all times. It does this by maintaining the lamps free from debris - a problem the majority of UV disinfection manufacturers have found difficult to overcome up until now.”
Frost & Sullivan’s award is bestowed upon a company that has pioneered the development and introduction of an innovative technology that has either affected or has the potential to affect several market sectors.
Field Notes
Dubai: TAS ME, a global designer and manufacturer of modular, packaged chilled water plants, announced its award for a 30,000 TR expansion to The Crescent of the Palm - Jumeirah district cooling project. The award completes the two-phase order for a total of 120,000 TR on the project. The 11-km-long, crescent-shaped breakwater will contain one of the largest concentrations of resort hotels.
The Crescent project features central chilled water “packages” that are designed, assembled and tested in an ISO 9001:2000 manufacturing environment. Each package at 5,000TR features two Trane CenTraVac™ Centrifugal chillers. “The first two 5,000TR packages were shipped from our manufacturing facility in September and four more packages are scheduled to ship this month. Now with this order, there will be a total of 24 packaged systems supporting The Crescent,” said Keith Evans, managing director, of TAS Middle East & Africa.
Germany: Pump manufacturer Wilo AG acquired the UK-based CCD Pumps Limited on December 21, 2006, which increases Wilo’s activities in the building services and water and wastewater sectors. Wilo AG is already a significant player in the British HVAC pump market. CCD specializes in packaged plant installations, particularly for pressure boosting sets, and offers maintenance and service contracts.
Germany: The analytical instrumentation company Shimadzu is completing its European business restructuring process by focusing on establishing independent companies in major markets and countries in Europe. Jürgen Semmler will lead Shimadzu Deutschland GmbH as the new managing director from their Duisburg office. After completing his studies in Chemical Engineering, Mr. Semmler joined Shimadzu in 1987. Since 1998, he has been responsible for the analytics business division in Germany. For more information, visit the website: website: www.shimadzu.de.
Saudi Arabia: The Amiantit Group, based in Damman, reports several major orders for its pipe manufacturing facilities in Brazil and Egypt. The contract awards for Amiantit factories in Egypt consist of three orders amounting to US$11m. Two of these orders are for glass reinforced polyester (GRP) pipes, the largest being for the Aburdeice project and worth $4.9m, while the other is for the Abuteeg project and worth $2m. Amiantit Fiberglass Egypt Company (AFEC) will fulfill these orders using Amiantit-owned Flowtite technology. The third order, worth $4.3m is for concrete cylinder pipes (CCP), which will be manufactured by Amiantit Group member Ameron Egypt. CCP pipes are used for applications such as potable water, storm, irrigation, sewage and seawater cooling systems in situations where high bearing capacity is required.
Amitech Brazil won a breakthrough contract award for its Flowtite GRP pipes, selected by Rischbieter (Gaspar, SC) of the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, a company that specializes in civil construction projects such as the treatment of industrial and domestic effluents and small hydroelectric plants.
