Egypt’s first integrated zero liquid discharge (ZLD) plant is to be built by Aquatech, under a contract from the Egyptian Ethylene & Derivatives Company (ETHYDCO) to provide a water treatment facility.
The contract was signed in Cairo on 25 March 2013.
The ZLD plant will be installed at ETHYDCO’s petroleum derivatives manufacturing site in Alexandria. The plant designed and installed by Aquatech will treat wastewater from this facility and cooling tower blowdown to get cooling tower makeup water, boiler feed water and achieve ZLD.
The technology provided by Aquatech is a microfiltration system, a High Efficiency Reverse Osmosis (HERO™) system, followed by Fractional Electrodeionization (FEDI™) and a brine concentrator, with finally a crystallizer and sludge treatment system.
The project is expected to be completed in 13 months.
Speaking on the project, Dr Karl Michael Millauer, senior vice president of Aquatech said, “This is a bold initiative undertaken by ETHYDCO, which will be the pioneer in installing a ZLD plant. The feed water to the plant will be a composite mix of treated effluent and water from the Nile River canal, having inconsistent water chemistry throughout the year. After a lot of due diligence done by ETHYDCO and its consultant Enppi, Aquatech’s proposed schematic was selected because it can optimally treat this type of feed water.
“With this plant in place, ETHYDCO will meet all the requisite norms of ZLD established by the Egyptian government to protect their only life-giving aquifer, the river Nile. The success of this project is keenly viewed by the Egyptian government and the industry in this region. Once successful, it will become a beacon for other industries not only in Egypt, but also GCC countries, to follow.”
The project management service is being provided by Enppi.