Improving production with reduced expenditure could be the main targets of any desalination facility around the world. Such feats are being methodically achieved at Ras Abu Jarjur reverse-osmosis (RO) plant in Bahrain as a result of a series of improvements. Of the many available desalination techniques, RO was seen from the earliest days as a reliable and cost-effective technology and was therefore employed at Ras Abu Jarjur. From the huge quantity of groundwater (40 million m /year) extracted from borewells, potable water totalling 29 million m /year is produced. The other 30% of water is being rejected to the Arabian Gulf, which has a similar salinity level and higher temperatures. Trials are being carried out to extend the brine staging by one more stage from two to three for the ninth and tenth trains and from three to four for the first to eighth trains, as the reject water from the trains is already filtered, acidified, dosed with antiscalant and most importantly possessing the required pressure energy (minimum of 38 bar) to be used. This strategy would increase the overall water recovery by another 4.5%. By closely following the guidelines of the scaling indices, solubility product limits of potential scale-forming constituents in the water and various performance-monitoring tools, it would be possible to recover another 2% of the water. The full article first appeared in the November/December 2008 issue of D&WR magazine. The paper on which it was based was awarded the prize for Best Oral Presentation at the International Desalination Association World Congress in Maspalomas in 2007.
Improving production with reduced expenditure could be the main targets of any desalination facility around the world. Such feats are being methodically achieved at Ras Abu Jarjur reverse-osmosis (RO) plant in Bahrain as a result of a series of improvements.
Of the many available desalination techniques, RO was seen from the earliest days as a reliable and cost-effective technology and was therefore employed at Ras Abu Jarjur. From the huge quantity of groundwater (40 million m³/year) extracted from borewells, potable water totalling 29 million m³/year is produced. The other 30% of water is being rejected to the Arabian Gulf, which has a similar salinity level and higher temperatures.
Trials are being carried out to extend the brine staging by one more stage from two to three for the ninth and tenth trains and from three to four for the first to eighth trains, as the reject water from the trains is already filtered, acidified, dosed with antiscalant and most importantly possessing the required pressure energy (minimum of 38 bar) to be used. This strategy would increase the overall water recovery by another 4.5%.
By closely following the guidelines of the scaling indices, solubility product limits of potential scale-forming constituents in the water and various performance-monitoring tools, it would be possible to recover another 2% of the water.
The full article first appeared in the November/December 2008 issue of D&WR magazine. The paper on which it was based was awarded the prize for Best Oral Presentation at the International Desalination Association World Congress in Maspalomas in 2007.