UF/RO combo to supply water to Saudi Arabian petrochemical complex
Saudi Arabian water and electricity services operator Marafiq has contracted Veolia Water to design, build and operate the largest ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis desalination plant in Saudi Arabia.
With this contract, Veolia Water will generate $310 million (€232 million) in revenue for the plant's design and construction, and $92 million (€69 million) in revenue for its operation for 10 years, with an option to extend the contract for a further 20 years.
With a capacity of 178,000 m3/day, this new plant will supply the Sadara petrochemical complex built by Dow Chemical and Saudi Aramco in Jubail Industrial City II and is due to come on stream in June 2015.
Dow Chemical and Aramco will produce solvents and glues for the automotive and packaging industries at the Sadara site. The water supplied will be used in this immense facility's two cooling towers and as boiler feed water.
To meet strict water quality standards required by Marafiq, Veolia Water, through its subsidiary Sidem, has designed a plant combining two seawater treatment solutions: ultrafiltration (UF) and reverse osmosis (RO).
After an initial treatment phase involving dissolved air flotation to capture the suspended particles in the water and UF, the water will then be desalinated by RO membranes before being remineralized.
Present in Saudi Arabia since 1979 where it built the desalination plant for the city of Al Khobar in the Eastern Province, near the Persian Gulf, in 2010, Sidem had already built the first desalination plant in Jubail City. The 800,000 m3/day capacity plant uses Veolia's multiple-effect distillation (MED) process.
€2.2m water supply project underway in Mozambique
Royal HaskoningDHV together with international water utilities company Vitens Evides International (VEI) will develop a new 2.2 million Euro water distribution system for northern Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique. This distribution system will ultimately supply safe drinking water to 20,000 households. The new water distribution system will be part of the so-called Corumana Water Supply System, a US$130 million World Bank funded project through a loan to the Mozambique Government. The Corumana System will initially supply 60,000 m3 per day of treated drinking water from the Corumana Dam to Maputo. This capacity will be extended during a second phase to 120,000 m3 per day.
Lamberts Bay, SA, SWRO desalination plant set for commissioning late 2013
The Cederberg Municipality has awarded a R17 million ($1.7m) contract to the Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies subsidiary, Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies South Africa, to design, build and commission a 1700 m3/day seawater desalination plant in Lamberts Bay.
Specifications also require the plant to accommodate a future upgrade to 5000 m3/day.
It is hoped the infrastructure upgrade will help alleviate growing pressure on the region's water system and improve availability of high-quality water for the region's nearly 40,000 residents.
Due for commissioning in October 2013, the plant will source seawater from boreholes drilled nearby the shore close to Muisbosskerm. Once desalinated, the water will be stabilised with limestone and CO2, and then be fed into the town's existing freshwater network.
Veolia's manufacturing subsidiary in Spain will supply the plant's standard seawater desalination skids. The Lamberts Bay contract follows six seawater desalination plants installed by Veolia along the Cape coastline since 2009 at Canon Rocks, Bushman's River Mouth, Knysna, Plettenberg Bay, Mossel Bay and Saldanha.
