SUR

Desalination plant
An environmental
and competitive solution

Challenge
Supplying water to a region
facing water scarcity IRAN

The Sharqiyah region is situated on the eastern coast of the Sohar

Sultanate of Oman. Although it is located next to the sea, it is
UNITED ARAB Muscat
suffering water stress all year round. Indeed, as a result of drought EMIRATES
and over-exploitation of underground resources, groundwater has Sur
to be protected and spared as much as possible.
Nevertheless, the 350,000 inhabitants of the Sharqiyah region SAUDI ARABIA
have to be daily supplied with drinking water. Therefore, PAEW OMAN
(Public Authority for Electricity and Water) has awarded
Sharqiyah Desalination Company with a contract to build, own
and operate the reverse osmosis desalination plant of Sur in 2007. YEMEN arabian
sea
Salala
Sharqiyah’s solution
Delivering high quality under high pressure through a semi permeable membrane
that allows the water through but holds back the salt, bacte-
drinking water while limiting ria, particles, etc.

the impact on the environment Therefore, desalinated water is very pure and of high quality.
The treated water total dissolved salt level is only 123 mg/L
compared to 40,000 mg/L in the raw water pumped from
The contract awarded to Sharqiyah Desalination Company the beachwells (the maximum salt concentration for human
covers the construction and operation of a 29 million m³ per consumption is 400 mg/L).
year (80,000 m³/day) desalination plant and the construction
The construction was undertaken by a consortium OTV (a Veolia
of a reservoir with a capacity of 160,000 m³.
Water subsidiary) - BEC (Bahwan Engineering Company). After a
The Sur desalination plant complies with the more stringent 3 year design and construction period, Sharqiyah started up the
environmental criteria in order to protect water resources as operation of the Sur desalination plant in October 2009.
well as the environment as a whole.
Sharqiyah implements the membrane desalination process
also called reverse osmosis process. It consists in forcing water
 Sur Process
Desalination, an alternative resource
in 6 steps
available in large quantities
In some countries, such as the Sultanate
of Oman, saving water and turning to
alternative resources is a necessity. By
transforming seawater into drinking
water, desalination is a high potential
alternative solution to face water stress.
It is an effective answer to meet the
challenges of rapid population and
economic growth, to face water shorta-
ges and to prevent over-extraction and
pollution of coastal fresh groundwater.
Improvements in technologies, especial-
ly in terms of energy requirements make
desalination more and more economically
and ecologically efficient.

A commitment
to environment protection
As well as its construction and operation activities Sharqiyah Desalination
Company is keen on actively strengthening its efforts to reduce the envi-
ronmental impact of the desalination process. The Sur desalination plant is
particularly efficient in this field.
As an example, energy recuperation (see page opposite, step 3) has been
maximised at every stage of the process enabling the Sur desalination plant
to use its energy not only once but many times, reducing the global quantity
of energy required to operate the plant. Managing energy consumption is
a key issue: one the one hand,
it enables to reduce operating
expenses and on the other hand
it limits the impact of our opera- 1
tion on the environment.
Beachwells catchment
Another example is the pro-
The 9,000 m³/h raw seawater flow necessary
cess used for the water intake,
Osomosis process is extracted from the groun
which is very innovative since it
Beachwells, making Sur Desalination Plant the
is entirely based on beachwells.
ter beachwells catchment facilities in the wor
These are wells dug into the
type of catchment is giving:
beach to withdraw the seawater
- Very low colloidal clogging or bio-fouling ind
from the sand instead of taking it
Index SDI15<2)
directly from the sea. This process
- Very stable quality of seawater with constan
(see page opposite, step 1) allows a
temperature amplitude and low pH.
lighter pre-treatment (thanks to sand
With 33 individual beachwell units dispatched
natural filtration) and ensures a better
raw water pumping design ensures a highly fle
quality of the water.
Beachwells:
l 33 beachwells

l 80 meters deep

l Raw water capacity: 9,000 m³/h

 6

2 3
Pre-treatment High Pressure Pumps
y for the Reverse Reverse osmosis membranes require specific water and Energy Recovery Device (ERD)
nd by coastal quality to avoid the risk of clogging or bio-fouling. The salt water, cleared of all impurities, is then pushed by high
he biggest seawa- Therefore, the extracted seawater must be treated pressure pumps, through the reverse osmosis membranes. The
orld. This specific before passing through the membranes with a two required pressure level (60 bar) for the reverse osmosis process
step filtration system: is energy consuming. To optimize and reduce the final product
ndex (Silt Density - In the first step, the raw water is treated by 14 price, Energy Recovery Devices (ERD) have been implemented.
pressure media filters. Each filter is filled with sand This device allows a high recovery grade (97%) of the mecha-
ant salinity, low for large particles sizes and bio-cell removal. nical energy contained in the high pressure discharged brine,
- In the second step, finer filtration is achieved by resulting in an energy reduction per produced cubic meter as
d in 3 clusters, the micronic cartdrige filters to “polish” the seawater. high as 40% in comparison with a conventional plant.
flexible operation. Pre-Treatment: Pumps and ERD:
l 14 pressure media filters l Number of ERD: 24

l 11 micronic cartdridge filters (5 microns) l Number of high pressure pumps: 8

l High pressure system: 60 bar

l ERD: 97% efficiency

 2

4 5 6
Reverse Osmosis Treatment Post-Treatment Drinking Water Storage
In the membrane building, the separation of salt The demineralized water coming out Tank
from water is achieved in a two passes reverse os- of the membranes is not potable. Before storage, the potable water
mosis and boron removal process. The achievement Adjustment of its chemical charac- is disinfected and preserved with
of a high boron ion removal is an important consi- teristics, based on a remineralization Chlorine injection. The massive
deration in the design of Sur plant to comply with with CO2 and lime addition is nee- concrete reservoirs have been desi-
Omani Health standards. The eight independent 1st ded. Caustic soda for pH adjustment gned to store two days of potable
pass train configuration allows a high plant modu- can also be added. water production in two separate
larity and flexibility to adapt to the water demand. Post-treatment: tanks of 80,000 cubic meters each.
Reverse Osmosis: l Limestone storage filters: 4
Potable Water Storage Tank:
l First pass: 8 independent trains and l Limestone reactor size: 4 x 72
Number of Reservoirs: 2
114 pressure vessel (PV)/train square meters Total storage capacity: 160,000 cubic
l Second pass: 4 trains and 80 PV/train
meters
l Each PV contains 8 membranes
Number of concrete columns: 1,400
l Total reverse osmosis capacity:

80,000 cubic meters/day

Desalination Plant Characteristics
Beachwells
With 216,000 m³/day (9,000 m³/h) installed seawater beachwells capacity, Sur Desalination Plant is the
largest beachwell catchment facilities in the world.
A standard seawater catchment facility is taking the raw water directly from the sea
through an open intake structure. Sur Desalination Plant is pum-
ping seawater on shore from in the ground (80 meters deep)
through micro-karstic cracks. Those cracks are opera-
ting as natural filtration units making Sur raw
seawater with the best quality achievable in
desalination process:
l Low turbidity (< 0.1 NTU),

l Low Silt Density Index SDI (SDI15 < 2),

l Low pH compared to standard seawa-

ter (pH~7.5),
l Stable overall ionic balance all along the

year,
l Low temperature amplitude between day

and night,
l No impact of seawater quality changes (red sea,

bloom algae, oil spillage…).

Individual 1st pass RO Train Configuration

The Reverse Osmosis treatment is based on 8 inde- 3
pendent and individual first pass train’s configuration
1
to adapt at anytime the production to the water de-
mand. This configuration is giving to the plant a high
flexibility while guaranteeing a stable drinking water
quality production.
Each train has been designed to work by its own and 4
to produce 12,500 m³/day (520 m³/h) of de-minerali-
zed (permeate) water. It is composed of:
l one set of 912 reverse osmosis membranes with

associated pressure vessels (1),

l one high pressure pump (2),

l one Energy Recovery Device (3),

l one recirculation pump (4).

2

Seawater Treated Water Characteristics (Actual Product

Characteristics Water Qualities after post-treatment)

Treated Water Characteristics

TDS 39,700 mg/l 123 mg/l
Calcium Hardness 108 mg/l 101 mg/l
Chloride (Cl) 21,447 mg/l 20 mg/l
Sodium (Na) 13,912 mg/l 2 mg/l Population covered: 350,000
Magnesium (Mg) 1776 mg/l 3 mg/l Treatment Capacity: 29 million cubic meters/year
Potassium (K) 531 mg/l 2 mg/l
Boron 4.5 mg/l 0.35 mg/l
(80,000 cubic meters/day)
Conductivity 56.1 mS/cm 207 µs/cm Price tag for the plant’s construction: $148 million
pH 7.5 7.6 Total people employed at the site: 33
 Printed with vegetal ink on certified PEFC paper 100% - Paris - january 2010
Design and product: Joy de Toscane

Sharqiyah Desalination Company

Suite 21
HE Abdullah Abbas
Commercial Building
Shatti Al Qurum
Muscat
Sultanate of Oman
Tél. + 968 246 93 890