Water Desalination ReporTVolume 53, Number 8

The international weekly for desalination and advanced water treatment since 1965

27 February 2017

Tom Pankratz, Editor, P.O. Box 75064, Houston, Texas 77234-5064 USATelephone: +1-281-857-6571, www.desalination.com/wdr, email: tp@globalwaterintel.com

© 2017 Media Analytics. Published in cooperation with Global Water Intelligence.

Company NewsCeramic UF company makes big comebackOver the past year, ItN Nanovation, a German supplier of ceramic membrane filtration systems, has been on a roller coaster ride that has seen the company rise from insolvency to announcing that it had won a $20+ million ceramic membrane filtration project.

In May 2016, ItN entered into insolvency proceedings, following continued delays on a key Saudi Arabian groundwater filtration project that starved the company of necessary working capital. Within three months, Shanghai SafBon Water Service, the Shenzhen-listed water project developer, announced it would acquire a 68 percent stake in the company.

Last week, ItN CEO Lutz Bungeroth told WDR that the company would supply its membranes—a ceramic, flat-sheet UF membrane, coated with a nano-layer of zirconium oxide—as pretreatment for a 400,000 m3/d (105.7 MGD) SWRO project in the city of Yingkou, in northeast China’s Liaoning province. The first phase of the project is expected to be commissioned in 2019, and will produce 100,000 m3/d (26.4 MGD) of desalted water, requiring filtration of about 220,000 m3/d (58 MGD) of seawater.

In a separate report, SafBon said that the second and third phases of the project would each consist of a 150,000 m3/d (39.6 MGD) expansion. The project will be developed as a joint investment between Baan Water and Yingkou Longqian Marine Resources Development Company.

According to Bungeroth, the membranes will be made at a new ceramics manufacturing facility now under construction in Nantong, near Shanghai. He said, “The new factory will be run by a crew of five German engineers. The nano-coating will still be produced in Saarbrücken, Germany, and then sent to Nantong for application.”

With regards to the long-delayed Saudi groundwater filtration project, Bungeroth reports that the plant has recently been delivered, and an even larger one is under production.

Saudi ArabiaThree SWRO projects awardedSingapore-based Hyflux announced that it has been awarded a contract to supply three 16,000 m3/d (4.2 MGD) SWRO projects by Saudi Arabia’s Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC). Two of the plants will be located on the northern Red Sea coast at Duba and Wajh, and the third will be located on the northern coast of the Gulf of Aqaba at Haql, near the Jordanian border.

The projects will be developed and delivered on a design-build-commission basis by Hydrochem, a wholly owned

Dr Srinivasa Sourirajan in Ottawa, Canada, with the award com-memorating his induction into the AMTA Hall of Fame for his contributions in membrane research, which include co-inventing the cellulose acetate RO membrane. Dr Sourirajan, who is 93, was unable to attend the award ceremony. His son, Krishna Rajan, attended the event and accepted the award, which was presented by Dean Spatz.

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Hyflux subsidiary. GWI reports that it is expected that Hyflux will also finance the projects, which have a combined value of SAR687 million ($183.2 million).

CaribbeanIsland SWRO project’s cost estimatedWDR is always on the lookout for new, up-to-date project cost information. It’s a subject of interest to a wide range of readers, including project developers, consultants, OEMs and end users. So, when CDM Smith’s Kurt Kiefer gave a recent presentation that included cost data for a small SWRO system, it was information that seemed worth repeating to a wider audience.

The paper, titled “San Andres Turns to Seawater RO to Meet Critical Water Supply Shortfall”, was presented at the recent AWWA-AMTA Membrane Technology Conference. It reviewed a 1.14 MGD (4,315 m3/d) SWRO project to be built to address serious water shortfalls on Columbia’s San Andres Island in the northwest Caribbean.

CDM Smith was the owner’s engineer for the project, which is being developed on a fast track, design/build basis. The new base-load facility will be located at the site of an existing RO plant that was installed in 2005. Since then, the original plant’s capacity has fallen by approximately 70 percent due to the groundwater’s declining levels and deteriorating quality.

Feedwater for the two-train SWRO system will be provided by up to five new, deeper seawater supply wells —up to 100-feet (30m) deep versus the existing wells, which are 33-feet (20m) to 60-feet (18m)—strategically located around the plant site. A new pipeline will convey the RO concentrate 1.25-miles (2km) to the sea.

Pretreatment will consist of chlorination/dechlorination, coagulation, pressure filtration and an antiscalant. The chlorinated permeate will be pumped almost two miles (3km) to a new ground storage tank, and a new pump station will pump the water into the distribution system.

Kiefer said that high-efficiency positive displacement (PD) pumps were considered, but the design specified horizontal multistage centrifugal pumps, noting, “[The centrifugal pumps] are the same type that are installed in the existing plant. These pumps reportedly had high reliability and only experienced one significant pump problem in ten years of operation.

“The client decided to specify centrifugal pumps due to the critical nature of the current water supply shortfall and after considering that plant reliability was of utmost importance. In addition, there was a concern that there were

no technicians on the island that were qualified to perform the required maintenance on the PD pumps.”

Presumably, this is the same reason that Pelton wheel energy recovery devices were also selected.

The island’s subsidized electricity costs are $0.13/kWh, although the actual costs are estimated at twice that amount. The SWRO plant’s energy consumption is estimated at 11.6 kWh/kgal (3.09 kWh/m3), while the distribution system pumping costs add another 2 kWh/kgal (0.53 kWh/m3).

The following table breaks down the facility’s capital and operating costs:

WATER DESALINATION REPORT – 27 February 2017

Direct Capital Costs1. Basic plant equipment installed 4,233,6002. Site development facilities 950,4003. Feed water supply-brine disposal 1,364,0004. Electrical & instrumentation 518,4005. Product distribution system 2,843,6006. Sub-total, direct costs $9,910,000

Indirect Capital Costs1. Design-build engineering 777,6002. Construction mgmt & admin 410,4003. Permitting & legal services 432,0004. Contingency (20%) 2,306,0005. Sub-total, indirect costs $3,926,000

Total Capital Costs $13,836,000Capital Cost, $/GPD ($/m3/d) $12.12 ($3,203)

Annual Production Costs1. Fixed charges 1,388,7602. Power costs 797,8503. Chemicals 158,2604. Membrane replacement 36,9605. Replacement parts & maintenance 154,6006. Cartridge filters & misc 35,3407. Labor 78,6208. Diesel fuel 10,0009. Administrative costs 254,330Total Annual Costs $2,914,720

Total Annual Production*, MG (m3) 395.8 (1,497,960)Total Water Cost**, $/kgal ($/m3) $7.37 ($1.95)

* @ 95% availability **20-year contract, 8% interest, 10% discount

The project was recently awarded to Italy’s Protecno.

Page 3WATER DESALINATION REPORT – 27 February 2017

TechnologyResearchers refine solar still concept In 2014, MIT researcher Hadi Ghasemi, now an assistant professor at the University of Houston, showed how a novel, two-layer disk constructed of graphite flakes and supported by a layer of porous, sponge-like carbon foam could produce steam while floating on water. When sunlight would strike the disk’s surface, it would form a local hotspot in the graphite, causing water to wick upwards through the foam’s pores, and vaporize.

Another paper published in October 2016 by researchers at Nanjing University described a similar process using poly-styrene foam as a thermal insulator to suppress heat loss into the bulk water. The foam was covered with a thin layer of cellulose, above which was a thin layer of graphene oxide thermal absorbing film.

While both of the previous groups focused on vapor generation, noting its possible use in desalination applications, researchers from the State University of New York at Buffalo have taken things one step further. In a newly published paper, Qiaoqiang Gan and his colleagues have shown how the passive solar vapor generation process could be condensed to produce fresh water.

Using very low-cost materials consisting of carbon black powder, a hydrophilic porous paper and expanded polystyrene foam, Dr Gan’s team constructed a thermal absorber that suppressed radiative and convective losses from the absorber surface to the adjacent heated vapor, with a thermal efficiency of about 88 percent under one sun (1000 W/m2) without concentration.

still. This system can provide an extremely inexpensive approach for individuals to purify water for personal needs, which is particularly suitable for undeveloped regions with limited or no access to electricity.”

The article is titled “Extremely Cost-Effective and Efficient Solar Vapor Generation under Non-concentrated Illumination Using Thermally Isolated Black Paper”, and was published in Advanced Science News’ Global Challenges 2017. It is available online at http://tinyurl.com/h7cv6mo.

MF/UF TechnologyMoving towards MF/UF standardizationWhen designing a water treatment plant, the discussion no longer focuses on whether or not a project should employ membrane filtration. Instead, the discussion is more likely to revolve around whether or not to employ an Open Platform membrane filtration system, and if so, whether or not a Universal Rack or Integrated Header configuration should be specified.

Dr Graeme Pearce, of the UK-based Membrane Consultancy Associates, tackled the subject in a presentation at the recent AWWA/AMTA Membrane Technology Conference in Long Beach, California. The paper, titled “The Irresistible Lure of the Open Platform Solution; Is the Membrane Filtration Market on the Brink of Fundamental Change?”, included a cost analysis that compared the cost of each option.

The Open Platform concept offers end users the flexibility of using alternative membrane modules for replacement and promotes competition among membrane suppliers. It also protects an end user if the original membrane supplier goes out of business, and encourages commoditization, similar to what has happened with RO elements.

There are two Open Platform options: a Universal Rack (UR) design that accepts membrane modules from up to six different membrane suppliers with minimum modifications, and an Integrated Header (IH) design in which the membrane modules couple directly to the adjoining module and eliminate the need for a conventional rack, which has the added benefit of a significantly reduced footprint.

Portable solar vapor generation desalination unit

Gan told WDR, “This corresponds to an evaporation rate of 1.28 kg/m2/h. When scaled up to a 100cm2 [15.5 in2] array in a portable solar water still, the system’s freshwater generation rate is approximately 2.4 times that of a conventional solar Dow’s Integrated Header H2O Innovation’s Universal Rack

“There are few IH change options, but there are many module-only UR supply options. Although the UR uses many components, they are all standard parts and fairly inexpensive. On the other hand, the IH uses far fewer components, with the key component being a proprietary end cap, with a widely varying price.

“Some of the UR modules have different process recommendations, so there could be additional software costs and warranty implications of changing suppliers; however, there are other change options which would be readily compatible,” said Pearce.

In briefGermany’s Lanxess has announced a global price increase for ion exchange resins, RO membrane elements and iron oxide adsorbers for water treatment. The increase averages three percent and is effective immediately. The company said that increasing input costs have led to this price adjustment, which varies according to field of application and region.

The Water Sciences and Technology Association (WSTA) will hold the 12th Annual Gulf Water Conference & Exhibition in Manama, Bahrain, on 28-30 March. The event’s theme is “Water in the GCC…Towards Integrating Strategies.” For information, visit http://www.gulfwaterconference.com.

PeopleAna Isabel Lopez, former director of business development at Valoriza Agua, has joined Danfoss High Pressure Pumps, where she will serve as manager of the Customer Project Office. She is based in Spain and may be contacted at ana.lopez@danfoss.com.

Jorge Aguinaldo, formerly the business development director with RWL Water, has left the firm and is available to consider other assignments. He is based in Tampa, Florida, and may be contacted at jtaguinaldo@aol.com.

Following WSP-Parsons Brinckerhoff’s acquisition of Schlumberger Water Services, Robert Maliva, the firm’s Fort Myers, Florida-based principal geologist, may be contacted at Robert.Maliva@pbworld.com.

Larry Jessup has been appointed the director of operational excellence for KEMCO Systems. Formerly the applications manager at Water Standard, he is based in Clearwater, Florida, and may be contacted at ljessup@kemcosystems.com.

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Page 4WATER DESALINATION REPORT – 27 February 2017

According to a survey conducted by Pearce, the UR is preferred by many US consultants, and quite a few systems have already been specified and installed, although it is too early to have any record of interchangeability. Meanwhile, the IH has begun to make progress in some markets, particularly in small- and medium-scale systems where the system builder is inexperienced.

Pearce told WDR, “To see how the UR and IH options compare, I conducted a capital cost and life cycle cost analysis of both systems using various membrane area and pipe sizes representing small, medium and large installations. The evaluation accounted for typical variations in flux, backwash volumes and module area.

“The analysis shows that the IH solution reduces the basic rack cost by about 50 percent, although the rack represents only 20 percent of the total system cost. The IH is ideally suited for systems of up to 13,000 m3/d (3.5 MGD); for larger pipework sizes, the UR becomes progressively more attractive, particularly at production capacities greater than 40,000 m3/d (10 MGD).

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