The Port Said Seawater Desalination Plant project in Egypt has been completed. Project developers Metito, the leading global provider of water and alternative energy management solutions announced the completion and handed over the plant.
The desalination plant was developed by consortium made of Metito and Orascom Construction PLC at a total cost of US $130m. It sits on an area of 79,000 square meters which provides room for future expansion.
According to Karim Madwar, Managing Director of Metito Africa, the project has been built with environmental considerations, to meet the drinking water needs of a population of nearly one million.
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The considerations includes; initial treatment of seawater by dissolved air flotation (DAF) and then an Ultrafiltration process (UF). The water is then pumped through desalination membranes that operate using reverse osmosis (RO) system, due to the nature of the seawater at the plant site and its containment of fine-grained suspended matter.
The water plant will produce 150,000 cubic meters/day and has been designed to consume the least amount of energy per cubic meter of produced water which in return will positively affect the economics of operation and reduce the carbon footprint of the facility by utilizing advanced methods to recover energy from the wastewater.
“The desalination process produces wastes that are highly concentrated with saline and which are disposed of in an environmentally safe manner through a complex chemical process. The water is treated with special acids to equalize the pH level of the wastewater and bring its salinity as close as possible to normal seawater to avoid impacting the marine life in the water drainage area,” said Eng. Karim Madwar, the Managing Director of Metito Africa for Integrated Water Management and Treatment Smart Solutions release.
