Abstract
Pre-treatment of seawater plays a critical role in removing colloidal particles, algae, sediment, and microbes, which could adversely affect the desalination process. This study focused on the utilization of the natural process of infiltration by beach wells to pre-treat the intake water for the desalination process. The scope of the study was achieved by drilling two beach wells at Al-Khobar and Jubail sites at the Arabian Gulf of Saudi Arabia at 50 m depth each. In addition to that, a total of eight monitoring wells were drilled for pump testing. Numerical modeling was conducted using SEEP/W to investigate the properties of well water flux at the beach wells. The comprehensive physio-chemical parameters such as cation, silt density index (SDI), total dissolved solids (TDS), total suspended solids (TSS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total organic carbon (TOC), salinity, and alkalinity were analyzed for a quality assessment concerning the actual seawater. Preliminary experimental results show a reduction of the targeted parameters and indicate that beach well sand filtration in the Eastern Province would be a valuable pre-filtration step in reverse osmosis (RO)-based drinking water production systems. The water flux values for both sites were 0.0197 and 0.0208 m3/s/m2, respectively, which corresponds to 72 m3/h/m2 and 1356.48 m3/h/m2. In terms of the rate of pumping flow, the model suggests production can be increased by 20 and 53 times the measured production of the Jubail and Al-Khobar sites, respectively. The experimental results of water parameters, such as cation, SDI, TDS, TSS, etc., indicate that beach well sand filtration in the Eastern Province would be a valuable pre-filtration step in reverse osmosis drinking water production systems.
Highlights
Desalination has contributed to solving the water scarcity problem in semi-arid regions and raised the quality of life during the past five decades
Observations were made in the beach wells and the observation wells, upon their completion of installation, from which the depth of the groundwater was investigated at both sites
This work infiltration in in beach wells to to pre-treat the intake water for the desalination process
Summary
Desalination has contributed to solving the water scarcity problem in semi-arid regions and raised the quality of life during the past five decades. The gulf countries in general and the Kingdom of. Saudi Arabia (KSA), in particular, primarily depend on seawater desalination plants built on the coast of the Arabian Gulf to produce potable water. Desalination will receive significant future investments by the Kingdom for generations to come. The technologies used in water desalination are associated with various environmental impacts pertinent to the fragile arid environment, especially groundwater, marine life, air quality problems, and global warming carbon footprints [1,2,3,4,5]. KSA is considered the largest user of seawater desalination (mostly reverse osmosis (RO) technology) in the world, with a share of 20% of the total desalinated water production worldwide.
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