Seawater Intake Research Articles

PRUEBA PILOTO DE MEMBRANAS DE ALTA EFICIENCIA PARA LA OPTIMIZACIÓN DEL SISTEMA DE MEMBRANAS EN LA PLANTA DE DESALINIZACIÓN DE CARBONERAS

The construction of the new seawater intake for the desalination plant in Las Carboneras (Almería, Spain) was completed in May 2011. Since then, the water intake increased from 14 m to 35 m in depth. A new scenario appeared with the lowest maximum temperatures, while the minimum temperatures remained constant. As a result, new designs and opportunities for operational improvements appeared to optimize the process. To improve the membrane system, a pilot test was developed. This test pilot compared different membranes, and the setup of making 3 different membranes. The test was carried out in high pressure tanks of the full-scale plant (7 elements per tank). The experiment was carried out in two phases: the aging phase and the testing phase. During the aging phase, the membranes of the three manufacturers were tested simultaneously using the same feed water and the same discharge conditions as the full-scale frame in order to achieve the membrane performance estimated by the manufacturer. The main operating parameters were controlled. During the test phase the membranes of each manufacturer were alternately tested in individual tanks with total control of the operating conditions (flow and pressure). The purpose of this test was to compare the performance of the different membranes and determine the optimal configuration of the membrane capable of achieving the necessary quality and quantity of water, with the minimum energy consumption with the new thermal scenario. The results showed the difference in performance between membranes. The study's conclusions could serve as a tool for the decision-making process, related to membrane replacement and plant modernization projects (whose designs are based on the configuration of new high-efficiency membranes). Keywords: Reverse osmosis, membranes, pilot test, energy efficiency, desalination.

Advanced Technologies for Stabilization and High Performance of Seawater RO Membrane Desalination Plants.

Seawater desalination plants that use reverse osmosis (RO) membranes have become a core part of social infrastructure, and should be designed to meet the needs of product water quality and production capacity, while considering various environmental factors such as the seawater quality, temperature and geographical features. Furthermore, stable operation while overcoming various problems should be achieved alongside the increasing demands for energy saving and cost reduction. As no universal plant apparatus and operation technology meets these various requirements, the plants need to be customized for individual solutions. This paper reviews and summarizes the proven technologies, including their advantages/disadvantages, and points to cutting-edge technologies related to the design and operation maintenance of seawater intake, pre-treatment and the RO desalination process.

Dynamic prediction and regulation of water resource carrying capacity: a case study on the Yellow River basin

This study aimed to established the water resource carrying capacity of the Yellow River basin (YRB), China in respect to water quantity and quality to facilitate accurate prediction of changes in regional water resources carrying capacity and to formulate an optimal control plan based on the economic society-water resources-ecological environment mutual feedback mechanism. Various methods, including element diagnosis, identifying indicators of key drivers, integrating support vector machines and system dynamics were applied to establish a quantitative dynamic water resources carrying capacity simulation model for the YRB by formulating control objectives and analyzing the difficulty and cost of managing drivers of carrying capacity. The orthogonal test method was applied to improve the capacity and reduce load within the YRB. The six indicators of key drivers chosen were:① unconventional water utilization; ② seawater intake; ③ average irrigation water consumption; ④ irrigation area; ⑤ industrial value-added water consumption; ⑥ 10, 000 yuan industrial value-added water consumption. The simulation results showed that the upstream, middle and downstream areas of the YRB are currently in an overloaded or severely overloaded state at all planned levels before water transfer projects such as the West Route of South-to-North Water Transfer Project become effective. The study identified the optimal control plan to avoid overloading of the annual water carrying capacity of the YRB at all levels and provides scientific guidance for water resources management of the YRB.

OVERVIEW OF THE HINKLEY POINT C EPR PROJECT ‘J0’ AND BEYOND

The twin unit EPR construction at Hinkley Point C is the first nuclear new build project to be undertaken in the UK in a generation. Moreover, it is now the country’s only new reactor project still in progress. The station’s two 1650 MWe plants [1] will complement the UK’s decarbonisedm energy mix with addition of approximately 7% of the current national requirement. In 2019, less than three years from the final investment decision, the ‘J0’ milestone was reached. This represents the end of the preparatory works, including all the common raft nuclear island concrete for Unit 1, enabling the upwards erection of the reactor containment and other support buildings. In addition to this, important milestones such as launch of the first tunnel boring machine, to tunnel the Unit 1 sea-water intake pipe have all been achieved. Over the coming years, the project will need to evolve in order to meet the increasing complexity and multi-organisation scope, which will present a challenging delivery environment. In order to support this, a UK-based Design Authority works on review, verification and acceptance of the HPC design including its UK specificities. This allows NNB, as licensee, to own its design and prepare the pre-commissioning safety case and operational strategies, defensible to the relevant UK regulators. As an example, this paper presents the roles and responsibilities in the Reactor Technology Team. This small, flexible team is involved in technical oversight of all aspects of the fuel & core design, through normal operations, anticipated and design-basis faults, severe accidents and radiological consequence estimation.

Derivation of Engineering Design Criteria for Flow Field Around Intake Structure: A Numerical Simulation Study

The primary environmental impact caused by seawater intake operation is marine life impingement resulting from the intake velocity. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of United State has regulated the use of velocity cap fitted at intake structures to reduce the marine life impingement. The engineering design parameters of velocity cap has not been well explored to date. This study has been set to determine the fundamental relationships between intake velocity and design parameters of velocity cap, using computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model. A set of engineering design criteria for velocity cap design are derived. The numerical evidence yielded in this study show that the velocity cap should be designed with vertical opening (Hvc) and horizontal shelf (ℓvc). The recommended intake opening ratio (Or) shall be 0.36 Vr−0.31, where Or = Hvc/ℓvc and Vr =V0/Vpipe. Vo is the velocity at the intake window and Vpipe is the suction velocity at the intake pipe. The volume ratio (ωr) between the velocity cap (ωvc) and intake tower (ωIT) is recommended at 0.11 Vr−1.23. The positive outlooks that yielded from this study can be served as a design reference for velocity cap to mitigate the detrimental impacts from the existing intake structure.

Контроль влияния природных условий на подводные трубопроводы коммунальных систем на черноморском побережье Кавказа

Currently, several tens of subsea pipelines are in operation on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus – sea water intakes and wastewater outlets. Wastewater outlets are divided into shallow water (up to 5 m), deep water (up to 10 m) and abyssal water (over 25 m) outlets depending on the depth of the outlet head location. Shallow water outlets are used to drain rain waters into the sea, while deep and abyssal water outlets are designed to dump purified wastewater from sewage purification plants. Most of the existing subsea pipelines were built in the 60s-80s of the 20th century and are now physically significantly worn out, partially destroyed or simply decommissioned. The pollution of the marine environment off the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus with household wastewater poses a serious threat to the local population and numerous tourists. Periodic dumping of unpurified wastewater and pipeline accidents require regular monitoring of the coastal waters. At the same time, it is possible to significantly reduce the risk of accidents on pipelines already at the design stage. In particular, a brief analysis of the natural conditions of the Russian shelf of the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus and the accident rate of subsea pipelines makes it possible to recommend the use of steel pipes in the construction of communal systems of marine water supply and sewerage. The use of plastic pipes is permissible only at depths of more than 25 m. In the upper shelf zone, the construction of completely plastic submarine pipelines is reasonable only if they are properly buried in the layer of loose bottom sediments or in the bedrock of the bench. Additionally, we can recommend application of measures to compensate for linear temperature deformations of the pipes.

Determination of Construction Design to Reduce the Amount of Marine Litter at Seawater Intake Using Particle Tracking Module of Numerical Method by Mike 21 (Case Study: Tanjung Awar - Awar, Tuban, East Java)

This research aims to analyze and estimate the amount of marine litter which get into seawater intake of PT Trans-Pacific Petrochemical Indonesia (TPPI) Tuban in existing conditions during west monsoon and east monsoon. Ten designs will be simulated to reduce and trap the marine debris entering the seawater intake (SWI). These designs will be tested for their effectiveness in reducing the number of debris entering the SWI using the particle tracking module of MIKE 21 numerical modelling package. The required data in this simulation are wind (speed and direction), wave (significant height, direction and period), the bathymetry of and coastline. Besides, this simulation is conducted based on primary data provided by TPPI Tuban management as the validation data. Based on the simulation results, the amount of marine litter entering SWI in the west monsoon is greater than the east monsoon, which is 349.14 kg/year for west monsoon and 100.84 kg/year for east monsoon. Based on the simulation results using the particle tracking module, it was found that design 5 is the most effective design, with the effectiveness of 73.97%. The biggest accumulation of marine litter using construction design 5 occurred in November, which was 355.36 kg.

Precipitation‐Induced Reduction in Surface Ocean pCO2: Observations From the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean

AbstractDetermining air‐sea CO2 fluxes using pCO2 disequilibrium requires knowing the gas transfer velocity and air‐sea pCO2 difference. Most pCO2 measurements are made from ships, whose uncontaminated seawater intakes are located at >5‐m depth to prevent ingestion of air. However, there could be bias in determinations of CO2 fluxes if there is disagreement between pCO2 measurements at the surface and 5 m. Seawater measurements made at the near surface and 5 m in the eastern Equatorial Pacific Ocean show that precipitation can dilute surface seawater salinity and lower the pCO2 and dissolved inorganic carbon and raise pH of the same water, and that these changes in ocean chemistry are largely missed by measurements at 5 m. This finding implies that estimates of ocean CO2 uptake might be underestimated, since rain will lower surface ocean pCO2 in both source and sink regions and, hence, increase uptake in sink regions and decrease outgassing in source regions.

Sea Water Intake Building Based on Revetment and Groins Structures

Struktur pengambilan air laut terbuka bebas didesain dengan menggunakan sistem anti penggaraman di lokasi pelabuhan. Air laut nantinya digunakan sebagai sistem pendingin. Fungsi struktur pengambilan adalah mengumpulkan air laut dengan karakteristik khusus untuk meminimalkan sedimen pasir yang masuk ke dalam pipa pengambilan. Partikel sedimen melayang dan mengendap yang lolos pada saringan pipa mengakibatkan dampak negatif dan kerusakan pompa hisap dan atau sistem pendingin pembangkit listrik, sehingga secara periodik dan memerlukan biaya tinggi guna proses pembersihannya. Design terbaru dari bangunan pengambilan air laut ini menggunakan sistem revetment dan groins untuk menahan sedimen melayang dan mengendap, dengan demikian sistem struktur mampu menahan semua tipe partikel sedimen dan biaya perawatan sistem pengambilan dapat dikurangi.

Collapse analysis of a large plastic pipe using cohesive zone modelling technique

Polypropylene (PP) plastic pipes have recently gained widespread application in non-pressurized gravity pipes used for seawater intake lines in the petrochemical industry. These pipes consist of a solid wall base pipe, on which an outer reinforcement called the omega-profile is spirally winded and hot fusion bonded. The omega-profile is usually filled with grout to provide on-bottom stability for subsea installation. It is of high importance that the bond between the omega-profile and the base pipe has sufficient strength to provide resistance against buckling of the pipeline system. The objective of this study is to investigate the collapse behaviour of such large-diameter PP pipes subjected to a negative internal pressure. The bond is modelled with cohesive zone modelling technique with the aim to determine the failure mode that governs the collapse behaviour of the pipe, e.g. buckling or delamination. Experiments where conducted on single cantilever beam (SCB) specimens cut from the pipe to determine the cohesive bond strength between the omega-profile and base pipe. The findings from the experiments are implemented in a full pipe model, where the surface between the omega-profile and base pipe is assigned bond strength characteristics in accordance with the experimental results. The FEA results of the non-linear collapse analysis of the full pipe model show that for the range of grout stiffness values considered (0 ≤ Eg ≤ 30 GPa), the governing failure mode of the pipe is initiated by buckling and proceeded by delamination. For delamination to govern the failure mode, a grout stiffness greater than 36 GPa in combination with a weaker bond strength than the experimentally measured would be required. The methodology presented in this study gives a rather accurate tool for the design and analysis of this type of structures, and can reliably assess the bond strength level required in view of the governing failure modes, e.g. buckling and delamination.

Fouling investigation of a full-scale seawater reverse osmosis desalination (SWRO) plant on the Red Sea: Membrane autopsy and pretreatment efficiency

In this study, the membrane autopsy was performed on a full-scale seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination plant located on the Red Sea. Several techniques were employed to characterize the nature and the fate of the foulants in the process, including LCOCD, ICP-MS, SEM-EDS, TSS, and ATP. The efficiency of the pretreatment in removing the fouling potential was assessed by analyzing the seawater after the intake feed pump, after the spruce media filter (SMF) and after the cartridge filter (CF). The autopsy of the membrane modules and CF operated for long-term revealed the presence of a heterogeneous fouling layer. The organic fraction composition of the fouling layer depended on the module position in the vessel. The inorganic deposits embedded in the layer were mainly composed of aluminum, iron, and magnesium silicate. The inorganic sediments entered the plants from the shoreline seawater intake and accumulated on the CF filter and the membrane. The analysis of the pretreatment performance showed an increase of TSS and ATP after CF, highlighting the inappropriate CF filter replacement time.

Imprecise earned duration model for time evaluation of construction projects with risk considerations

Monitoring and estimating the time performance of projects are two crucial factors which lead the companies to be prosperous. To address the issue, the most recent time-based method is earned duration management (EDM) which is used as an efficient technique. This research presents a new triangular intuitionistic fuzzy-EDM model to improve the applicability of time performance indices and to forecast under uncertain conditions. Since traditional fuzzy sets using membership degrees cannot deal with imprecise quantities in real cases, triangular intuitionistic fuzzy numbers (TIFNs) solve this issue by non-membership and hesitation degrees. In this sake, a TIFN as a special type of intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFSs), defined on the set of real numbers, shows high capability of modeling ill-known and imprecise information in continuous domains. Besides, the importance of risks in time estimation of EDM is less considered in the literature. In this research, a new time-based risk performance indicator (TBRPI) is developed based on novel risk performance metrics (RPMs) to improve the project time performance estimating of EDM. In this respect, the significance of each RPM could increase the accuracy of the proposed approach, in which a new triangular intuitionistic fuzzy group decision method is presented for obtaining the RPMs and constituent factors (CFs)’ weights. Finally, a real case study about seawater intake basin construction project is provided to represent the applicability and feasibility of the proposed triangular intuitionistic fuzzy risk-based EDM model.

ПУТИ СНИЖЕНИЯ ПРИЕМА ЗАБОРТНОЙ ВОДЫ СИСТЕМОЙ ОХЛАЖДЕНИЯ СУДОВОЙ ЭНЕРГОУСТАНОВКОЙ

The issues of the possibility of reducing the intake of seawater by the power plant cooling system are considered. This will ensure a reduction in the negative anthropogenic impact of the system. Throttle control, thermal control with bypass and variable pump speed are analyzing. It has been founding that the latter method is the most optimal.

Monitoring Seasonal Variation in Important Physio-Chemical Parameters of Arabian Seawater at Karachi Used for Feeding SWRO

This study reports the analysis of various parameters of seawater upto 3 years used for feeding to seawater desalination (SWRO) plant at French Beach, Arabian sea, Karachi city, Pakistan. The work highlights the monitoring of essential parameters of seawater intake to reverse osmosis plant for pre-treatment loop designing and optimizing the operational cost. The study was planned as limited data was available internationally from this region, which includes pH, turbidity, temperature, total dissolved solids (TDS) and total suspended solids (TSS) allied with seasonal variations before pretreatment and after getting permeate. The water production capacity of SWRO plant is 100,000 gallon per day having Filmtech polyamide membrane and equipped with energy recovery turbine. It was observed in the period since 2015 to 2017, the monitoring of intake samples i.e. pH, turbidity and temperature showed variation in the range of 7.9-8.1, 8-34 NTU and 21-29 ºC, respectively. The observed value of TDS and TSS of seawater were 38.0-39.5 g/L and 18-48 mg/L, respectively. The concentrations of soft metals in seawater were found to be in order of Na > Mg > Ca > K while major anions were Cl− >SO4 2−. The TDS and pH of permeate water found to be in the range of 150-500 mg/L and 6.0-7.5 respectively, while other parameters were within WHO limit.

Review The Importance of Seawater Intake and its Treatment Techniques for RO Desalination Plant


 Seawater intake and its treatments are one of the main upstream processes of every seawater desalination plant (RO, ED, MSF, MED). However, the process has turned out to be of utmost importance for reverse osmosis (RO) desalination plant. It is to be sure that sufficient and steady flow and quality of water is available to the RO desalination plant. Prior to RO feed water, the seawater intake pre-treatment process has to be tailored and the quality of seawater intake to be treated either subsurface intake or open surface intakes, particularly when treating open surface intakes seawater (OSIS) with exceedingly unpredictable quality. According to the well-established membrane manufacturer and supplier, the RO membrane warranty and guarantee are depended on seawater intake quality and its pre-treatment. Thus, the current state-of-the-art RO membranes life and performance success for desalination processing depend upon OSIS pre-treatment processing techniques. This article is emphasizing an overview on recent OSIS and its pre-treatment techniques for RO desalination plant.

A modeling framework to evaluate blending of seawater and treated wastewater streams for synergistic desalination and potable reuse

A modeling framework was developed to evaluate synergistic blending of the waste streams from seawater reverse osmosis (RO) desalination and wastewater treatment facilities that are co-located or in close proximity. Four scenarios were considered, two of which involved blending treated wastewater with the brine resulting from the seawater RO desalination process, effectively diluting RO brine prior to discharge. One of these scenarios considers the capture of salinity-gradient energy. The other two scenarios involved blending treated wastewater with the intake seawater to dilute the influent to the RO process. One of these scenarios incorporates a low-energy osmotic dilution process to provide high-quality pre-treatment for the wastewater. The model framework evaluates required seawater and treated wastewater flowrates, discharge flowrates and components, boron removal, and system energy requirements. Using data from an existing desalination facility in close proximity to a wastewater treatment facility, results showed that the influent blending scenarios (Scenarios 3 and 4) had several advantages over the brine blending scenarios (Scenarios 1 and 2), including: (1) reduced seawater intake and brine discharge flowrates, (2) no need for second-pass RO for boron control, and (3) reduced energy consumption. It should be noted that the framework was developed for use with co-located seawater desalination and coastal wastewater reclamation facilities but could be extended for use with desalination and wastewater reclamation facilities in in-land locations where disposal of RO concentrate is a serious concern.

Numerical Simulation of the Water Temperature in the Al-Zour Area of Kuwait

The Al-Zour coastal area, located in southern Kuwait, is a region of concentrated industrial water use, seawater intake, and the outfall of existing power plants. The Al-Zour LNG import facility project is ongoing and there are two issues regarding the seawater temperature in this area that must be considered: variations in water temperature under local meteorology and an increase in water temperature due to the expansion of the thermal discharge of expanded power plant. MIKE 3 model was applied to simulate the water temperature from June to July, based on re-analysis data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and the thermal discharge input from adjacent power plants. The annual water temperatures of two candidate locations of the seawater intake for the Al-Zour LNG re-gasification facility were measured in 2017 and compared to the numerical results. It was determined that the daily seawater temperature is mainly affected by thermal plume dispersion oscillating with the phase of the tidal currents. The regional meteorological conditions such as air temperature and tidal currents, also contributed a great deal to the prediction of seawater temperature.

Water temperature drives phytoplankton blooms in coastal waters.

Phytoplankton blooms are an important, widespread phenomenon in open oceans, coastal waters and freshwaters, supporting food webs and essential ecosystem services. Blooms are even more important in exploited coastal waters for maintaining high resource production. However, the environmental factors driving blooms in shallow productive coastal waters are still unclear, making it difficult to assess how environmental fluctuations influence bloom phenology and productivity. To gain insights into bloom phenology, Chl a fluorescence and meteorological and hydrological parameters were monitored at high-frequency (15 min) and nutrient concentrations and phytoplankton abundance and diversity, were monitored weekly in a typical Mediterranean shallow coastal system (Thau Lagoon). This study was carried out from winter to late spring in two successive years with different climatic conditions: 2014/2015 was typical, but the winter of 2015/2016 was the warmest on record. Rising water temperature was the main driver of phytoplankton blooms. However, blooms were sometimes correlated with winds and sometimes correlated with salinity, suggesting nutrients were supplied by water transport via winds, saltier seawater intake, rain and water flow events. This finding indicates the joint role of these factors in determining the success of phytoplankton blooms. Furthermore, interannual variability showed that winter water temperature was higher in 2016 than in 2015, resulting in lower phytoplankton biomass accumulation in the following spring. Moreover, the phytoplankton abundances and diversity also changed: cyanobacteria (< 1 μm), picoeukaryotes (< 1 μm) and nanoeukaryotes (3–6 μm) increased to the detriment of larger phytoplankton such as diatoms. Water temperature is a key factor affecting phytoplankton bloom dynamics in shallow productive coastal waters and could become crucial with future global warming by modifying bloom phenology and changing phytoplankton community structure, in turn affecting the entire food web and ecosystem services.

Establishment of database on the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of the seawater intake of Kuwaiti desalination plants

Establishment of database on the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of the seawater intake of Kuwaiti desalination plants

Correction to 'Inter-decadal variability of phytoplankton biomass along the coastal West Antarctic Peninsula'.

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 376 , 20170174. (Published online 14 May 2018). ([doi:10.1098/rsta.2017.0174][1]) The original paper, as published, requires correction to the figures. Figure 5(c) and 8 were presented incorrectly, and the resolution of all figures has been modified. Figure 5 c : the zero lines in the time series plots were removed. Figure 8 should only have two subplots ( a,b ) not ( a )–( d ) as in the published version. Figure 1. Map of sampling area: the positions of Carlini Station at Potter Cove (PC), Palmer Station seawater intake (SWI) (or Palmer Station) and Rothera Station along the coastal West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP). Figure 2. Daily volumetric chlorophyll- a (Chl) time series at … [1]: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2017.0174