Desalination 203 (2007) 176188

A 13.3 MGD seawater RO desalination plant for Yanbu Industrial City

Akili D. Khawaji*,a, Ibrahim K. Kutubkhanaha, Jong-Mihn Wieb
Royal Commission for Jubail & Yanbu, P.O. Box 30031, Yanbu Al-Sinaiyah, Saudi Arabia ADK, Tel: 966 4 321 6100; Fax: 966 4 396 0292; email: khawaji@rc-ynb.com IKK, Tel: 966 4 321 6500; Fax: 966 4 396 3000; email: kutubkhanah@rc-ynb.com b Saudi Arabian Parsons Limited, P.O. Box 30167, Yanbu Al-Sinaiyah, Saudi Arabia Tel: 966 4 321 6039; Fax: 966 4 396 0503; email: JongMihn.Wie@parsons.com Received 29 January 2006; accepted 12 February 2006
a

Abstract This paper presents the major design criteria and features for the 13.3 million gallons per day (MGD) seawater reverse osmosis (RO) desalination plant that is currently under construction in Madinat Yanbu Al-Sinaiyah, Yanbu Industrial City, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The seawater RO plant is made up of six trains of about 2.2 MGD capacity each. The plant consists of five major systems: seawater supply, seawater pretreatment, high pressure pumping, RO modules, and permeate posttreatment. The paper also discusses technical issues and parameters associated with the plant design, and advances made in the seawater reverse osmosis desalination technology. Keywords: Seawater reverse osmosis desalination; Plant design; Seawater supply; Pretreatment; Reverse osmosis module; Permeate posttreatment; Yanbu Industrial City

1. Introduction The Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu (RC) is the Saudi government entity entrusted with the mission and responsibility of planning, developing, operating, and
*Corresponding author.

managing the two modern, large world-class industrial cities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. There is one at Madinat Al-Jubail Al-Sinaiyah (Jubail Industrial City) on the Gulf and one at Madinat Yanbu Al-Sinaiyah

Presented at EuroMed 2006 conference on Desalination Strategies in South Mediterranean Countries: Cooperation between Mediterranean Countries of Europe and the Southern Rim of the Mediterranean. Sponsored by the European Desalination Society and the University of Montpellier II, Montpellier, France, 21-25 May 2006 0011-9164/07/$ See front matter 2007 Published by _\ Elsevier B.V. doi:10.1016/j.desal.2006.02.018

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(MYAS, Yanbu Industrial City) on the Red Sea. MYAS is located on the coastline about 320 km northwest of Jeddah. Until 2002 the RC Yanbu had operated and maintained the major utility infrastructure facilities including the power, desalination and seawater cooling complex, in order to support the MYAS community and industries. Because of the arid desert area, MYAS depends on seawater desalination for its entire fresh water supply. The 25.3 million gallons per day (MGD) (95,760 m3/day) seawater desalination plant consists of six 9120 m3/day (2.4 MGD) and three 13,680 m3/day (3.6 MGD) multi-stage flash (MSF) distillation units. Because of the projected growth of the MYAS community and industries, additional seawater desalination units are required to meet future water demand. The existing desalination plant operation with the MSF process has been very reliable. Out of the two major seawater desalination processes for the production of fresh water from the sea in large quantities, the reverse osmosis (RO) process has gained some popularity and acceptance in recent years due to its simplicity, improved membrane performance and cost effectiveness for certain sites [1,2]. The major world large seawater RO desalination plants include 45 MGD Fujairah plant in UAE [3], 36 MGD Singapore plant [4], 33.1 MGD Point Lisas plant in Trinidad [5], 25 MGD Tampa Bay plant in USA [6], 14.9 MGD Marbella plant in Spain [7], 13.2 MGD Fukuoka plant in Japan [8], 12 MGD Addur plant in Bahrain [9], and 10.6 MGD Okinawa plant in Japan [10]. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia there is a large number of RO desalination plants of various sizes for both brackish water and seawater [11]. There are large seawater RO desalination plants and several smaller size RO plants (0.61.2 MGD) in operation on the Gulf and the Red Sea [12]. The large seawater

RO plants built and operated by the Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) include two 15 MGD Jeddah plants [1315], 24 MGD Jubail plant [16,17] and 33.8 MGD Madina-Yanbu plant [18]. These plants prove the RO process to be very successful in desalination of Saudi Arabian seawaters. The RC Yanbu has had experience in operating and maintaining a 1.3 MGD seawater RO desalination plant that was installed in 1981 [19]. This plant was one of the first major RO plants adopted in the world for desalination of seawater. The plant was built as a construction support facility to supply potable water to MYAS until the permanent MSF desalination plant was installed and fully operational. The RO plant consisted of five trains with a production capacity of 1000 m3/day (0.26 MGD) permeate for each train. The plant was operated for about three years during the initial construction period for the Yanbu Industrial City development. In light of the above, a technical and economic evaluation of the two desalination processes for MYAS had been carried out to determine the feasibility of utilizing the RO technology for future desalination units [20]. On the basis of the evaluation results, a decision was made to construct a new large seawater RO desalination plant. The RC has been installing a seawater RO desalination plant for Marafiq Company which supplies utilities to MYAS. Marafiq Company was formed in 2002 by privatizing all the RCs utility facilities. The RO plant consists of six 8400 m3/day (2.22 MGD) trains with a total production capacity of 50,400 m3/day (13.3 MGPD) permeate. The plant is expected to be commissioned in the third quarter of 2006. This paper presents the major design criteria and features for the 13.3 MGPD seawater RO desalination plant along with

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technical issues and parameters associated with the plant design. 2. Plant design The 13.3 MGD seawater RO plant is made up of six trains of about 2.2 MGD capacity each. Major design considerations of seawater RO plants include flux, conversion or recovery ratio, permeate salinity, membrane life, power consumption, and feedwater salinity and temperature, etc. The plant consists of five major components: a seawater supply system, a feedwater pretreatment system, high pressure pumping, RO modules, and a permeate post-treatment system. The plant is equipped with a distributed control system (DCS) using the-state-of-the-art computerized technology. Flow rates for the seawater RO plant are shown in Fig. 1. Major plant design features are presented in Table 1. The major systems of the RO plant are described below. 2.1. Seawater supply system Raw seawater is drawn from the existing seawater open intake channel. The intake system also supplies seawater to Marafiq Companys MSF seawater desalination and steam turbine power plants, and MYAS industries for cooling purpose. The seawater flows into the existing pumphouse through trash racks and traveling screens to remove debris. The seawater is treated by injecting sodium hypochlorite to remove algae and
Raw Seawater Treated Filtered Feedwater

bacteria and to prevent microorganism growth. Sodium hypochlorite is generated on site by electrolysis. Residual chlorine after the injection of sodium hypochlorite varies from 0.5 to 0.7 ppm. The design flow rate of seawater for the RO plant is 5,804 m3/hr. Seasonal variations of the seawater temperature from 22 to 33  C occurring at the site were considered in the design. The salinity of seawater is 46,400 ppm of dissolved salts with a chloride concentration of 23,500 ppm. Its pH varies from 8.1 to 8.3 and turbidity is in the range of 0.51 NTU. A typical seawater analysis has been considered the basis of the design for the raw seawater, and it is presented in Table 2. 2.2. Pretreatment system The pretreatment for the raw seawater, feedwater includes chemicals injection and filtration to remove particulate matter and to minimize biological fouling and scaling. The filtration is a preliminary polishing step that provides a protection to the high pressure pumps and the RO membranes employed in the RO process. In order to reduce the amount of suspended solids and colloids in the feedwater, the in-line coagulation, flocculation and filtration steps are employed. An inorganic coagulant, ferric chloride and organic polyelectrolyte are added to flocculate colloidal and fine particles in the feedwater. The flocculant addition enhances the performance of the dual media filters (DMF).

Pretreatment system 5,769 5,509 46,400 ppm TDS pH - 6.5 260 pH - 8.2

pH - 5 500 ppm TDS Permeate RO Product Water Modules 2,100 Service Reject Water 21 3,388 Brine 81,316 ppm TDS

Fig. 1. Flow balance on the RO plant (flow rate in m3/hr).

A.D. Khawaji et al. / Desalination 203 (2007) 176188 Table 1 Plant design features Plant capacity (m3/day) Number of trains Permeate total dissolved solids (TDS) (mg/l) Permeate chloride as Cl (mg/l) Seawater TDS (mg/l) Seawater conductivity @ 25 C (umhos/cm) Seawater temperature ( C) Seawater pH Residual chlorine @ RO plant intake as Cl2 (ppm) Permeate recovery ratio (%) Pretreatment recovery rate (%) RO pump pressure (kg/cm2g) Pretreatment methods DMF filter effluent silt density index (SDI) RO membrane Total number of membrane elements Number of membrane modules per train Number of membrane elements per module Arrangement of permeators Membrane life Power consumption (kWH/m3) Chlorination method pH of pretreated filtered seawater Permeate pH

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50,400 [13.3 MGD] @ 22 C seawater temperature 6 500 250 46,400 57,00064,000 2233 8.18.3 0.10.25 38.5 95 6476 Filtration and chemicals injection 4 Cellulose triacetate (CTA) double element hollow fine fiber (HFF) 1824 152 2 Horizontal position in parallel 5 years with 12% annual replacement 5.2 Intermittent 6.5 5

Two injection points are located in the feedwater header. A static mixer is installed downstream of the injection to insure the proper mixing. Sulfuric acid is injected to the upstream of the DMF filters to reduce pH of the feedwater, which enhances the coagulation process and prevents the formation of calcium carbonate scale. Bicarbonate ions in seawater are converted to carbon dioxide by the acidification. In addition, low pH helps to avoid hydrolysis of cellulose triacetate (CTA) RO membranes selected for the plant. An additional acid injection point is downstream of the DMF filters. Sulfuric acid is also added to the neutralization basin for the purpose of neutralizing industrial wastewater.

The chlorinated and flocculated feedwater is filtered to obtain a silt density index (SDI) value less than 4 after passing through the DMF filters. Fourteen DMF filters (including one for backwash operation and one for a standby mode) are installed with layers of properly graded filter media, anthracite and sand, and gravel for media support. Table 3 shows the media depth and particle size for the media materials. The depth of the filter permits the media bed to expand more than 25% during the backwash modes. The flow in the filters is in the range of 6.46.9 m3/m2hr when one DMF filter is out of service for backwash. The DMF system provides a backwash cycle. All filters are backwashed by the automatic backwash sequence using pneumatically

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Table 2 Design conditions of raw seawater Total dissolved solids (TDS) (ppm) Conductivity @ 25 C (umhos/cm) Turbidity, NTU Total suspended solids (TSS) (ppm) pH @ 25 C Residual chlorine as Cl2 (ppm) Total alkalinity as CaCO3 (ppm) Bicarbonate alkalinity as CaCO3 (ppm) Chloride as Cl (ppm) Sulfate as SO 4 (ppm) Fluoride as F (ppm) Nitrate as NO 3 (ppm) 3 Phosphate as HPO 4 (ppm) Sodium as Na (ppm) Potassium as K (ppm) Calcium as Ca (ppm) Magnesium as Mg (ppm) Total iron as Fe and Fe (ppm) Silica as SiO2 (ppm) Ammonia as NH4 (ppm) Total dissolved oxygen as O2 (ppm) 41,30046,400 57,00064,000 0.51 1 8.18.3 0.50.7 120130 8595 21,60023,500 30003200 1.5 <0.1 <0.1 11,70012,500 425650 490560 15001600 0.01 0.5 0.2 3.55

operated butterfly valves. Air scouring blowers are used to provide air to penetrate the filter bed just before backwashing. The air-scouring velocity is 54 m/hr. The backwash frequency is once every 24 hr with backwash duration ranging from 15 to 40 min, depending on the seawater quality. The backwash water rate is 34 m3/hr/m2 using filtered pretreated seawater. Because of a seasonal variation during the transition period of summer and winter, the SDI index of seawater can be higher than a normal value. Such a high SDI seawater can
Table 3 DMF media depth and size Media Gravel Sand Anthracite Depth (mm) 200 400 600 Media size (mm) 24 0.40.8 0.81.6

lead to a shutdown of the plant. If the seawater shows a high SDI index, the pH of the seawater is reduced by increasing sulfuric acid dosing, and the ferric chloride dosing is increased to improve coagulation of the suspended solids. With an increase in the frequency of backwashing, the addition of a nonionic polyelectrolyte at a rate of 1.4 ppm can also enhance filtration. The effluent from the DMF filters is transferred to a filtered water basin and passes through cartridge filters to remove suspended solids larger than 10 m. Eight cartridge filters (including one for a standby mode) are installed as an additional protection device for polishing the feedwater and to serve as backup of any abnormal operation of the DMF filters. The typical SDI value of the cartridge filter outlet is below 4 which fulfills the RO membrane requirement. An antiscalant is added to the acidified feedwater to inhibit scaling of calcium sulfate, barium

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sulfate, strontium sulfate, and calcium fluoride. Sodium bisulfite (SBS) is injected to the upstream of the suction head of the high pressure feed pumps to avoid oxidation of the RO membranes due to residual chlorine in the pretreated feedwater. This dechlorination process by SBS maintains non-oxidation condition in the RO feedwater. CTA has the advantage of being resistant to moderate level of chlorine, which is normally injected for disinfection in the pretreatment of the raw seawater [21]. Another popular RO membrane material, polyamide is rapidly degraded by oxidizers and can only be used if the pretreatment includes a step removing oxidizing materials from the seawater to the RO units [21]. As the CTA membranes have certain tolerance for chlorine, this characteristics is utilized to prevent biological growth on membranes and the intermittent chlorine injection (ICI) as opposed to the continuous chlorine injection (CCI) is adopted. On the ICI mode of operation the feedwater is normally chlorinated by sodium hypochlorite at 0.5 ppm for one hour a day. The ICI method also prevents membrane degradation by oxidation under the coexistence of chlorine and heavy metals such as Fe, Cu, Co, Ni, Cr and Pb [22]. It has been reported that the heavy metals act as catalysts for the oxidation reaction although CTA is known to be chlorine-resistant [22]. The time of the ICI is adjusted in accordance with the residual chlorine level. For this purpose two chlorine injection points, upstream and downstream of the cartridge filters, are provided. The ICI method has been established and has been found to be very effective to prevent biological fouling and the oxidation reaction in the seawater RO process [2325]. The chemical dosages for the RO plant are shown in Table 4.

Table 4 Chemical dosages Chemical H2SO4 (98%) FeCl3 NaHSO3 NaOH Ca(OH)2 NaOCl Organic polyelectrolyte Antiscalant
a

Dosage, ppm/m3 permeate 170 5.2 15.2 67 45.7 1.4a 1.4 2.6

As Cl2 for posttreatment, pretreatment and flushing.

2.3. High pressure pumping system Six multistage high pressure centrifugal, horizontal pumps of stainless steel construction are used to pump the filtered feedwater into six RO trains at a rate of 5509 m3/hr (918 m3/hr each pump). Each pump has a discharge capacity of 964 m3/hr and generates 733 m of total delivery head. As the seawater temperature increases, the pressure required to force feedwater through the RO membranes decreases. Seawater RO train size is normally dictated by the size of the high pressure stainless steel pump available. This pump size employed for the plant is considered to be one of the largest high pressure stainless pumps for seawater RO application. Each high pressure pump is coupled to a single hydraulic turbine for energy recovery. The energy recovery turbine (ERT) type is the Pelton wheel configuration. This device is typically applied as an add-on package in the form of a shaft assist mechanism [26]. Each turbine is designed to handle 560593 m3/hr at 640696 m water column, respectively. Energy recovery from the concentrated brine is accomplished to reduce a substantial power consumption. The recovery of energy from RO systems has been a major

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factor in the reduction of the desalinated water production cost [26]. 2.4. RO module system The pressurized feedwater is fed to six RO trains in parallel. Each RO train has a capacity of 350 m3/hr (2.22 MGD) and its design pressure is 6476 kg/cm2g. In this system 38.5% of the filtered seawater, 350 m3/hr is recovered as permeate. An operating pressure of 64 kg/cm2g is sufficient on new membranes and the pressure increases gradually. Cellulose triacetate (CTA) in a hollow fine fiber (HFF) configuration that was proven to be reliable, was selected for the semipermeable membranes. The membranes restrict the passage of salts while permitting water to pass through. The RO process is of the single stage configuration since the permeate after a proper treatment is supplied as potable water. Each RO train has 152 HFF membrane modules, and each RO module contains two RO membrane elements. The plant is installed with 1824 CTA HFF membrane elements. Salt rejection by the CTA membrane is approximately 99.4%. The permeate produced by the RO process passes through the permeate basin and then to the product basin. The remaining 61.5% of the filtered seawater, concentrated brine returns to the ERT turbine and then discharged to the brine basin for further disposal by means of pumps to the existing seawater return header. The brine basin also takes backwash water from the DMF filters and other small streams. The TDS content of the permeate is low initially, and then the TDS levels increase gradually. The RO trains are provided with sampling panels for permeate. Chemical cleaning restores the performance of the membranes. Chemical cleaning of the RO membranes is conducted to remove dirt collected on the membranes and takes place

after a considerable period of operation (usually 6 months). The cleaning is implemented by recirculating a cleaning solution at high speed through the membranes. The cleaning solution is selected on the basis of the type of fouling on the membranes. It normally uses a 2% citric acid solution at pH 4. The pH of the solution is adjusted by adding an ammonia solution. The chemical cleaning system for removal of fouling materials is connected to the RO modules. Therefore, the membrane elements are not taken out during cleaning. The frequency of the chemical cleaning depends on the quality of the feedwater to the RO trains and performance of the plant. The frequency is determined by differential pressure across the RO modules, permeate flow, and conductivity of permeate. 2.5. Permeate system The permeate contains dissolved salts up to 500 mg/l depending upon the membrane operating time. The water quality of the typical permeate is shown in Table 5. The permeate, desalinated water is post-treated and passivated by the addition of hydrated lime that is supplied from the lime system. This increases hardness and alkalinity, raises pH, and reduces the tendency of the water to leach calcium from any concrete or materials
Table 5 Permeate quality Composition TDS CI SO4= HCO 3 Na K Ca Mg pH Concentration (ppm) <500 <250 15 3 135 6 3 6 5

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used in the water distribution system [27]. The pH of the product water is adjusted to such a level that a slightly positive Saturation Index (SI) is obtained. The permeate is disinfected by injection of sodium hypochlorite. The product water meets the World Health Organization guidelines for drinking water. The lime handling system consists of a lime silo, a transfer conveyor, and a slurry preparation and dosing system. The product water, treated permeate is stored in the product water storage tanks. The product water is then pumped to the pump station for distribution. 2.6. Plant control system A distributed control system (DCS) using the state-of-the-art computerized control technology is provided to control and monitor the RO plant. The plant is fully operated from the control room. The DCS system provides the total monitoring function for the entire RO plant and sequential and modulating control for the main process as well as the remote manual operation from the operation station. The plant performance data are analyzed with the DCS on a routine basis. The DCS system checks and collects process parameters, takes data from the sensors, and sends them to the computers and from the computers to the operation station screen. The DCS system is always in communication with the status of the plant through digital and analog inputs. There are two redundant computers communicated to the DCS via a communication interface. There are several parts on the computer menu in accordance with the control, monitoring and alarming program pack that can be selected by an operator. Those include set points process parameters, alarm monitoring, flow diagrams of plant systems and status, and trend graphics of each process parameters. The critical

monitoring parameters are flows and pressures of feedwater, permeate and brine, pH, conductivity, temperature, pressure drop, recovery ratio, and equipment conditions. 2.7. Power supply system Voltage is reduced to 13.8 kV by an RO transformer, followed by further voltage stepdown in the plant transformers for in-plant electric power use. The plant needs a nominal power supply of about 15 MVA which includes non-process uses such as lighting, air conditioning, etc. The power consumption for permeate production is about 5.2 kWH/ m3 of permeate. 2.8. Auxiliary systems The auxiliary systems for the RO plant include an instrument and plant air system, a cooling water system, a chemical waste disposal system, a chemical laboratory, a membrane storage area, a skid-mounted membrane test unit, a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system, and fire hydrants and deluge for the transformer system. 2.9. Environmental In the seawater RO operation the major environmental concerns are pH and chlorine level of the concentrated brine discharged to the sea. The MYAS Environmental Regulations and Standards dictate the RO plant brine discharge. The pH of concentrated brine generated from the RO reject and the backwash stream from the DMF filters is in the range of 6.87. These pHs comply with the MYAS Environmental Standards. The pH levels can be adjusted by the addition of caustic soda, if required. Due to the adoption of the ICI chlorination method, the brine reject is virtually free of residual chlorine for 23 h per day and the

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residual chlorine level is about 0.2 ppm for one hour per day. During the DMF backwash periods of 1540 min per day, the backwash streams have a chlorine content of 0.20.3 ppm. Based on this, the average chlorine content in the brine disposal is about 0.02 ppm. During 14 times per day of backwash operation the maximum chlorine content in the brine reject is 0.19 ppm. In the event that the backwash and ICI chlorination (one hour) occur simultaneously, the chlorine content in the brine reject increases up to 0.24 ppm for an 8 min period. RO membrane cleaning operation requires the use of a weak acid or base, depending on the cleaning agent used. The effluent from the RO membrane cleaning is neutralized in the chemical cleaning tank by adding caustic soda prior to discharge to the brine basin. The industrial wastewater from the RO plant is sent to a neutralization basin where either caustic soda or sulfuric acid is added. The neutralized wastewater is discharged to Marafiq Companys Industrial Wastewater Treatment Plant. 3. Concluding remarks The RC Yanbu has had experience in operating and maintaining a 1.3 MGD seawater RO desalination plant that was installed in 1981 [19]. This plant was one of the first major RO plants adopted in the world for desalination of seawater. The plant was built as a construction support facility to supply potable water to MYAS until the permanent MSF desalination plant was installed and fully operational. The RO plant consisted of five trains with a production capacity of 1000 m3/day (0.26 MGD) permeate for each train. Raw seawater from the wells close to the Red Sea was supplied to the plant and a polyamide membrane was installed for the plant. The plant was operated for about 3 years during the initial

construction period for the Yanbu Industrial City development. The 13.3 MGD new RO plant design is based on the most up-to-date seawater RO technology, together with the experience gained from the old small plant. The commissioning of the new plant has been scheduled for the third quarter of 2006, and the plant is anticipated to achieve the expected performance as designed. In the last two decades significant advances have been made in the seawater RO technology which are reflected in the reduction of both capital and operation costs. Primarily two developments have helped to reduce the water production cost of seawater RO plants: the development of membranes that can operate efficiently with longer duration, and the use of energy recovery devices [2831]. The membrane improvements typically include better resistance to compression, longer life, higher recovery, improved flux, and less salt passage. The energy recovery devices are connected to the concentrated brine stream as it leaves the RO pressure vessel. The devices are mechanical and generally consist of turbines or pumps of some type that can convert a pressure drop to rotating energy. Although the MSF desalination technology will continue to dominate large seawater desalination plants, the significant growth of the RO desalination technology is expected. There has been a gradual increase in the RO train size reaching 11,355 m3/day [32] benefiting from the economy of scale, although it is still far off from a MSF unit size of 68,130 m3/day [32,33]. The current permeate recovery rate in an RO plant in the Middle East countries, a region where about two thirds of the desalination water of the world are produced, is approximately 35%. Recently much higher recovery rate, 60% has been obtained elsewhere on the Pacific Ocean water [8,34]. A higher recovery

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rate resulting in reduction in the feed seawater consumption lowers both plant capital cost and operating cost. The RO plant energy consumption is approximately 68 kWh/m3 without energy recovery. Installing an energy recovery device reduces the energy consumption to 45 kWh/ m3 [35]. It has been reported [26] that the unit energy consumption can be reduced to as low as 2 kWh/m3. This achievement is dramatic and possible due to the innovation in the energy recovery device. The major problem faced by RO plants in the Middle East and elsewhere is in the pretreatment area [3638]. The conventional filtration methods are inadequate in certain areas. The seasonal organic blooms, high biological activity, and the turbidity have caused problems with some plants [32]. Biofouling calls for frequent chemical cleaning of the membrane and loss of production. In some cases it is not easy to maintain the required filtrate silt density index (SDI) levels throughout the year. Therefore, a proper pretreatment is extremely important to achieve successful operation of a seawater RO plant. One method of reducing the desalinated water production cost is to employ a hybrid system that consists of two or more desalination processes [3945]. The Fujairah power and desalination complex in UAE has a capacity of 620 MW of electricity and 454,200 m3/ day of desalinated water. This world largest hybrid desalination plant is designed to proby MSF and duce 283,875 m3/day 170,325 m3/day by RO [3,46]. A hybrid system consisting of Power, MSF, and RO plants offers significant advantages, including the use of a common seawater intake system, blending of the product water from MSF and RO, reduction of excess power or power to water ratio, and optimization of RO feedwater using MSF heat rejection cooling water [4548].

The nanofiltration (NF) membrane pretreatment in conjunction with the conventional filtration system, was successfully applied in a pilot plant and later in an operating plant with excellent results [4953]. This promising process prevented membrane fouling by the removal of turbidity and bacteria, and a 40% production increase can be achieved in the operating plant [52]. The SWCCs extensive development work on the use of the NF technology demonstrates the technical and economic feasibility of introducing NF in conjunction with RO. The innovative use of the NF technology offers several benefits and advantages which include the prevention of fouling and scaling, a pressure reduction for RO, an increase in production and recovery, and cost reduction in water production [4953]. References
[1] T. Matsuura, Progress in membrane science and technology for seawater desalination a review. Desalination, 134 (2001) 4754. [2] R. Wiseman, Desalination business stabilised on a high level IDA report, The International Desalination & Water Reuse Quarterly, 14(2), August/September (2004), pp. 1417. [3] S.W. Woo, J.M. Hon, C.O. Kwon, Y.Y. Lee, V. van der Mast, F.M. Mubeen, S.H. Choi and J.S. Lim, Design and operation of the largest hybrid desalination plant, Fujairah, paper presented at the IDA World Conference on Desalination and Water Reuse, Singapore, September 1116, 2005, p. 16. [4] F.H. Kiang, S. Arasu, W.W.L. Yong and D.D. Ratnayaka, Supply of desalinated water by the private sector Singapores first public-privatepartnership initiative, paper presented at the IDA World Conference on Desalination and Water Reuse, Singapore, September 1116, 2005, p. 16. [5] J.D. Thompson, J. Arnold and J.Moch, Jr. Three years operation of the 27.6 MIGD (125,530 m3/day) desalination plant, point Lisas, Trinidad and Tobago, paper presented at

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