Application

Column 15
Desalination (a Filtration + Separation publication) Volume 5 Issue 2

SWRO desalination:
Long-term solution
for water shortages
D
rought in Barcelona was forcing the government to transport
water into the city. To provide a long-term solution, the Llobregat
Desalination Plant was commissioned and built within two years.
The success of this endeavor was marked with the award of the
2010 Global Water Intelligence Desalination Plant of the Year.

Over the past decade, the city of Barcelona
has endured lengthy spells of severe drought,
creating serious water shortages. In 2008, the
Catalonian region took emergency measures to
supply its residents with potable water. At one
point, the government placed major restrictions
on the use of water for swimming pools and
ordinary landscape irrigation. In desperation,
the government transported much needed
water by boat from as far as Tarragona and
Marseille, to increase reservoir levels for the
4.5 million people in the Barcelona area; the
endeavor was costly and unsustainable.
In order to ensure a secure and reliable
water supply, the government explored many
possible solutions and decided that seawater
reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination was
the most viable, long-term option. The initial
decision to construct a desalination facility
created concerns amongst environmental
activists. To address apprehensions, the local
Barcelona government conducted thorough
research and planning to ensure that a large
desalination facility would not impact the
environment, and the project moved forward.
will deliver water to an estimated 1.5 million
residents in the region, accounting for about
20% of the area’s water supply.
Intake and pretreatment process
The complete project of the Barcelona
(Llobregat) Desalination Plant encompasses
the seawater intake, the underwater pipeline
to the pumping station, the pipeline between
the pumping station and the desalination
plant, the pumping of treated water to the
Aguas del Ter Llogregat (ATLL) tank, and
the reject water pipeline back into the
existing seawater outfall of the Baix Llobregat
Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The seawater open intake consists of two
circular concrete towers built at 30 m below
sea level and 2.2 km away from the coastline.
Two 1.8 m diameter pipes burrowed in the
seabed transport the raw water from the towers
to the intake station located on the coast – a
distance of 2.5 km from the desalination plant.
Before entering the pumping station tank,
the seawater passes through mesh screeners
with a mesh size of 23 mm. Then the raw
water is stored in an intermediate tank before
being pumped by five centrifugal pumps to
the desalination plant. On the way to the
desalination plant, the pipe transporting the
seawater crosses underneath the Llobregat

Plant supplies fresh water

With a capacity of 200,000 m³/day
(52.8 million gallons/day), the plant is
currently the largest of its kind in Europe, fully
operational since July 2009. Located on the
left bank of the LLobregat Delta, alongside the
Baix Llobregat Wastewater Treatment Plant,
the Barcelona (Llobregat) Desalination Plant
was constructed and commissioned within
two years. Built on behalf of Aguas del Ter
Llobregat (ATLL) by a consortium of Aguas
de Barcelona (AGBAR), Dragados, DRACE
Medioambiente and Degremont, the plant Figure 1. An aerial view of the Barcelona (Llobregat) Desalination Plant.
16 Column
Application
Figure 2. RO process with PX Energy Recovery devices.
River and several minor hydraulic channels,
including the airport wastewater drain.
Prior to the RO process, the raw water from
the intake undergoes extensive pretreatment
to ensure that it arrives in optimal condition
before entering the membranes. The
Barcelona pre-treatment process includes a
special, triple-treatment method, a key feature
to maintaining longer membrane life. The
contractor employed a triple filtration system
to eliminate any impurities, removing algae
and pathogens.
From the pumping station, the water enters
four automatic screeners with 3 mm mesh
size. Then the water is conducted to the
coagulation and flotation chambers, and on
to the dual media gravity filters. Finally, it
goes to the pressurized dual media filters and
cartridge filters, before feeding into the RO
first pass trains.
A biocide (sodium hypochlorite) used to
eliminate bacteria and prevent biofouling is
added into the seawater tank, while sulfuric
acid is used to adjust the pH of the seawater.
Ferric chloride is used as a coagulant before
the coagulation chambers and the dual media
pressurized filters.
Plant uses PX technology
The Barcelona (Llobregat) Desalination Plant
is configured into two production lines, each
with a capacity of 100,000 m³/day. The plant
consist of two passes, the 10 first pass trains
have a nominal capacity of 23,100 m³/day and
Desalination (a Filtration + Separation publication) Volume 5 Issue 2
a partial second pass of two trains, each have
a nominal production rate of approximately
16,500 m³/day. Each of the 10 trains is fitted
with pressure equipment. This includes 230
Energy Recovery PX-220 devices, with 23 PX
devices installed in each train.
ERI energy recovery technologies, including
the PX Pressure Exchanger devices, are
ceramic devices which use just one moving
part to recycle energy (from SWROs
high-pressure waste stream) at up to 98%
efficiency. PX Pressure Exchanger devices
use the principle of positive displacement
and isobaric chambers to achieve efficient
transfer of energy from a high pressure waste
stream, such as the brine stream from an
RO desalination process, to a low-pressure
incoming feed stream (seawater). The ERI
PX Pressure Exchanger device captures
energy from the waste stream of seawater
desalination, and recycles it back into
the plant’s operations. The device pumps
approximately 50 m³ of briny water an hour.
ERI devices required no customization for
the Barcelona plant, offering maintenance-
free operations, an ideal advantage for
owners and operators looking to reduce
lifecycle costs. The implementation of this
energy-efficient PX technology and disposal
of the brine is key to the environmental
viability of this award-winning facility.
While SWRO desalination is a historically
energy-intensive process, this Barcelona
facility relies on isobaric energy recovery
devices to cut the energy consumed by
the SWRO process – estimated to save
22.5 MW of energy.
To ensure that the brine from desalination is
disposed of in a manner that is not harmful
to the environment, it is mixed with the pure
treated water from the adjacent Baix Llobregat
Wastewater Treatment Plant before being
discharged back into the sea. This allows a
dilution of the brine, which further decreases
any environmental impact the brine could
have caused.
Post-treatment
In order to adapt its quality to that of
drinking water, the permeate water undergoes
a demineralization process. This consists of
passing the water through a number of calcite
(CaCO3) beds with a total surface area of
672 m² and dosing with carbon dioxide (CO2)
to re-establish lime-carbon dioxide equilibrium
of the water. The water is then evacuated
by spillway into the treated tank under the
calcite beds. Chlorine dioxide is injected to
ensure disinfection, and the water is then
suctioned by the treated water pumps and sent
to the Fontsana tank in the municipality of
San Joan Despi. This is the delivery point for
the ATTL network.
With the success of the Barcelona (Llobregat)
Desalination Plant, several other desalination
projects are now underway in Catalunya and
throughout Spain to guarantee the region a
consistent supply of fresh water for the future.
www.energyrecovery.com