Qatar- The solution to a water security threat of the most severe kind
Date
5/14/2016 5:07:05 PM
(MENAFN- The Peninsula)
By Ron Daniel
If reduced energy consumption and water security was to be accomplished through environmentally sound and sustainable methods, two of the four Pillars of Qatar’s 2030 Vision would be largely accomplished. There is now a technology available in Qatar that will not only achieve water security for many hundreds of years but will also simultaneously reduce Qatar’s carbon footprint. It does so by working with nature in an environmentally harmless and completely sustainable process.
REDUCING QATAR’S CARBON FOOTPRINT
Since 1959, when a Scottish engineer, developed what is called “multi-stage flash evaporation” (MSFE), Arabian Gulf nations have ardently pursued this extraordinarily reliable but hyper energy-consuming technology to produce their drinking water.
Today, Qatar’s fresh water is almost exclusively provided by desalination plants ostensibly utilizing those same MSFE methods. However, this method requires a significant share — more than one-fifth — of the country’s electrical generating capacity and more than 10 percent of the nation’s domestic natural gas consumption.
57-years later, another Scottish engineer, with his own company registered in Qatar (Ron Daniel, GM of Composium Group WLL and author of this article) has developed a process that will reduce the typical energy consumption of desalination by approximately 20% regardless of the desalination method preferred; e.g. Reverse Osmosis, Multi Stage Flash Distillation, Multiple Effect Distillation, solar-powered desalination, etc.
Consequently, the production of fresh water will consume 4% less of the country’s electrical generating capacity and 2 percent less of the nation’s domestic natural gas. This new technology is called the Incrediwell Process.
The volumes referenced above are projected to double within the next decade.
The Incrediwell Process is a seawater extraction system that drains large volumes of highly-filtered seawater from below the sands of the seafloor. This unique technology delivers a multitude of benefits.
q Reduction of Qatar’s carbon Footprint with sustainable delivery of less expensive Water and Power production.
q Natural and highly effective water filtration, maintained by constant wave actions, currents, tides and storms. Consequently there is no biofouling and therefore, no need for the toxic and carcinogenic biocide chemicals that have been used to keep open intakes operational.
q Protection of the marine environment of the Gulf, allowing recovery.
q Water security for all future generations of the Gulf.
WATER SECURITY. When considering water security, the biggest problem of them all, a problem that exists on a completely different order of scale, a problem that dwarfs all others is the destruction of the only water source capable of supporting the populations and economies of the region and that is the waters of the Arabian Gulf.
The present day method (and the only method utilised to acquire seawater from the Gulf) is the same method that has been in use for the past 60 years, i.e. open-intakes. The logistics have changed a lot in those 60-years. Qatar’s present day desalinated water production — 1.5 million cubic meters (400 million gallons) daily — represents 5 percent, or one-twentieth of the Gulf’s total production of desalinated water. The total Gulf desalinated water capacity is therefore 30 million cubic meters per day requiring at least 60 - 90 million cubic meters of raw seawater to be drawn from the Gulf each and every day.
Open intakes, as a consequence of the considerable destruction caused to the environment the water is sourced from, are now discredited and virtually outlawed in the USA. If the Gulf is to be protected, the Gulf countries must urgently follow suit. Aside from the immense harm done to the marine environment, first with entrainment of all levels of marine ecology and then second, with the discharge of large quantities of toxic, carcinogenic effluent, it is actually the hyper-saline content of the effluent that creates the greatest challenge to sustainable desalination in the Gulf.
The Gulf, the world’s saltiest sea, is home to approximately 60% of the entire global desalination capacity and records demonstrate a constant year-on-year increase in the Gulf seawater salinity levels. Therefore, each year, more salt needs to be removed in the Desalination Process.
This additional salt requires more energy to be expended by desalination plants in removing it and consequently, increased levels of salt effluent are then returned to the Gulf..
This is surely the epitome of the Law of diminishing returns.
Scientists are now warning that the salinity level increase in the waters of the Gulf will cause the existing water and power facilities to be completely unviable. If the desalination capacity in the Gulf increases as predicted (some estimate a 100% increase within the next decade) this catastrophe will occur much sooner.
This is a threat to Qatar’s economic growth, human well-being, and national security of the most severe kind.
SOLUTION. With Incrediwell Process systems in place of Open intakes, it will be possible to engineer Zero Liquid Discharge processes and thereby create the opportunity for the marine environment of the Gulf to recover from the destruction that it has been subjected to.
With 568km of coastline, there are numerous opportunities to build Incrediwell process systems and with just 25 of these systems, Qatar will be provided with all its Domestic, Agricultural and Industrial water requirements at a fraction of the cost of the mega reservoirs that are currently being built. The transformation from open-intakes to the Incrediwell Process can be carried out without any interruption to every day Water and Power production operations.
95% of all power and water production failures are attributable to open intake problems whereas the Incrediwell Process is impervious to all these shut-down events such as Red Tide (HAB’s), Oil spills, Marine swarms and Storms.
Additionally, sub seafloor seawater abstraction delivers water with valuable geothermal properties. This will create multiple revenue opportunities. If, for example, the seawater abstracted via the Incrediwell Process and intended as a Desalination feed source was first to be used as a District cooling heat transfer process, this would result in a 30% reduction in overall Capex and 60% reduction in overall Opex in comparison with the conventional district cooling systems utilising Cooling Towers
In conclusion, it is this generation that has allowed the Gulf marine environment to be destroyed and thereby severely risking future Water and Power production. The simple change in procedures, moving from open intakes to the Incrediwell Process sub seafloor intakes will allow us to correct the problems that we have created and instead, provide a LEGACY that will last for as long as the Gulf itself exists. .
Ron Daniel a Construction and Engineering Project Manager with over 40-years experience in the industry. He is the General Manager of Composium Group Ltd and he is currently seeking a suitable Qatari Partner to help him launch the Incrediwell Process in Qatar.