Fujairah 2 reverse osmosis desalination plant, United Arab Emirates

The Fujairah 2 (F2) Reverse Osmosis Desalination Plant is part of the largest hybrid desalination plant in the world linked to a 2,000 MW power plant and a 450,000 m3/day thermal desalination plant.
136,500 m3/day are produced through the Reverse Osmosis (RO) process and its associated Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) pre-treatment system.
 

Energy – efficient solution

The high drinking water demand in the UAE does not vary substantially with the seasons whereas the power demand does: during summer, the power demand is high due to the use of air-conditioning while it is lower during the winter months.

Therefore, the innovative hybrid MED-RO solution, was called for to best match the demands from a cost as well as a performance perspective. This design is the most energy efficient solution for production of desalinated water today.
 
The plant has also been designed with a sludge treatment system in order to avoid wastewater and sludge disposal into the sea environment. The wastewater is treated and the resulting sludge thickened for disposal in an engineered landfill facility. Effective energy recovery from the brine stream is achieved with the use of Pelton Turbines which has an efficiency of 87%.
 

Eliminating more than 99% of algae content

Algae bloom periods are often a problem in the region.
Taking this into account, the technical solution put into place also features an innovative pretreatment solution upstream of the RO system: Veolia’s Spidflow® Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF). It is especially efficient during red Tide periods and provides unequalled water treatment efficiency by eliminating over 99% of algae content.

The efficiency was confirmed during a strong algae bloom in February 2011 and March 2013 when Fujairah 2 was able to maintain its daily production capacity while other plants in the region were forced to shut down or greatly reduce their production.