Seawater Desalination Plant – Hurghada City, Red Sea Governorate - Egypt

Introduction

Due to Egypt’s scarce water resources, and the rising demand between the supply and demand of water, the country is embarking into a strategic direction to capitalize and further focus on seawater desalination as a key source for municipal water supply, particularly for coastal areas.

Accordingly, the Egyptian Government has launched the Al-Yosr project in the city of Hurghada, Red Sea Governorate, to construct a Seawater Reverse Osmosis Desalination Plant with a capacity of 80,000 m³/day to produce water with potable standards for drinking purposes to serve the city and a population of more than 500,000 residents.

MetiPro was awarded the project based on its extensive engineering experience and history with developing desalination projects and its world-class quality process design, construction, operation and maintenance of plants utilising the Reverse Osmosis technology.

As part of the mandate set by the Egyptian Government, Al-Yosr SWRO plant was realised as the first large SWRO in Egypt.

Scope of Work

The scope of work included:

• Detailed engineering for the full plant which included: intake works, civil works, process and electrical works and delivery of all equipment, material, and spare parts

• Installation, commissioning and startup

• Onshore & offshore training

• Full operations and maintenance

The plant consists of:

• Raw water intake system

• Chemical pre-treatment

• Multi-Media Filtration

• Micron Filtration

• Desalination with Double Pass Reverse Osmosis System

• Energy Recovery System (by isobaric Pressure Exchangers)

• Post Treatment – Langelier Saturation Index adjustment by:

  • Limestone Contactors

  • CO₂ Injection System

  • Degasser with Blending Tank and Pump Station

• Water treatment laboratory

• Stand-by generators covering 50% of plant capacity

• Step-down transformers and substation

• Medium and low voltage distribution system

• Instrumentation, controls, and SCADA system

Key Benefits

• A comprehensive solution: Al-Yosr SWRO is a total solution for the potable water shortage crisis in the city of Hurghada and a progressive approach aimed at coping with the expected future growth in population and demand.

• Economic viability: Al-Yosr is a large reverse osmosis plant that is in line with Egypt’s strategy to utilize seawater desalination for the supply of municipal water in remote coastal areas. This solution offers a more economically viable alternative for water provision compared to using transfer pipelines extended for over 200 km from the Nile River.

• Trouble-free operation: Utilizing novel and reliable technology and integrating it across the design of the plant leads to minimum downtime and more sustainable operations.

• Energy savings: Utilizing state-of-the-art technology in energy recovery lowers the plant’s energy consumption and carbon footprint to a minimum.

• Safe and clean water supply: Product water remineralization systems ensure the supply of high-quality water to consumers as well as protect the city water distribution pipe grid.

• The treated water quality meets international standards and the most stringent requirements for potable water, achieving permeate water with boron levels less than 0.5 mg/l.