The Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI), part of Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), recently signed an agreement with Qatar Electricity and Water Company (QEWC), to initiate a pilot testing programme for desalination technology development. A pilot desalination plant will be constructed to specifically focus on a novel design of Multi-Effect Distillation (MED) technology for seawater desalination which has been developed by QEERI. The testing programme will enable the development of a new concept to improve the energy efficiency of MED thermal technology.

Dr. Abdelnasser Aboukhlewa, scientist at QEERI, joint faculty at College of Science and Engineering (CSE), and the project lead of the advanced MED technology development, explained how the agreement with QEWC would contribute to overcoming two of Qatar’s grand challenges: energy and water security. 

“Desalination plants consume a great deal of energy, yet a dry land country such as Qatar is heavily reliant on desalinated water as a source for meeting around 99 percent of its domestic water needs. Qatar’s future water demands are also expected to rise to meet the country’s projected population growth.

“The agreement allows QEERI to use its scientific and technical expertise at the pilot plant to be established at QEWC’s facility in Dukhan, which will support QEWC in its role managing the operation and maintenance of Qatar’s power and desalination plants,” said Aboukhlewa.

Under the agreement, QEWC is offering QEERI a site for a pilot plant installation, facilities and logistical support, including a supply of seawater, outfall of the brine and electricity.In turn, QEERI will support the building of the MED pilot plant.

QEERI’s strategic mandate is to work closely with Qatari stakeholders (such as QEWC) to identify and align with industry objectives in implementing new solutions to the current and foreseeable challenges. Accordingly, through scientific innovative research and development, QEERI has identified the main challenges and technical limitations of the existing desalination technology, and developed a technology development road map to address those challenges.This eventually led to a direct engagement with the Qatari stakeholder (QEWC), where QEERI presented its concept for the pilot plant desalination program, as a potential solution for reducing the energy consumption of desalination plants in Qatar.

Dr. Aboukhlewa envisages three phases for the project established under the agreement. The first phase is to build an MED plant with a pilot testing program using thermal technology, which is already in practice in Qatar. However, QEERI has developed new solutions to improve the efficiency of the technology, and this would reduce energy consumption by around 40percent, which in turn would decrease the water unit cost by 30 percent. The choice to use MED technology was based on its proven reliability and is within the core technology of QEWC.

Upon completion of the first phase, QEERI will introduce areas of improvement to MED technology. In phase two, QEERI will seek to find solutions for controlling corrosion, one of the major negative effects on material and equipment used in seawater desalination plants. QEERI will replace basic metal tubes used during the first phase of building the pilot plantwith thermally enhanced polymeric tubes,and is set to carry out tests to assess the performance of the new material.

Dr. Aboukhlewais currently leading a national priority research project (NPRP) in collaboration with Qatar Texas A&M University, Qatar University, and Kaiserslautern University (Germany) to fabricate a novel thermally enhanced material for MED desalination technology to be tested using the pilot plant.

In phase three, QEERI will be testing anti-scalantchemicals to support the operation and efficiency of the desalination plant to increase production. If these trials are successful, QEWCcould roll out these new or enhanced chemicals to existing plants. QEERI has also initiated partnerships with other companies keen to test their technology under Qatar’s harsh conditions.

QEERI expects to successfully conclude all three phases of the project by 2022. The project will also be used as a pilot testing program for other potential improvements in desalination not only inthermal technology but in relation to competitive technologies such as reverse osmosis (RO).

Source: http://www.qatar-tribune.com/news-details/id/164784