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Seawater Desalination: The King Abdullah

Economic City Experience
By Pierre Kwan, PE - Senior Project Manager, Seattle, WA

Satellite view of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)

King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) is a newly planned city with planning and designing their transportation, power and
along the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast that will financial systems, EEC hired us in 2015 for all their potable water
grow from a current population of 5,000 to over 110,000 by system supply and distribution needs, a key public utility in this
2030 and an ultimate population of 1.75 million by 2045. The hot, arid environment.
city development is managed by Emaar, the Economic City
(EEC), which needed a variety of engineering services to support We quickly put together an international team of our firm’s
development of the new city. After already having HDR support most senior experts in the United States, Saudi Arabia and the
United Arab Emirates to support EEC in the planning, designing
and bidding of the city’s potable water system. This team was
managed from our Abu Dhabi and Mahwah, New Jersey, offices.

Water Demand Projections and

Initial Water System Layout
We initially supported EEC by establishing water demand
projections for the City over the planning period. Planning by
others had already projected population growth patterns and
land uses (residential, commercial, industrial, etc.) for the
155-square-kilometer (60-square-mile) urban area. We used
this information to develop detailed annual water demands that
the City can reference as it grows from a small village into one
of the largest cities in the Arabian Peninsula. The water demand
projections took into account local cultural water demand
patterns, future improved water conservation measures, and
offsetting potable water use with reuse water to the greatest
Figure 1. Project location extent possible.

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After the projections were identified, our team laid out the entire of water in the limited groundwater resources, the Red Sea is the
water supply, transmission and distribution system and phased only viable water supply available to the new city. As a result, both
its development to coordinate with the transportation and power Desalination Plant-1 and Desalination Plant-2 were planned to be
system extensions that others within HDR were simultaneously seawater treatment facilities.
developing. The basis of the plan called for construction of two
desalination plants. The first is the coastal Desalination Plant-1 with Environmental Issues
an initial potable water production capacity of 60,000 cubic meters The Desalination Plant-1 design had several unique water quality
per day (m3/day) or 16 million gallons per day (mgd). It will reach an and environmental challenges that are rarely encountered in North
ultimate capacity of 600,000 m3/day (159 mgd) in 23 years. After American desalination facilities. The first water quality issue was
Desalination Plant-1 is built out, EEC will commission Desalination that the Red Sea salinity is 45,000 mg/L, about 25 percent higher
Plant-2 at an inland location for an ultimate capacity of 640,000 than the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. This higher salt content meant
m3/day (169 mgd). The treated water would then be stored in that the desalination step had to be larger and operate at higher
reservoirs and pumped throughout the system using variable speed pressures than typical U.S. installations.
booster pump stations. The pump stations would maintain the
distribution system pressure, a standard practice in the Middle Another issue was that the intake location was near the Port of
East, since elevated storage tanks for pressure maintenance is KAEC, a major international shipping port, and its associated
very uncommon. shipping lanes. Other Saudi desalination facilities have found
that hydrocarbons can leak from passing vessels, which can then
Initial Water Supply Identification cause substantial fouling issues in the desalination membranes. In
KAEC’s location on the shore of the Red Sea means that seawater addition, the ships’ propellers can stir up the sea bed and cause
is a readily available water supply for Desalination Plant-1. However, high turbidity.
seawater desalination is an expensive and technically complex
process, so EEC requested that we determine whether alternative, KAEC is sited along a part of the Saudi Red Sea coast that abuts
lower-cost water sources could be used first and defer seawater large and active coral beds. As part of EEC’s commitment to
desalination to a later date. We investigated the feasibility of reducing environmental impacts, they authorized us to conduct
using groundwater to supply part or all of KAEC’s initial water a comprehensive biological survey of the area to determine the
demands. Through a review of available published literature and diversity of the aquatic life and identify the site-specific water
survey of other water suppliers in the region, groundwater supply quality characteristics that will be used to guide the treatment
appeared very limited. In addition, geologic conditions in the area system design. Our survey found that near-shore area was
have resulted in the available groundwater resources typically habitat to 45 types of coral, including four identified as being
having salinities exceeding 90,000 milligrams per liter (mg/L) vulnerable to extinction; 36 types of fish; and multiple green sea
of total dissolved solids — over twice the salinity of the adjacent turtles. In addition, our investigative team found extensive algae
seawater. This water quality would make groundwater desalination in the near-surface waters that dropped off considerably farther
even more complex than seawater desalination. Given the quality
(continued on next page)

Figure 2. KAEC geological map and water supply options Coral reef along proposed intake and outfall alignment

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Pressurized
Seawater Ferric Dissolved Air Ultrafiltration Sodium
Red Sea Chlorine Pump Station Chloride Flotation Strainers Membranes Bisulfate

Equalization
Basin

Storage
Cartridge Reverse UV Disinfection Carbon Pumping
Filters Osmosis (Future) Lime Dioxide Chlorine Station

Brine Return to
Red Sea

Belt Filter
To Landfill
Press

Figure 3: Desalination Treatment Plant design

offshore and at depths below 12 meters. Thankfully, detectable 1. Shortest distance through the coral beds to minimize
hydrocarbons were not found in the water; however, one of the environmental impacts;
aquatic soil sediments did contain a group of manmade chemicals,
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), likely due to dumping from a 2. Far enough offshore to limit fish impingement by the intake
passing vessel long ago. and brine toxicity impacts by the outfall;

Desalination Treatment Plant Design 3. Not so far offshore as to enter the shipping lanes and be
Once these challenges were identified, our team came together potentially impacted by passing ships;
to deliver the project design. We worked closely with EEC staff to
identify the parcels of land where Desalination Plant-1 would be 4. Shallow enough to be maintained by divers;
located and how it would interconnect with the water system as
well as support utilities like road access, electricity, natural gas and 5. Deep enough to not be impacted by surface algae; and
sanitary sewer. In addition, we collaborated closely to have land and
bathymetric surveys and geotechnical investigations completed. 6. Have the lowest capital costs.

Our designers had to design the intake and outfall at locations that The design of the raw water pumping station was a considerable
met the following requirements: technical challenge. It had to be sized to account for both the
potable water produced by the desalination plant as well as brine

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produced by the process and be resistant to highly corrosive included incoming and backup power supply and distribution,
seawater. The raw water pump station wound up being controls and instrumentation, architectural design, site/civil layout
initially sized for 187,000 m3/day (49 mgd) with stainless and site security, and structural design. One key ancillary system
steel wetted parts. that was added to the project was solar power. KAEC benefits from
abundant sunlight, and the use of solar power will further reduce
The pumped seawater will need to be pre-treated prior to electrical use at the plant. We designed solar panels on all available
the actual desalination step. To accommodate this, our building and reservoir rooftops.
design incorporated both dissolved air flotation (DAF)
and ultrafiltration membranes. The DAF process was Desalination Treatment Plant Procurement
specifically selected as it was the best technology to remove Once our team completed 30 percent design, EEC opted to procure
hydrocarbons and provide additional protection against the project by simultaneous, concurrent bidding as either a single
algae and biological material that could be exuded from the Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) project with a contract
coral at certain times of the year. Ultrafiltration will be used duration of 10 years, or two separate contracts consisting of a
for particle removal prior to the desalinating membranes. design-build contract and a separate operations contract (D-B+O).
We selected ultrafiltration over the more commonly used To assist with this procurement, we supported KAEC by preparing
pressure sand filtration since it provides much better filtered several contract documents. Our contracting experts prepared
water quality than pressure filters and can better handle water the construction master services agreement templates for EEC’s
quality upsets. As with the other raw water systems, both legal staff to use and finalize. In addition, we prepared the bidder
the DAF and ultrafiltration systems had to be designed with minimum qualifications and evaluation criteria for both the BOOT
careful attention to seawater corrosion. and D-B+O procurements.

The desalination design included cartridge filtration and While the construction front-end documents were being prepared,
1.7-pass reverse osmosis (RO) system, with each pass our operations specialists prepared the operations, asset
consisting of three stages of RO elements to maximize water management and condition assessment/evaluation contract
efficiency. The 1.7-pass design meant that up to 70 percent requirements for the post-construction phase of the project. The
of the permeate from the first RO pass had to be reprocessed contract language spelled out the specific operational requirements,
through a second pass of three-stage RO elements. The and incurred penalties, that the successful bidder agreed to:
multiple-pass design was found to be the only way to bring producing the required potable water quantity and quality; keeping
the boron concentrations down under 0.5 mg/L and protect safe working environments; having trained staff and policies to
the city’s vegetation when irrigated. This configuration will handle emergencies; and maintaining good condition of the project
result in an overall system recovery of 41 percent. All of these site and equipment.
RO passes and stages will mean very large electrical usage
and costs. To partially offset these costs, the RO system Project Execution
was designed with isobaric energy recovery devices that EEC has released the contract documents for BOOT vs. D-B+O
will transfer 90 percent of the wasted pressure in the RO bidding, and our team is providing support in reviewing bidder
concentrate into the RO feed water, thereby reducing the RO questions and issuing addenda as necessary. Upon the conclusion
pumping costs. of the bidding period, our global water experts will be in charge
of reviewing all technical components of the received bids
Pure desalinated water is very corrosive to concrete, cement and providing technical recommendations to EEC for both the
mortar and bare metals. It will need to be conditioned to procurement method and the selected bidder.
minimize damage to the city’s transmission system and
individual customer plumbing. We designed a finished water
conditioning system consisting of lime feed for alkalinity
addition followed by carbon dioxide addition for pH control.
Our team also developed a chlorination feed system to
maintain disinfection, and master-planned an ultraviolet
system for additional disinfection, if required in the future.

In addition to the copious volume of RO brine, these treatment

systems also generate a considerable amount of chemical
sludges and cleaning wastes. We designed a system of
storage equalizing/neutralizing tanks, gravity thickeners
and belt filter presses to handle all of these residuals in the
smallest possible footprint.

Once these processes were sized and laid out, we then For more information about this article, please contact Pierre Kwan at
developed the numerous ancillary systems to make the [email protected]
Desalination Plant-1 a complete design. These systems

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