Seawater desalination — SWCC experience and vision

In order to appreciate Mankind’s technological advancements, one needs to present a historical overview. This applies to desalination technology (among all other human developments). Over the millennia, desalination did develop very slowly at the start and then its development started to accelerate. The author has so far traced this technology to as far back as to the third millennium BC. Arabian Peninsula and its surroundings had been the cradle of this, like quite many other, fields of knowledge and technology. Such development has left its mark also around the Mediterranean, especially in Alexandria and Athens, then much later in Italy. The Arabian Islamic Civilization has engraved several thumbprints on the path of distillation. An ingenious distiller with built-in internal reflux was found with Arabic writing below, to describe the device. Moreover, Demusquain glass was used in making lenses as solar heat concentrators for distillation. During this millennium colonialism, which brought prosperity to some through exploitation of resources and the deprivation of the colonized masses, implemented desalination as one of its tools on board ships and within the so-called prosperous new found lands. With the increase of water demand and emphasis on desalination technology due to shortage of underground resources in the kingdom, the government of Saudi Arabia established the Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) in 1974. Since then SWCC has grown and become the authority to look after all matters related to seawater desalination. At present SWCC has 27 plants producing 668 MGD of desalinated water and 4115 MW of electricity from existing operating plants. Additional four plants with a total capacity of 218 MGD of water and 999 MW of electrical power are under construction. This will take total desalinated water production to 886 MGD and electrical power generation of 5114 MW. The last three decades have seen a tremendous growth of SWCC along a few different lines, such as: a) enhanced production capacity of desalinated water, b) self administered operation and maintenance, c) execution of trouble shooting and applied projects, d) development of experience-based design concept, e) venturing into new technology and/or carry out modifications, into existing ones, f) promote Saudization in all disciplines of desalination. With the immense interest and concern in developing seawater desalination industry to minimize cost, upgrade performance and prolong life of plants, a Research and Development Center (RDC) was established and inaugurated in 1987 to achieve these objectives. The center has five sections, Thermal, Reverse Osmosis, Corrosion, Chemistry, and Ecology and Marine Biology. The center is equipped with most advanced and sophisticated equipment in addition to a multistage flash (MSF) and several RO pilot plants. The RDC helps in solving problems in operating plants thus leading to higher efficiencies and longer plant life. RDC also helps in the selection of ideal materials and chemicals for eventually Presented at the International Conference on Seawater Desalination Technologies on the Threshold of the New Millennium, Kuwait, 4–7 November 2000. 0011-9164/01/$– See front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved