Feasibility of Gallery Intake Systems for Seawater Reverse Osmosis Facilities along the Northern

103 Pages·2012·4.32 MB·English

Feasibility of Gallery Intake Systems for Seawater Reverse Osmosis Facilities along the
Northern Red Sea Coast of Saudi Arabia

Thesis by
Abdullah Hamoud Dehwah

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree of
Master of Science in Environmental Science and Engineering

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

March 6, 2012
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EXAMINATION COMMITTEE APPROVALS FORM

The thesis of Abdullah Hamoud Dehwah is approved by the examination committee.

Committee Chairperson: Thomas Missimer

Committee Member: Gary Amy

Committee Member: Noreddine Ghaffour
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©March 2012
Abdullah Hamoud Dehwah
All Rights Reserved
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ABSTRACT
Feasibility of Gallery Intake Systems for Seawater Reverse Osmosis Facilities along the
Northern Red Sea Coast of Saudi Arabia
Abdullah Hamoud Dehwah
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is dependent on desalination of seawater to provide new
water supplies for the future. Desalination is expensive and it is very important to reduce
the cost and lower the energy consumption. Most seawater reverse osmosis facilities use
open-ocean intakes, which require extensive pre-treatment processes to remove
particulate and biological materials that cause operating problems. An alternative intake
is the subsurface system which utilizes the concept of riverbank filtration using wells or
galleries and provides natural filtration to improve the quality of feedwater before it
enters the desalination plant. This reduces operating cost and lowers energy consumption.
Research was focused on evaluating gallery-type intakes (beach and seabed galleries)
that could be used along the Northern Red Sea shoreline to provide a better quality
feedwater for desalination. The geological characteristics of the visited sites were
favorable for the development of seabed filter systems (offshore), but not for beach
gallery intakes. The low wave energy along the shoreline and the presence of mud or
rocky coasts made beach galleries infeasible. One of the potentially favorable sites for a
seabed filter was located in the nearshore area at King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC).
This site has a predominantly sandy offshore bottom with shallow water depths, and a
low tide range. In addition, the bottom is always covered with water and contains soft
limestone unit below the sand mantle that could be easy excavated to facilitate the
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construction of a seabed filter. About 50 sediment samples were collected from the site
and laboratory measurements were performed on them. Grain size distribution, porosity
and hydraulic conductivity measurements were performed on the sediment samples. In
addition, six statistical methods were used to estimate the hydraulic conductivity values.
Based on results of lab measurements, field observations, tide ranges and sediment types,
it is concluded that the geological conditions and characteristics of KAEC site are
feasible for design and construction of a seabed filtration system. A conservatively
designed cell with dimensions of 100 by 50 m would produce about 25,000 m3/day of
filtered seawater and seven cells could support a 60,000 m3/day (permeate) seawater RO
plant.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
All praise, glory, thanks and gratitude be to almighty Allah, who bestowed me health,
impetus, power and patience to accomplish this work.
The completion of this thesis would not have been possible without the help and support
of many people.
First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere appreciation and thanks for my
advisor, Prof. Thomas Missimer for his exceptional support, advice and encouragement
along the way. I also would like to thank the committee members for my thesis defense,
Prof. Gary Amy and Dr. Noreddine Ghaffour for their guidance and support.
My appreciation also goes for the Water Desalination and Reuse Center soil lab
Manager Mr.Samer Al-Mashharawi and my colleague Mr. Rinaldi Rachman for their
continuous support and help throughout this research. I would like also to send my
gratitude to the Water Desalination and Reuse Center group members including the
faculty, lab staff and students for making my research time at the center a great
experience.
My sincere acknowledgement also extended to my friends, colleagues and individuals
who were willing to help in the research.
Last but not least, my prayers, heartfelt and sincere appreciation to my beloved parents,
brothers and sisters for their cooperation, encouragement and patience.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXAMINATION COMMITTEE APPROVALS FORM ................................................... 2
COPYRIGHT PAGE ......................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ 4
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................ 6
LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................ 9
LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ 11
Chapter I: The Need for Improved Seawater Intake Systems for Seawater Reverse
Osmosis Treatment ........................................................................................................... 12
Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 12
Objectives ......................................................................................................................... 17
Thesis Structure ................................................................................................................ 19
Chapter II: Desalination Intake Systems ........................................................................... 20
Direct intake systems ........................................................................................................ 22
Subsurface intake systems ................................................................................................ 25
Wells ................................................................................................................................. 27
Beach Galleries ................................................................................................................. 31
Seabed filters ..................................................................................................................... 32
Slow Sand Filtration (with biological activity) ................................................................. 35
Chapter III: Methods ......................................................................................................... 38
Survey of the northern Red Sea beaches and near-shore sediments ................................. 39
Determination of grain size distribution ........................................................................... 41
Laboratory porosity determination ................................................................................... 44
Measurement of sample hydraulic conductivity with a constant head permeameter ....... 46
Estimation of hydraulic conductivity using empirical equations ...................................... 49
Description of Methods..................................................................................................... 50
Fair and Hatch (1933) ....................................................................................................... 50
Barr (2000) ........................................................................................................................ 51
Hazen (1911) ..................................................................................................................... 53
Harleman (1963) ............................................................................................................... 54
Alyamani and Sen (1993) ................................................................................................. 55
Kozeny-Carman ................................................................................................................ 56
Chapter IV: Results ........................................................................................................... 58
Selection of detailed study area ........................................................................................ 58
Tidal Fluctuations along the Red Sea Shoreline ............................................................... 65
Description of study area .................................................................................................. 66
Deposition of muddy sediments........................................................................................ 71
Laboratory porosity measurement results ......................................................................... 73
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Grain size analysis data ..................................................................................................... 74
Hydraulic conductivity determinations and measurements .............................................. 75
Chapter V: Preliminary design of a seabed filtration System ........................................... 80
Location and area of the filter ........................................................................................... 80
Preliminary seabed filter design ........................................................................................ 82
Screen and Piping system ................................................................................................. 86
Geometry of the filter ........................................................................................................ 86
Constructing of the seabed filter ....................................................................................... 88
Expansion of the intake system......................................................................................... 90
Life cycle cost analysis ..................................................................................................... 93
Chapter VI: Conclusions ................................................................................................... 95
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 100
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Distribution of water on the globe. ................................................................... 12
Figure 2: Water demand by different sectors in Saudi Arabia .......................................... 13
Figure 3: Water demands in Saudi Arabia by the different sectors .................................. 14
Figure 4:Sources of fresh water supply and the percentage dependence of population on
each source. ....................................................................................................................... 15
Figure 5: Potable water supplied by the different resources in Saudi Arabia ................... 15
Figure 6:Global desalination capacity by technology ...................................................... 16
Figure 7: Classification of intake systems ........................................................................ 21
Figure 8: Pretreatment requirements for different intake systems ................................... 24
Figure 9:Potential fouling debris ..................................................................................... 26
Figure 10: Ranney collector wells .................................................................................... 30
Figure 11: Vertical beach well .......................................................................................... 30
Figure 12: Slant wells ....................................................................................................... 30
Figure 13:Bach gallery design ......................................................................................... 32
Figure 14:Beach gallery concept ..................................................................................... 32
Figure 15:Fukuoka Sea bed system ................................................................................. 33
Figure 16:Fukuoka seabed system design ........................................................................ 33
Figure 17:Infiltration gallery for the city of long beach in California ............................. 34
Figure 18:Seabed system design ...................................................................................... 34
Figure 19:Slow sand filtration system ............................................................................. 36
Figure 20: An aerial map for the visited Sites .................................................................. 40
Figure 21: Sieve analysis setup ......................................................................................... 42
Figure 22: Porosity measurement ..................................................................................... 45
Figure 23: Permeameter set up ......................................................................................... 46
Figure 24: Aerial view of the shoreline at the King Abdullah Economic City Site. Note
that the satellite photograph is old and does show the full state of current site
development ...................................................................................................................... 67
Figure 25: The sampling grid located at the King Abdullah Economic City Site ............ 68
Figure 26: Map showing the sample locations and thickness of sediment to rock, (the
thicknesses shown are in cm) ............................................................................................ 69
Figure 27: Sediment thickness profiles across the King Abdullah Economic City Site ... 70
Figure 28: The Wentworth-Udden scale showing the classifications of sediment grain
sizes. Note that the sand size range is from 2 to 0.0063 mm ........................................... 71
Figure 29: Distribution of mud percentage within the sampling grid ............................... 72
Figure 30: Laboratory porosity measurements ................................................................. 73
Figure 31: Mean grain size diameter analysis ................................................................... 74
Figure 32: Hydraulic conductivity data collected for the transects: (a):center transect,
(b):50 m south, (c):50 m north, (d):100 m south, (e):100 m north ................................... 77
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Figure 33: Acceptable location for a seabed filter based on mud deposition in the study
area. ................................................................................................................................... 81
Figure 34: Mean grain size diameter for the low mud sand area ...................................... 83
Figure 35: Preliminary design of KAEC seabed filter pack ............................................. 85
Figure 36: Preliminary conceptual design for KAEC seabed ........................................... 87
Figure 37: Construction of infiltration gallery system (City of Long Beach, California). 89
Figure 38:Dragline (left) and Multi-Ripper Bucket (right) for excavation of the marine
bottom ............................................................................................................................... 90
Figure 39: Preliminary conceptual design of the expansion plan for KAEC seabed ........ 92