20 MLD SWRO Plant Operation & Maintenance – Ma’aden / Veolia

Project Overview

The Operation and Maintenance (O&M) of the 20 MLD (Million Liters per Day) Seawater Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) Plant in Ras Al Khair City is a high-stakes industrial water management project. Executed for Ma’aden Phosphate Company in coordination with Veolia, this initiative focuses on the continuous, high-efficiency operation of a critical desalination facility. The plant is engineered to process harsh Arabian Gulf seawater, delivering 20,000 cubic meters per day of ultra-pure water essential for sustaining Ma'aden's massive phosphate processing and mining operations.

Scope of Work

Operating under stringent global standards set by Veolia and Ma’aden, the comprehensive O&M contract covers the entire lifecycle management of the facility to ensure uninterrupted production and asset longevity:

Continuous Facility Operation: 24/7 management of the plant via advanced SCADA and, optimizing hydraulic flows, managing high-pressure gradients, and minimizing specific energy consumption.
Preventative & Corrective Maintenance: Rigorous scheduled servicing and rapid-response repairs for all electromechanical assets, including high-pressure intake pumps, Energy Recovery Devices (ERDs), and automated valves, ensuring maximum plant availability and zero unplanned downtime.
Laboratory & Quality Assurance: Continuous on-site sampling and rigorous chemical testing to monitor feed water quality, permeate purity, and brine discharge parameters, strictly adhering to Ma’aden’s industrial requirements and Veolia’s quality benchmarks.

Technical Processes Managed

The operations team expertly manages a complex, multi-stage SWRO treatment train designed to handle the high salinity, elevated temperatures, and severe biofouling risks typical of the region:

Seawater Intake & Pretreatment: Precise control of the raw water intake, chlorination dosing, and advanced primary filtration (such as Dissolved Air Flotation [DAF] and Multimedia/Ultrafiltration) to remove suspended solids, mitigate algal blooms, and protect downstream membranes.
SWRO Membrane Management: Optimization of the core 20 MLD Seawater Reverse Osmosis skids. This includes monitoring trans-membrane pressure (TMP), managing flux rates, and maximizing the efficiency of Energy Recovery Devices to drive down power consumption.
Post-Treatment & CIP Protocols: Execution of automated Clean-In-Place (CIP) sequences to prevent membrane scaling, alongside final post-treatment stages (remineralization and pH adjustment) to stabilize the product water before distribution to the phosphate complex.

Strategic & Environmental Impact