Large-Diameter Reverse Osmosis Facility Redefines Water Reuse
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Plant Profile Large-Diameter Reverse Osmosis Facility Redefines Water Reuse A vision for the future was realized when the city of Scottsdale, Ariz., began operating the Scottsdale Water Campus in 1999 to augment the city’s water supply and reclaim water. The facility remains at the forefront of water reuse. BY KEVIN ALEXANDER, ART NUNEZ, BINGA TALABI, DAVE FABER, AND GERRY FILTEAU N THE EARLY 1990s, Scottsdale, Ariz., ■ tertiary filtration with cloth-media filtrate production capacity to increase from managers and planners examined filters. 16 mgd to 23.6 mgd within the existing future growth and water needs. ■ chloramination for primary and resid- process building. The RO system capacity They envisioned a water resources ual disinfection. increased from 13.8 mgd to 20 mgd of per- Imanagement facility that would reclaim ■ MF and RO followed by lime meate production using a large-diameter the city’s sewage, allow for aquifer stabilization. RO system to save space. Additionally, UV storage and recovery, and augment the Product water from the plant has been treatment was added to the building that city’s limited groundwater and surface recharged to the local aquifer, achieving a housed the expanded RO system. water sources. The facility—the Water higher quality than required by state per- The Scottsdale Water Campus pio- Campus—was strategically designed mitting authorities. neered the use of the latest RO technol- to allow the city to reclaim water that Historically, area golf courses received ogy. The facility is a great place to see previously had little chance of being tertiary treated effluent, but rising salin- the history of RO technology and how reused as it was discharged to another ity in the reclaimed water caused turf all of the technology is still successfully regional wastewater treatment plant. management problems and prompted operated. The Scottsdale Water Campus golf course managers to ask the city to A unique aspect of the recent expan- Advanced Water Treatment Facility was improve the irrigation water’s quality. sion project is the use of large-diameter one of the first water treatment plants That prompted the city to embark upon RO technology. At the time, the large- to use microfiltration (MF) and reverse the most recent expansion. The city also diameter RO membrane market had set- osmosis (RO) for treating wastewater to addressed contaminant removal, includ- tled on two membrane sizes—16-in. and drinking water standards. Since begin- ing N-nitrosodimethylamine and other 18-in. diameter. Therefore, during design, ning operation in 1999, the facility has unregulated compounds, using a combi- two complete RO train designs were reclaimed more than 19 bil gal of waste- nation of ozonation, chloramination, and developed for competitive bidding. The water for aquifer recharge and golf course ultraviolet (UV) technology. large-diameter RO trains incorporated irrigation. During the latest expansion (2009– additional design features that weren’t The plant was designed to operate 2012), the original primary disinfection used in the original system because of during the winter to treat wastewater for system using chlorine gas and aqueous size and system constraints. injection into the local groundwater aqui- ammonia was replaced with an ozone sys- The design represented one of the first fer. The treatment process originally con- tem. The residual chlorine was converted large-diameter RO systems installed in the sisted of to a new on-site chlorine-generation United States as well as the first custom ■ a conventional nitrification and denitri- system. The MF system was replaced RO installation, allowing for competitive fication activated sludge process. with newer technology that allowed the bidding of 16- and 18-in. RO elements. 16 Opflow February 2014 www.awwa.org/opflow 2014 © American Water Works Association 2014 © American Water Works Association http://dx.doi.org/10.5991/OPF.2014.40.0010 Kevin Alexander is with Hazen and Sawyer (www.hazenandsawyer.com), San Diego. Art Nunez and Binga Talabi are with the city of Scottsdale (www.scottsdaleaz.gov), Scottsdale, Ariz. Dave Faber is with H20 Innovation (www.h2oinnovation.com), San Diego. Gerry Filteau is with Separation Processes (www.spi-engineering.com), Carlsbad, Calif. vessel dimensions, particularly port-to- port dimensions for side-ported vessels, reflect marketplace maturity for 8-in. diameter pressure vessels. This wasn’t the case for the large-diameter vessels. The 18-in. vessels use five 61-in. elements, and the 16-in. vessels use seven 40-in. ele- ments. Even among 16-in. diameter ves- sels, there were significant differences in port-to-port dimensions and overall lengths. During design, information from various vessel manufacturers was evalu- The Scottsdale Water Campus ated to allow designers to require port-to- implemented one of the first large- port dimensions to be a fixed value that diameter RO systems installed in could be verified during construction. the United States as well as the Designed piping layouts were flexible to first custom RO installation. allow the contractor to verify final instal- lation dimensions based on port-to-port dimensions. This proved valuable during The system’s design and startup proved crane or forklift to be used and minimiz- installation, as the manufacturer’s dimen- the technology requires focused attention ing floor space requirements around the sions didn’t match their own published on many design aspects that weren’t nec- units. design information. essary for the smaller-diameter RO tech- RO Trains. Existing and new RO train The original RO train pressure vessels nology originally installed. design included water quality goals for were designed to accommodate cellulose low total dissolved solids, sodium, and acetate membranes in the 1990s, because DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS chloride, with an overall RO system water new polyamide membrane elements had Membrane Elements. The large-diameter recovery goal of 85 percent. As proven little operating experience. Therefore, RO membrane elements provided 4–5 times by the length of time in operation, water pressure vessels for those RO trains allow the surface area of a standard 8-in. diam- quality and recovery are easy to achieve for 450-psig-rated vessels. After startup of eter element. One significant membrane with standard, brackish RO elements. the original system with polyamide mem- element feature is weight, an important Scottsdale’s actual operating experience branes, it was clear the operating pres- consideration in RO unit maintenance. illustrates that the limiting constituent sure wouldn’t require the 450 psi design. Standard 8-in. diameter, 40-in. long ele- for recovery is calcium phosphate scale, During operation, the maximum pressure ments generally weigh less than 50 lb which is controlled by adding sulfuric has been 125–260 psi. Therefore, a maxi- each, even wet. This means one person acid to a feed pH of 6.5. mum 300-psig rating was adequate for the can safely unload wet elements, and a The existing 8-in. RO trains are con- latest RO system. minimum number of people is needed to figured in a 24:10:5 array of three stages RO Unit Access. The existing 8-in. RO change a complete RO unit. with six-element pressure vessels. The trains use a six-vessel tall-rack design, Large-diameter elements can’t be new 16-in. RO trains were designed in a which allows membranes to be loaded loaded or unloaded by hand because of 13:7 two-stage configuration with seven- and unloaded from floor level without their weight but require special handling element pressure vessels. The size of the platforms or lifting equipment. The 8-in. equipment—scissor lifts, loading tables new RO units was limited to the foot- diameter elements, vessel end caps, and with roller-wheel guides, and ropes and print width of the existing 8-in. RO units. thrust cones are light enough to be han- pulleys—which one would think would Ultimately, this determined the size and dled manually. Membranes are unloaded add considerable time to the loading and capacity of the new large-diameter RO on one end and loaded at the other by unloading process. However, the equip- units. pushing the elements through in one ment actually reduced loading time. The RO Pressure Vessel Design. RO pressure direction. Relatively little clearance space facility’s design ensured membranes vessel design considerations included is required on the feed end where mem- could be loaded and unloaded from one port-to-port dimension coordination and branes are pushed through or into the PHOTOGRAPH: SEPARATION PROCESSES PHOTOGRAPH: SEPARATION end of the RO trains, allowing a bridge pressure rating. Standardized pressure vessel. www.awwa.org/opflow February 2014 Opflow 17 2014 © American Water Works Association 2014 © American Water Works Association Plant Profile Scottsdale Process Diagram The facility’s recent expansion addressed contaminant removal using a combination of ozonation, chloramination, and UV technology. MF system Tertiary water reclamation plant MF clean Compressed Ozone air disinfection RO system To wash-water Reservoir B equalization basin Automatic Filtrate strainer MF tank Sulfuric Anti- Chloramine acid scalant To water reclamation Advanced water treatment bypass plant RO Lime UV RO ush addition To injection wells Cartridge RO clean lter in place Product water Decarbonator pump station To RO waste sump Concentrate to sewer In contrast, the new, longer 16-in. RO However, height was limited by the clear- dealing with a more significant volume of trains (seven elements rather than six- ance of the existing bridge-crane support water wouldn’t be practical. A tee with a element vessels) require more floor space. structure, which was just less than 12 ft. reducing bushing and ¾-in. full-port ball To improve access, the new trains were RO Conductivity Profile Access. The valve was added to each permeate con- designed with traffic-rated grating to existing RO units have a small sample cock nection to facilitate conductivity profiling.