Barka II seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant (Oman)

In December 2006, Oman Power and Water Procurement Company awarded Engie, in a consortium gathering Mubadala Development and National Trading Company, the Barka II IWPP (Independent Water and Power Project) in the Sultanate of Oman. This contract included the construction and operation of 678 MW Power Plant and a Seawater Desalination Plant with a capacity of 120,000 m³/day.

Doosan Heavy Industry, selected by the consortium as EPC Contractor for the whole project, has entrust to SUEZ the design, build and 15 years of operation & maintenance of the Seawater Desalination Reverse Osmosis Plant.

This plant, located 50 km North West of Muscat, is an essential element for the development of the energy and water production for the main network of Oman, supplying Muscat zone.

Click here to create your account in order to view the illustrations

water treatment process

Special precautions were taken to reduce the Barka seawater desalination plant’s impact on the marine environment. Brine resulting from seawater filtration is recycled within the cooling system of the power plant in order to reach a seawater output quality level without any impact on the environment.

seawater pretreatment: double-stage filtration

two stages of Seaclean™ dual-media filter in serial:

• 23 horizontal pressure filters
  • Filtration rate : 11-14 m/h
  • Filtering media : 0.55 mm sand and 1.65 anthracite

• 16 horizontal pressure filters
  • Filtration rate : 17-19 m/h
  • Filtering media : 0.30 sand and 1.95 anthracite

safety filtration through 14 cartridges filters (5μm)

reverse osmosis: two-pass configuration

• 14 first-pass RO Trains (6 modules each)
• 14 High pressure pumps = energy recovery turbines,
• 12,250 seawater membranes
• 3,724 brackish water membranes
• 7 second-pass RO Trains (4 modules each)

post treatment

• Water remineralization for delivery as drinking water: the potabilization treatment includes a remineralization step, with the injection of CO₂ and water lime, and fluorination.
• Final disinfection: The final disinfection is performed using sodium hypochlorite.