Hydranautics' Membranes Provide Boron Rejection At Larnaca

Oceanside, CA -- Hydranautics, the world's leader in membrane technology, provided 5,760 SWC3 membranes for the 14 MGD (51,000 m3/d) open intake seawater desalination plant in Larnaca, Cyprus. The plant was awarded in February 1999 to IDE with the build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) contract for desalinated water by the Water Development Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, Cyprus. Construction began later that year and was completed in March 2001. Since then Hydranautics' SWRO membranes have been producing potable water with a boron specification of less than 1 parts per million (ppm). Larnaca is the largest desalination facility in Cyprus and one of the only plants in the world that successfully meets such stringent boron rejection requirements.

The Larnaca plant consists of six seawater trains, each with 120 pressure vessels, eight Hydranautics' SWC3 membrane elements per vessel. The SWC3 membrane elements have 89% nominal boron rejection. After two years of operation the membranes produce the required quality and quantity of treated water. Hydranautics' on going commitment to Research and Development of new membrane technology lead to the development of the high temperature, and highest rejection membrane the SWC4. The new SWC4 offers a nominal salt rejection of 99.8%, a flow of 5,500 gallons per day and boron rejection and 92% boron rejection when operated at standard test conditions with a pH of 7. Hydranautics chose to gradually replace some of the SWC3 elements with their new higher boron rejection SWC4 membranes. The SWC4 elements now provide optimal performance in Larnaca's cutting edge system designed by IDE and Hydranautics which contains a partial second pass that operates up to 25% of the overall flow from the first pass when the water temperature ranges between 15-30º C (59-86º F) to ensure the required quality standards.

The Larnaca plant, with Hydranautics membranes, has been providing purified water to approximately 200,000 citizens on the island of Cyprus in the south east Mediterranean for over two years. Despite technical challenges of high boron rejection requirements, the plant has run successfully 100% of the time satisfying the stringent end-user water quality standards. IDE and Hydranautics have also successfully teamed up on three other plants, all in Israel; the 2.6 MGD (10,000 m3/d) plant in Eilat, and smaller Ashdod and Dead Sea Works projects.

For more information about the Larnaca plant design or Hydranautics' superior SWC membrane products, visit us online at www.membranes.com.

Source: Hydranautics