The Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) has chosen GE to design and supply a Membrane Bioreactor System (MBR) system for BAPCO's oil refinery wastewater treatment plant in Sitra, near Manama. The project and the GE-supplied advanced water treatment technology will support BAPCO's Environmental Leadership efforts to achieve the stringent wastewater quality levels specified by Bahrain's General Directorate of Environment and Wild Life Protection regulation for wastewater discharge into the Gulf.
Wastewater from refineries is complex and requires extensive treatment. The BAPCO Refinery, one of the largest in the Middle East and the oldest in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) union, refines over 250,000 barrels of crude daily. GE's ZeeWeed technology will handle a maximum wastewater flow of about 24 million litres/day, roughly the amount of water required to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool, from the refinery and Sitra Tank farm.
"The BAPCO wastewater treatment plant is another example in GE's long history of supporting customers in Bahrain with innovative energy technology - in this case, advanced water solutions - to meet their toughest operational challenges," said Joseph Anis, president and CEO, GE Energy for the Middle East. "We are committed to continue delivering advanced solutions that increase the supply of clean water necessary and meeting the environmental commitments for the expansion of Bahrain's economy."
GE will supply a ZeeWeed MBR system consisting of four MBR trains, each with 10 membrane cassettes containing ZeeWeed 500 reinforced membrane modules. It is being supplied under contract with EPC contractor GS Engineering & Construction, and is expected to be operational in the fourth quarter of 2012. GE will also design the MBR system and provide support during its first five years of operation. GE's water and process technologies business has previously supplied water-treatment chemicals for the BAPCO refinery.
© H2O 2012
