Cannon Artes, a leading global engineering and construction company in the water treatment industry, has secured the contract to construct a massive effluent treatment plant (ETP) for one of the world’s major manufacturers of polyolefins in the UAE. 

The announcement was made at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (Adipec) 2023, which is being held from October 2 to 5, 2023, at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (Adnec), Abu Dhabi. 

The company disclosed the details of the project, highlighting that the infrastructure of the treatment plant will cover an area equivalent to two football fields and has the capacity to treat up to 5,000 cu m per day (5 million litres per day), similar to the needs of a city of 100,000 people. 

The plant’s construction site will be handed over towards the end of Q1 2024 and is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2024. Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed.

Alessio Liati, Sales Director at Cannon Artes, stated: “Every turnkey ETP project for the oil and gas industry we have delivered establishes Cannon Artes’ growing presence and expertise to design, construct and install highly complex infrastructure that treats and purifies industrial effluent with great attention to energy consumption, sustainability, and reusable water recovery. 

"This huge project demands maximum design capacity with an extremely challenging treatment process to remove oil and other contaminants, biological treatment, and filtration to ensure the concentration in the effluent stream is at a minimum level to reuse or meet stringent regulations prior to its safe discharge into the environment,” Liati said.

The facility will comprise four incoming influent streams carrying various pollutants. To maximise flexibility, the ETP will consist of a series of up to 15 unit-operations, each capable of handling different physical and chemical variations resulting from upstream processes. It will be designed to meet strict specifications for organics, oils, suspended solids (TSS), phenols and nitrogen, among the others.

The construction of the plant will align with the highest sustainability standards, further contributing to achieving the UAE’s sustainability objectives, it said.

Numerous sustainability strategies have been put in place by the nation with an aim to transition towards a clean and green future. Given the increasing demand for water and energy due to population and economic growth, the completed plant is expected to address these needs while also promoting the transition to a circular economy. This includes encouraging resource reuse and recovery, as well as ensuring sustainable management of industrial wastewater, the company said.

Equalisation, coalescing plate interceptors (CPI), and dissolved gas flotation are used in pre-treatment unit-operation to remove suspended particles, oils, and fats from wastewater. The subsequent unit operations and processes, such as biological oxidation through extended aeration technology and an advanced oxidation section to remove recalcitrant pollutants, are crucial and will be created to meet stringent criteria for biological and chemical oxygen demand (BOD and COD). 

Additionally, a special dehydration system will be used to further treat the resulting separated sludge.

Operating globally, Cannon Artes has designed and installed custom ETPs and wastewater treatment (WWT) plants in over 80 countries for major global and regional players across a wide range of industries - including pharmaceuticals, pulp and paper, and food and beverage. Additionally, it has over 40 years of extensive experience in a variety of industries, including the oil and gas, chemical, and petrochemical industries, with more than 20 years specifically in the UAE.  - TradeArabia News Service