Document Type

Presentation

Publication Date

8-1-2014

Abstract

Intake water of coastal desalination plants may be subjected to different types of organic pollutants originated from different sources including nearby effluents, loading/unloading of offshore stations, and/or accidental oil spills in the nearby marine water. In United Arab Emirates (UAE), many of such desalination plants are located along one coast hosting desalination plants, refineries and other coastal facilities while many oil tankers are loaded/unloaded from nearby offshore stations. A number of organic pollutants are generated from these sources and can potentially threaten the quality of intake seawater of the nearby desalination plants. This paper assesses the impacts of two selected organic pollutants; Phenol and PCB-180 (HeptachloroBiphenyl) originated in the coastal water of an industrial coastal basin located in UAE via modeling of their transport from different respective sources to the intake of a nearby thermal desalination plant. A number of parameters involved in the transport processes were determined from lab experiments while most other parameters were estimated from a numerical sensitivity study. The model results depict contour maps of dissolved concentrations of the two pollutants for three different wind conditions in summer and winter. While most of the simulated considered scenarios reflect insignificant impacts on the intake quality of the desalination plant, hazardous levels of migrated phenol are found to impact the intake quality and potentially the produced desalinated water under certain loading conditions and when north western winds are dominant. The obtained results and observations constitute useful information for the desalination plants' operators and allow them to adapt appropriate contingency measures seeking the best quality of target produced distillate.

Comments

Session R24, Coastal and Estuarine Modeling II

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