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National oil company (NOC) PetroSA would invest R80-million on the construction of a 200-m3/h seawater desalination plant, which would alleviate the impact of drought on the company’s Mossel Bay gas-to-liquids (GTL) refinery, as well as for the nearby communities.
Spokesperson Thabo Mabaso told Engineering News Online on Thursday that the NOC was hoping to start construction on the desalination plant, which it was building in cooperation with the Mossel Bay municipality, as soon as possible, with the plant expected to be operational by November this year.
The desalination plant would be located at PetroSA’s logistics base, close to the Mossel Bay harbour, as there was already sufficient power supply to the base and as it was close to the refinery’s water supply line.
Sea conditions in the area were also suitable for water extraction.
The plant would provide five-million litres a day of treated water, which would, along with other water savings measures that had already been undertaken, be sufficient to satisfy PetroSA’s water requirements for operating the Mossel Bay GTL refinery.
A portion of the treated water would also be made available for use by the town of Mossel Bay, but Mabaso noted that the finer details of the exact quantities had not yet been finalised.
The Mossel Bay municipality stated that the town was facing its worst drought in 130 years, with the Eden District area of the Southern Cape having been declared a disaster area.
The water level in the Wolwedans dam, which PetroSA used to operate the GTL refinery, stood at only 12, 5% and no water would likely be available from the dam beyond October this year.
To mitigate the water shortages, PetroSA had already introduced a number of measures to reduce the water usage of the refinery.
This included the recycling of 60 m3/h of storm water, the recycling of 170 m3/h of treated effluent and the contribution of R22,5-million to an effluent water purification project being run by the municipality.
PetroSA stated that these improvements were significant for the 600-m3/h requirement of the refinery and would mitigate the supply risk to the refinery.
The Mossel Bay municipality has appointed SSI Engineers and Environmental Consultants as the managing contractor for the water desalination project.
