1.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

1.1

Introduction
The Desalination Plant will produce fresh drinking water from seawater by
separating salts and other impurities from the seawater. It is the centerpiece of
the Desalination Project and will contribute up to 400 MLD of potable water to
Chennais water supply.

2.2

Type of the Project

CMWSSB has proposed 400 MLD Sea Water Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) Plant
(Desalination Plant) located at Perur along the East Coast Road (ECR),
Kancheepuram District, Tamil Nadu State. This project is proposed to meet the
future water demand of Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA).

2.3

Need of the project

The population of Chennai city as per 2011 census was 6.727 Million and Chennai
Urban agglomeration was 8.497 Million with projection of 7.924 Million for city
and 10.530 Million for Chennai Urban agglomeration for the year 2021. The
population projected for Chennai City for 2016 shall be 7.312 Million and for
complete Chennai Urban agglomeration shall be 9.435 million. The water Demand
for 2016 with 155 LPCD (including 15% losses) shall be 1133 MLD for Chennai
city and 1462 MLD for Chennai Urban Agglomeration. With this the total water
demand in 2016 shall be 1462 MLD with supply of approx. 840 MLD including
200 MLD from existing two SWRO one in north and the other in south of the city.
The main sources of water supply to the Chennai city is from surface water
sources such as Poondi, Cholavaram and Redhills reservoirs and also from
ground water sources from Araniar and Korataliar basin. The water supply
source has been augmented with distant sources such as Krishna Water
Supply scheme with supply from the State of Andhra Pradesh and by Chennai
Water Supply Augmentation Project with supply from Veeranam Tank. A
desalination plant
of capacity 100 MLD
has been commissioned in July
2010 near Kattupalli village, Minjur in North Chennai and is in successful
operation. Another 100 MLD capacity Desalination plant with Central
Government funds
is operational at Nemmeli at the southern outskirts of
Chennai. The demand has been calculated with base year 2018, since most of
the associated water supply projects are due for completion in 2018.
Population (in
lakh)

Water Demand
(in MLD)

Year

Chennai City

Chennai City and Chennai

Urban Agglomeration
84.97 lakh
94.35 Lakh
98.10 Lakh
100.60 Lakh
138.40 Lakh
190.30 Lakh
Chennai City and Chennai
Urban Agglomeration

2011
2016
2018
2019
2034
2049
Year

67.27 Lakh
73.12 Lakh
77.38 Lakh
79.37 Lakh
97.87 Lakh
149.77 Lakh
Chennai City

2016

1133 MLD

1462 MLD

2018

1199 MLD

1520 MLD

2019

1230 MLD

1560 MLD

2034

1517 MLD

2145 MLD

2049

2321 MLD

2950 MLD

Drinking water supply sources in Chennai city are monsoon dependent and the city
experiences water scarcity frequently. The drinking water demand for Chennai and
Chennai Urban Agglomeration has been estimated at 1462 MLD in the year 2016 and
1560 MLD in the year 2019.
As against the total projected water demand for the Chennai city and CUA is 1560
MLD for the year 2019, the water supply is 840 MLD, thus having a supply demand
gap of 720MLD. Therefore, there is need to setup a 400 MLD Sea Water Reverse
Osmosis (SWRO) Plant at Peruralong the East Coast Road (ECR), Chennai.
2.4

Salient Features of the Project

The key components of the proposal are:
seawater intake structure, and offshore pipeline to the plant;
Onshore Intake pumping station
reverse osmosis desalination plant;
discharge pipeline through a diffuser array, 750 m offshore;
Product Water Transfer Pipeline to city approx. 60 km;
The main characteristics of the proposal are summarized in Table-2.1 below.
TABLE 2.1
SALIENT FEATURES OF PROPOSED EXPANSION
Element
General
Capacity
Power requirement
Power Source
Seawater intake
Length (indicative)
Number
Diameter
Concentrated seawater
discharge
Salinity
Temperature
pH
Pipeline Length (indicative)
Number
Diameter
Sludge
Sludge production
Water Transfer Pipeline
Length
Diameter
Destination

Description
400 MLD
85 MWe
TNEB Substation
1150 m
2 pipes
Each 2500 mm OD HDPE 6.4 bar
32,500mg/l -33,000mg/l above ambient.
Not more than 1C above or below ambient seawater
6-8
Extending up to 750 meters offshore
1 pipe
2500 mm OD HDPE 6.4 bar
approximately 60-75 t/per day; depended on suspended
solid concentration in sea water inlet
60 km
2000 mm upto 42 km : rest 18 km 1600 mm
Part of Chennai City- South and West

2.5

Project Location and Layout

The proposed site for 400 MLD desalination Plant is located at Perur (Nemmeli
Village) quite adjacent to the existing 100 MLD Sea Water Desalination Plant at
Nemmeli along East Coast Road, Kancheepuram District, Tamilnadu, India. The
site is located at eastern side of East Coast Road (ECR) at 12 42' 44" North, 80 14'
26" East and is approximately 40 km of south of Chennai city.
The contours are generally varying from 3.5-4.0m from the shore to 7-7.5 m
towards the East Coast Road. There are two numbers of burial ground one on the
southern side on the sae cost and other on the northern side towards the East Coast
Road. The total area of the proposed site is 87.915 acre out of which the two burial
grounds have a combined area of 2.01 acre, therefore net area available is 85.90
acre. The burial grounds have been left undisturbed and shall be protected by
compound wall all across and proper drainage shall be made draining towards the
sea.
The proposed plant shall be spread over approx. 50 acre and rest of the area has
been left for future expansion.

Fig 1:Site Location

SITE LOCATION

2.5.1

Site features
Area requirement for the proposed plant has been optimized considering the
space requirements of all the equipment, systems, buildings and structures and
chemical storage area etc for the proposed plant.
Necessary plant drainage system would be provided at the plant site.

2.6

Infrastructure and Resources Requirement

2.6.1 Land Requirement

The total land requirement for the proposed project is estimated at about 50
acres (20.25 ha).
2.6.2 Power
The total power requirement of the proposed desalination plant is about 85 MWe,
which is being met from TNEB. D.G sets are proposed to meet the power
requirement for lighting only during power failure.
2.6.3 Health and Sanitation
To ensure optimum hygienic conditions in the plant area, proper drainage
network will be provided to avoid water logging and outflow. Adequate health
related measures and a well equipped safety and environment department will be
provided to ensure clean and healthy environment.
2.6.4 Internal Roads
All internal roads within the proposed plant area will be minimum 4.5 m wide for
proper movement.
2.6.5 Lightning Protection System
Adequate lightning protection facilities will be provided as per the applicable
Indian codes of practice.
2.6.6 Fire Protection System
For protection of the plant against fire, all yards and plant will be protected by
any one or a combination of the following system:
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)

Hydrant system;
Automatic high velocity and medium velocity sprinkler system;
Water spray (emulsifier system);
Automatic fixed foam system; and
Portable and mobile chemical extinguisher.

The system will be designed as per the recommendation of Tariff Advisory

Committee (TAC) of Insurance Association of India. Applicable codes and
standards of National Fire Prevention Association (NFPA), USA would also be
followed.

2.7

Brief Description of Project

Desalination Process
Desalination refers to a water treatment process whereby salts are removed from
saline water to produce fresh water. The proposed desalination process will make
use of Reverse Osmosis (RO) technology to remove salt from sea water, thereby
producing fresh product water as well as high salinity brine. The flow of
Desalination plant process is attached herewith. The main elements in the
desalination process are:
Seawater intake;
Pre-treatment of feed water, which would include screening,
clarification, floatation and filtration to remove suspended solids;
Desalination, making use of RO technology, in which pressurized feed
water passes through a series of membranes which allow only water
(low saline permeate) to pass through and salts and organic matter to
accumulate in brine;
Post-treatment (remineralisation and disinfection) of process water;
and
Discharge of brine from the desalination process.

2.7.1 Seawater Intake

Primary Flows
Two intake conduits of 2500 mm OD HDPE have been proposed for the plant to
produce 400 MLD permeate capacity.
Intake structure with Screen offshore
A 100 mm screen in GRP construction will be provided at the intake to exclude
larger marine life. The approach velocity will be <0.15 m/s to minimize the
entrapment of marine species. A fish net with will be provided to minimize the
ingress of jelly fish to the intake. The fish net will be required to be inspected
and replaced from time to time, as the same is likely to be damaged by marine
lives. The head loss through the intake system will also be monitored, and in any
increase in system losses indicating fouling at the intake, or the growth of
biomass within the intake conduit, the same shall be cleaned through divers.
Active Screens before the Sea Water Pumps
Travelling Band Screens shall be provided before the Pumps on shore and shall be
the first level of defence to the plant against all foreign matter like floating, sea
shells, diatoms etc.
Travelling Band Screens
Band screens have been in service for screening sea water for many years. They
provide efficient removal with relatively low maintenance costs. Through-flow

band screens have been proposed herewith. Typically mesh sizes vary from 2 mm
to 10 mm, and, in view of the marine biomass problems at Nemmeli, a mesh size
of 3 mm has been selected.
Sea Water Pumping Station
Vertical shaft pumps in a wet well are particularly suitable for sites with a low
tidal range, such as is experienced at Chennai. Vertical shaft pumps in a wet
well have been selected.
There shall be 6 pumps in operation each pump must be capable of delivering
7042 m3/hr, at a head of around 23 meters.
Pair of three pumps shall form one manifold to a module of 12 Settlers. The
diameter of each manifold 2,400 mm (2.4 m), with a velocity of 1.33 m/sec.
These pumps are Vertical Turbine pumps with large clear passages.

The

intake screen and net at the intake will prevent the ingress of material like to
cause a blockage.

Isolation valves along with flow meters shall be installed main and branch
manifolds.
These pumps are Vertical Turbine pumps with large clear passages. The intake
screen and net at the intake will prevent the ingress of material like to cause a
blockage.
Shock chlorination system
A shock chlorination system is proposed to minimize marine growth in the inlet
pump station and pressure main. It will be done using chlorine gas through
vacuum chlorinate, the range of dose will be 1-10 mg/l at the rate of 1-2 hour per
day in off shore inlet well.
2.7.2 Pretreatment System
The pre-treatment process has been sized assuming that there are 16 membrane
trains in operation to produce 400 MLD of Permeate water.
pH Correction
The seawater will be dosed with Sulphuric acid to achieve the optimum pH for
coagulation. The dosing system will consist of dosing pumps into each
pretreatment train.
Coagulation and Flocculation
Coagulation is important to reduce the turbidity to an acceptable level in order to
avoid the fouling on RO membrane. Ferric chloride will be used as a coagulant.

Flocculation will be provided at the head of each Lamella. It will be achieved in

two flocculation tanks in series with each tank consisting of one or two vertical
mixers so as to have the mixing energy tapered.
Lamella Settlers
Lamella settlers can quickly remove large amount of relatively coarse material.
Coagulation and flocculation are provided prior to the Lamella settlers. 18m x 7.5
m sized lamella settlers have been proposed for this plant with 24 settlers at less
than 15 m/hr surface loading rate.
Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF)
Dissolved air floatation (DAF) is a high rate process using micro-bubbles to float
coagulated and flocculated particles to the surface of a clarification basin. DAF is
a form of physical treatment that involves coagulating impurities then removing
those solids by using dissolved air to float them to the surface of the water.
Residual fine particles that are not floated off are removed by the filters
downstream. A cross sectional schematic is shown in the Figure-below.
DAF would be effective in the removal of algae, and should be reasonably
effective in the removal of other marine biomass, such as larvae and jelly fish
particulate matter. DAF would be effective in the removal of oils and greases.
The loading rate will be 15-20 m/hr with recycle rate 10-15%. Air dose rate will
be 10 mg/l and the air saturation pressure around 800kPa.

SECTIONAL SCHEMATIC OF DISSOLVED AIR FLOTATION

Dual Media Gravity Sand Filters & water storage
Clarified water from the DAF outlet shall feed to the inlet channel of the gravity
filters. Dual-media filters shall have two layers of filtration media. An upper layer
of coarse material with low density typically is anthracite of 0.5 m -1.0 m depth.
Sand will be placed as a bottom layer of fine material with higher density for
refinement. The depth of sand will be 0.8-1.5 m. The above filtration medium
shall be typically supported by a layer of gravel bed. The gravel bed is graded in
three to six layers and is located on the top of a filter under drain system.

Filtered water storage will be located immediately downstream of the Gravity

Dual Media filtration system. This will serve as control storage between the
filtration system and the RO plant. It will ensure that the flow to the RO trains will
be constant while the production from the pre-treatment system fluctuates due to
backwashing. The tanks have been sized to provide twenty minutes storage.
2.7.3 Desalination Plant - Reverse Osmosis
Overview of RO Plant
The RO plant will be a single stage/single pass design with an overall recovery of
46%. The 400 MLD modules will be configured as Seventeen individual trains.
Each of the Seventeen (17) RO trains will consist of one RO rack each, with
dedicated pumping system and Energy Recover Devices (ERDs). The plant is to
be designed such that full production can be achieved through Sixteen (16)
trains.
The trains will be configured to allow for each individual train to be isolated for
cleaning, maintenance, or membrane replacement. SWRO membrane elements of
8-inch diameter have been selected. Each pressure vessel will house eight
membrane elements. The design treated water TDS for the RO plant is 300 mg/L.
No allowance has been made in the RO plant layout for a second pass RO system.
In sizing the RO plant an average membrane flux of approximately 13.5
L/m2/hour (LMH) has been selected. The provision of 8% spare space for more
membranes provides the flexibility to reduce the flux if advantageous for reducing
cleaning frequency or reducing power consumption.
Ancillary system
To protect the RO membranes and the smooth process of reverse osmosis system
the following methods are provided,
Cartridge filtration - It will be provided for each RO train downstream of the
filtered water transfer pumps to protect the RO membrane
Oxidant control - Sodium bisulphite (SBS) dosing is included in the design to
neutralize residual oxidants present in the feed water due to intake shock dosing.
Scale Control - Provision for scale control by means of antiscalant dosing is
included in the design. The sulphuric acid addition as part of the pre-treatment
system will also assist with prevention of scaling.
Reverse Osmosis Pumping and Energy Recovery System - The energy
recovery devices will be an isobaric design. Either the Energy Recovery
International (ERI) or Calder DWEER technology could be used.
RO Clean In Place System
A RO clean in place (CIP) system is included in the design. This includes a
chemical cleaning preparation tank, chemical cleaning buffering tank, a heat
exchanger, pumps, cartridge filters, cleaning chemical storage tanks, cleaning
network and cleaning recirculation loop piping and a neutralization system.

Provision has been made in the design for storage and dosing of the following
cleaning and preservation chemicals:
Caustic soda
Sodium Bisulphite
Hydrochloric Acid
Phosphoric Acid
Citric acid
Detergents (surfactant)
Ammonia solution
Cleaning occurs intermittently and all of these chemicals would not be used at the
same time. The amount and type of cleaning chemical required would vary
depending upon the degree of membrane fouling and the nature of the fouling.
Depending on the membrane selected, the system may be designed to enable
cleaning of the RO system from both directions, i.e. from the front to the back
and from the back to the front. This would allow employing specific cleaning
procedures for a particular type of fouling / scaling. The CIP system will be sized
to clean each individual RO rack separately. The system, including the chemicals
for the CIP will be located in a dedicated building located next to the main RO
building.
All wastes from the CIP process will be neutralized prior to being directed to the
outfall and for the same a Neutralization Tank has been provided. After chemical
cleaning and prior shutdown of membrane trains, the brine and spent cleaning
solution will be flushed out of the RO and ERD racks using RO permeate. Flushing
prior train shutdown will reduce potential for scale build up and corrosion, and will
also reduce fouling and the amount of high TDS water produced on start up. The
flushing system would consist of flushing pumps and pipe work allowing each RO
train to be flushed individually.
Permeate Storage
Two permeate storage tanks will be located immediately downstream of the RO
plant. Each tank has been sized for at least 0.5 hours storage at the maximum
permeate flow.
2.7.4 Post Treatment
Post treatment of permeate is required to meet the statutory product water
quality requirements. Post treatment will consist of remineralisation/stabilization
and disinfection of the water.
Re-mineralization/Stabilization
Requirement for Stabilization
Water produced by a reverse osmosis process has very low residual hardness and
alkalinity, which renders it very aggressive to most materials including steel and
concrete thus causing corrosion and premature aging of assets. The lack of
carbonate alkalinity as well as the low content of calcium and magnesium (i.e.,
very low hardness) causes desalinated water to be unstable and prone to wide
variations in pH due to its low buffering capacity and its inability to form
protective calcium carbonate films on pipe walls, which makes it corrosive.
Therefore, before the permeate from reverse osmosis be supplied to customers, it

needs stabilization also known as remineralisation or conditioning to prevent this

from happening.
Water shall be stabilized by the addition of carbon dioxide and lime (calcium
hydroxide). The calcium is dosed via limewater, which is produced by mixing
powdered hydrated lime with reverse osmosis permeate using a clarifier. Carbon
dioxide gas is added to the water. It reacts with the dosed lime to form calcium
bicarbonate, which buffers the water and increases the resistance to changes in
pH and thus reduces the corrosivity of the water.

Disinfection
Chlorine based disinfection (i.e. chlorination) has been considered for this project.
Chlorine kills the micro-organisms by immobilizing their metabolism rendering
them harmless. Chlorine is a slow stable reaction thus its main advantage of
chlorine is the formation of residuals which remain in the water for longer periods
of time protecting the system from bacterial contamination.
2.7.5 Water Storage and Transfer
Process water storage
Treated process water will be stored on site prior to being transferred to the city
for consumption. Total usable storage volume will be 35,000 m3 with 2 hour
storage time for average flow.
Process water transfer pump station
The design criteria adopted for design of the pump station is therefore as follows;
Type of pumps
:
Number of units
:
Nominal pump station duty :
Pump control
:
Positive suction at all times.

centrifugal variable speed drive,

6 duty, 2 standby
2800 m3/hr @ 60 m head,
by level in the receiving tank,

2.7.6 Seawater Outfall

Outfall Pipeline
The desalination plant will discharge rejected seawater concentrate and other
waste streams into the ocean via an outlet pipeline.
Coastal currents flow from south to north from August to October and from north
to south from November to March each year. The currents from the south to the
north are stronger than the currents from the north to the south. For this reason
the outfall will be located to the north of the intake, as at Nemmeli.