Extra Filters, Covers Installed to Repair Desalination Plant
By Neil Johnson, Tampa Tribune, Fla.
Sep. 30–APOLLO BEACH — Adding filtration stages and enclosing exposed electric transformers in air conditioning were among the steps taken over the past 15 months to repair the region’s desalination plant.
Additional filters should protect expensive membranes that filter salt and the enclosures are meant to reduce salt corrosion.
The plant’s main problem was that water wasn’t clean enough when it reached delicate, expensive membranes that filter salt and convert sea water to drinking water.
The plant’s owner, Tampa Bay Water, hired American Water-Pridesa to fix the $119-million plant after it failed a series of attempts in 2003 to convert 44 million gallons of saltwater a day to 25 million gallons of drinking water.
Though the plant did produce fresh water, the ultra-fine membranes that remove salt clogged with silt and organic material, forcing the plant to be shut down for cleaning. That shortened the life span of the membranes and drove up operating costs.
The additional filtering should prevent the clogging problem.
Operators of the plant will also have more control and be able to spot problems more quickly. Under the old design, trouble with the membranes often reached a critical point before being discovered.
The work was among the changes company officials described during a tour of the plant on Friday.
Repairs and testing are to be finished in late December but the plant likely won’t begin operating consistently at full capacity until next year.
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