Sustainable Solution for a Wastewater Treatment Plant for the Al Kharj Industrial Park

WABAG (Austria) as a specialist for individual, sustainable water technology solutions is about to implement another interesting recycling project in Saudi Arabia. The wastewater from the Al Kharj industrial park is to be treated for sustainable reuse as service water. This will both conserve limited local water resources and also save costs. WABAG was able to convince the client with the best technical concept and thus capture the order, which has a value of around EUR 6 million.  

In the beginning of 2014, VA TECH WABAG GmbH in Vienna received an order for an industrial wastewater treatment plant in Saudi Arabia. The contract is for the new industrial park of the city Al Kharj, which is located in the middle of the Kingdom near the capital Riyadh, and involves the high degree purification of the wastewater emanating from the park’s various production facilities in order to guarantee its reuse as service water. 

WABAG prepared an individual process design for this assignment, which will be capable of dealing with the highly loaded industrial effluents. Its concept consists of mechanical pre-treatment, chemical precipitation, sedimentation, equalisation tanks, biological treatment, filtration, active carbon filtration and disinfection. The resultant sewage sludge will be stabilised aerobically and dewatered. An odour treatment plant is also included in the scope of delivery. The plant is designed for a capacity of 10,000 m3/d. This volume of highly-treated wastewater, 10 million litres daily, will then be available for the industries for (re)use as service water – saving precious fresh water resources.

WABAG’s scope of performance includes the design and engineering, the supply of electro-mechanical equipment, installation supervision and commissioning. Start-up is already scheduled for 2015.

WABAG received the contract owing to the fact that it provided the best technical tender. This constitutes a major success for the company in the Saudi Arabian market and an interesting reference in the industrial water recycling area. Closed water circuits in industry make an important contribution to the conservation of resources and also offer companies a range of other advantages such as security of supply and reduced operating costs.

WABAG has been active in Saudi Arabia since the 1980s and has already built more than twenty water and wastewater treatment plants in the Kingdom, including two facilities for the town Al Kharj. In 2009 a brackish water desalination plant was completed, which provides the inhabitants with 50,000 m3 of drinking water daily, while in 2007 a new municipal wastewater treatment plant with a capacity of 100,000 m3/d was put into operation. This project also focused on the preservation of resources, the cleaned water being subjected to final disinfection in order to facilitate its employment for agricultural irrigation.