Advanced Water Treatment Technology to Support Bahrain’s Oil and Gas Industry

Bahrain Petroleum Company Selects GE’s ZeeWeed Membrane Bioreactor System to Treat Complex Wastewater from Oil Refinery Operations.

The Bahrain Petroleum Company B.S.C. (BAPCO) has chosen GE (USA) to design and supply a membrane bioreactor (MBR) system for its oil refinery wastewater treatment plant in Sitra, near Manama. The project and the GE-supplied advanced water treatment technology will support BAPCO’s environmental leadership efforts to achieve the stringent wastewater quality levels specified by Bahrain’s General Directorate of Environment and Wildlife Protection regulation for wastewater discharge into the Gulf.

“BAPCO is committed to managing its precious water resources wisely,” said Mr. A. Jabbar A. Karim, acting general manager, major engineering projects division, BAPCO. “With this project, GE is supporting us to realise our goals of minimising the environmental impact from our refining operations, while safeguarding the refinery’s capital equipment at the same time.”

Wastewater from refineries is complex and requires extensive treatment. The BAPCO refinery, one of the largest in the Middle East and the oldest in the Gulf Cooperation Council union, refines more than 250,000 barrels of crude daily. GE’s ZeeWeed technology will handle a maximum wastewater flow of about 24 million liters/day, roughly the amount of water required to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool, from the refinery and Sitra tank farm.

“The BAPCO wastewater treatment plant is another example in GE’s long history of supporting customers in Bahrain with innovative energy technology—in this case, advanced water solutions—to meet their toughest operational challenges,“ said Joseph Anis, president and CEO, GE Energy for the Middle East. “We are committed to continue delivering advanced solutions that increase the supply of clean water necessary and meeting the environmental commitments for the expansion of Bahrain’s economy.”

At the heart of the system is GE’s ZeeWeed MBR technology. GE ZeeWeed technology sets the standard for hollow-fiber ultrafiltration technology combined with biological treatment, which is the preferred way to handle complex wastewater because it produces consistently high-quality effluent suitable for discharge or reuse application. GE will supply a ZeeWeed MBR system consisting of four MBR trains, each with 10 membrane cassettes containing ZeeWeed 500 rugged, reinforced membrane modules. It is being supplied under contract with EPC contractor GS Engineering & Construction and is expected to be operational in the fourth quarter of 2012.