Bahrain Petroleum Company selects GE's ZeeWeed MBR to treat complex wastewater from oil refinery operations

The Bahrain Petroleum Company B.S.C. (BAPCO) has chosen GE to design and supply an 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.

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 litres/day from the refinery and Sitra tank farm.

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.

GE also will design the MBR system and provide support during its first five years of operation. GE’s water and process technologies business also has supplied water-treatment chemicals for the BAPCO refinery.

The Middle East is an important region for GE’s water business, and the company has regional centres of excellence in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, for both research and manufacturing. GE and Miahona signed a memorandum of understanding, which provides a framework for promoting the use of advanced membrane technology such as membrane bioreactors in water reuse and the pursuit of wastewater treatment, wastewater reuse and zero liquid discharge projects in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.