JEDDAH SEAWATER REVERSE OSMOSIS INSTALLATION.

The world's largest reverse osmosis system for seawater desalination was placed on-line in January 1979 to supply 12,000 cubic meters of desalted Red Sea water per day to the drinking water supplies of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. This system is based on the newly developed spiral-wound TFC membrane elements. The system consists of power generation, a seawater intake, dual media filtration, nine first-stage reverse osmosis units, three second-stage reverse osmosis units and product stabilization. Cost data accrued to date has verified that reverse osmosis is more economical than multistage flash distillation (MSF), both in terms of capital and operating costs. The short lead time from bid to operation, as compared to MSF, is demonstrated by the fact that the plant was designed, constructed, and accepted within eighteen months of acceptance of bid.