Al Marjan island chooses Atlas Copco air blower to enhance sustainable wastewater treatment
Al Marjan Island is one of the most beautiful tourist attractions in UAE and the Arabian Gulf region, with a group of four coral-shaped islands in a man-made archipelago located in Ras al-Khaimah, one of the seven emirates of UAE blessed with beautiful coastline and amazing red desert. Al Marjan island is home to many luxurious holiday resorts that attract 250,000 tourists every year making it one of the must-go destinations for visitors to the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah.
The island is served by a dedicated sewage treatment plant that is designed to a capacity of 2000 m3/day, where availability of 24/7 wastewater treatment service is crucial. Air blowers form an integral part of the wastewater treatment process as compressed air is used for the aeration of wastewater. Air blowers that produce compressed air consume almost 70% of the total energy consumed by the wastewater plant.
Al Marjan Island puts sustainability and lowering carbon footprint as the cornerstone of their vision and mission, accordingly, Al Marjan Island’s team jointly with Atlas Copco conducted a study to reduce carbon footprint and enhance plant reliability and blowers were one of the prime assets which the team jointly analyzed.
After conducting measurements, Atlas Copco introduced the ZS75VSD screw blower with variable speed drive replacing the existing 90 kW traditional fixed speed roots blowers. Screw technology enhanced reliability and improved efficiency while the VSD allowed for blower speed modulation that resulted in eliminating energy waste substantially.
The estimated overall savings of the new installation resulted in cutting power bills by an average of 30% of the aeration process.
Marjan island
Al Marjan Island is seeking sustainability in all its facilities and utilities; waste water treatment plant remains the unseen most important utility. Atlas Copco ZS75VSD screw blower with uninterrupted operations for the last 5 years has proven to be a true partner for us to achieve our sustainability goals. The WWT plant is running with 30% lower power consumption and the investment on new blowers has paid itself back several times already. Moreover, the remote monitoring solution and strong service support gives us an assurance of plant availability.
Efficiency of screw technology
The ZS75VSD with onboard variable speed drive provides the system with unmatched turndown and linear synchronization with the aeration tank dissolved oxygen analyzer to deliver air exactly matched with the demand of the wastewater process eliminates energy waste and owing to the internal compression of the screw technology and directly coupled motor ensures lowest specific energy per unit of air produced.
Reliability matters a lot!
The ZS screw blowers are gear-driven blowers with forced lubrication and a complete onboard oil system that includes cooling and filtration resulting in a much more reliable blower.
The typical service interval is increased to 4000 hours from 1000 hours of maintenance intervention required on a traditional roots’ blower in high ambient conditions of the Middle East. Oil change on ZS screw blowers is made only at 16,000 hours, unlike a few thousand hours for a roots blower.
Atlas Copco ZS screw blowers have been proven in the wastewater treatment segment across the Gulf region working in very tough ambient conditions and providing the most efficient performance, selecting the right technology based on application remains a key to a successful installation and the installation at Al Marjan Island operating for the last 5 years since 2015 is a witness of this success.
Learn more about ZS range screw blower
24/7 remote monitoring
ZS screw blowers are delivered standard with MKV Elektronikon® microprocessor based control system that provides round the clock monitoring through the patented SMARTLINK remote monitoring solution through 3G connectivity that provides Marjan island operators continuous remote access to the blower performance and proactive service planning by the Atlas Copco Service team. After 5 years of continuous operation of the blower with no reported breakdowns or any major service interventions Al Marjan Island’s team is extremely satisfied and recommends Atlas Copco ZS screw blowers to other wastewater plant operators.