ROTEC Selected for El Centro Water Reuse
ROTEC Flow Reversal RO will treat cooling tower blowdown for reuse at IID’s El Centro Generating Station in California, which produces more than 330 MW.
ROTEC USA has been selected to supply advanced water treatment systems for the Imperial Irrigation District El Centro Generating Station in El Centro, California, a power plant producing more than 330 MW. The project will treat cooling tower blowdown wastewater for onsite reuse and eliminate surface-water discharge from the facility. ROTEC will provide membrane microfiltration, high-recovery Flow Reversal Reverse Osmosis and dedicated boiler feed reverse osmosis systems. The work forms part of IID’s wastewater mitigation program for the generating station, which serves the Imperial and Coachella valleys.
Treating Cooling Tower Blowdown
The new system will process chemically softened cooling tower blowdown through membrane microfiltration and Flow Reversal Reverse Osmosis. Water recovered by the FR-RO system will become feedwater for the plant’s boiler feed RO systems, supporting further reuse within the facility.
The substantially reduced FR-RO concentrate stream will be sent to evaporation ponds. The new treatment system is being developed in response to increasingly stringent wastewater discharge requirements.
Bruce Alderman, CEO at ROTEC USA, said:
“Cooling tower blowdown represents a major opportunity for water reuse in power generation. At El Centro, Flow Reversal will help IID recover more usable water from that wastewater while sending far less to the evaporation ponds. It's a great example of how high-recovery RO can help power generation facilities get more value from the water they already have.”
Project Delivery Team
W. M. Lyles Co. is delivering the project as progressive design-builder. The engineering and design team also includes Aqua Engineering and Albert A. Webb Associates.
Reuse Within The Plant
The El Centro project places high-recovery RO at the center of a practical reuse train for power generation wastewater. By routing recovered blowdown water into boiler feed treatment, the system is designed to increase the plant’s use of its existing water supplies while reducing concentrate volumes sent to evaporation ponds.
