Industrial Water & Wastewater

CASE STUDY:
Kaeng Khoi 2 Power Plant water AND WASTEWATER treatment system
for Alstom

A complete water treatment system for one

of Thailands most advanced power plants
Contract Value:
SGD$11 Million
Project Duration:
Commenced:
May 2005
Completed:
January 2007
Location:
Saraburi, Thailand

Project Overview
Situated in the Saraburi province north of
Bangkok, Kaeng Khoi 2 is a gas-fired thermal
power plant with a generating capacity of
1468 Mega Watts, 7.5% of Thailands total
power consumption. This gas fired, combined
cycle type plant uses 2 x 734 Mega Watt
trains of combined cycle gas turbines and
two heat recovery and steam generation
systems, feeding one common steam turbine.
The facility which includes a leading water
treatment system was designed to meet Thai
and World Bank environmental regulations.
UGL was contracted by Alstom to build a world
class water treatment system for the Kaeng
Khoi 2 Power Plant which included facilities
for pre-treatment, demineralisation, and
wastewater processing.

The Challenge
The challenge for Alstom was to secure a
consistent, reliable source of water for cooling
tower make up that was also cost effective
and sustainable. A water treatment solution, a
critical element in refining raw cooling water,
was also required to soften or remove solids,
and in this case deal with organics.
With properly treated water, the potential
for scaling in power plant cooling towers is
significantly reduced. This decreases cooling
circuit cleaning requirements, extends the
life of the cooling equipment and reduces

the cooling tower blowdown flow to the

environment.
Alstom also needed to find a solution for
treating effluent-steam generated from
the purge of flue-gas desulfurization (FGD)
scrubbers to reduce environmental impact.
This wastewater can be challenging to process
as it contains heavy metals, suspended solids,
and salts such as calcium, magnesium, and
sodium chloride.

the Solution
UGLs extensive expertise in delivering
complete water and wastewater solutions
for the power generation industry was utilized
for this project. The solution consisted of 3 key
elements which included a pre-treatment plant,
a demineralization plant and a wastewater
plant.
The pre-treatment plant was constructed
to produce softened clarified water for the
cooling tower water make up system critical for
the plants operation. Two 27 metre diameter
lime softening re-activators, each capable
of producing 1250 cubic metres per hour of
treated water were utilised with associated
chemical dosing systems. This included calcium
hydroxide for softening, sodium hypo-chlorite
for disinfection and oxidizing, polymer for
flocculation, and sulphuric acid for the final pH
correction. The sludge from the plant is then
further treated by a thickener and dewatered
through belt presses.

The demineralization plant then further treats water for

the boiler make up water system. Clarified water from the
pre-treatment plant is treated with sand filters to remove
fine particulates, follow by reverse osmosis for Total
Dissolved Solids (TDS) removal.
An ultra violet reactor is the employed to break the Total
Organic Carbon (TOC) before final polishing is performed in
a mixed bed (to the required specification of water quality
of less than 0.1 S/cm, Total Organic Carbon < 0.3 parts per
million and Silica < 0.01 parts per million).
For the final stage of water treatment, UGL delivered a
wastewater plant consisting of two units of Dissolved Air
Flotation (DAF) each capable of treating 315 cubic metres an
hour of highly refined wastewater (maximum of 150 parts per
million of suspended solid in the effluent). The wastewater is
then coagulated with a coagulant in two stage flocculators
and followed by dissolved air flotation with final pH correction
and chlorination before discharging. Sludge is then pumped
back into the dewatering system.
UGLs scope of work in delivering this solution included
project management, overall plant and process design,
equipment installation, guarantees, instrumentation and
SCADA integration, testing and commissioning (except for
the civil construction).

Key Outcomes and Benefits

From systems that treat cooling tower make up and
boiler feed to wastewater treatment systems that
minimize discharge to the environment, UGL delivered a
comprehensive and cost effective solution to service Alstoms
power generators that ensures a consistent and reliable
supply of quality water.
Focusing on system performance, compliance with process
and environmental requirements as well as long-term costeffectiveness, UGL was able to meet the most demanding
standards of reliability, safety and quality when delivering
this water treatment solution.
Key outcomes included:
Overall power plant system reliability through establishing
a pre-treatment water plant that would produce high quality
cooling water which avoided costly downtime through proven
technologies and robust engineering systems.
Efficiency by developing solutions that help the client
generate the maximum amount of electricity using the
minimum amount of resources.
Delivering engineering systems that ensure compliance
with environmental legislation while reducing the plants
water footprint.
A dependable partner that delivered the project on time
avoiding additional costs.
A water treatment system solution that fueled operational
flexibility through evaporative cooling on the gas turbines
and additional duct firing on the heat recovery steam
generators that also contributed to higher flexibility.
Delivering a water treatment plant that minimizes
environmental impact by recycling & treating cooling
water which ensures low water consumption and that no
contaminants reach local waterways after use.

UGL Limited
Locked Bag 903
Level 5, 40 Miller St
North Sydney NSW 2060
Phone: +61 2 8925 8925
Facsimile: +61 2 8925 8926
Email: uglinfo@ugllimited.com

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