Wastewater Treatment Facility Design

In 2011, Roux was retained to design a natural wastewater treatment solution for a 1,250-hectare (3,000-acre) industrial facility in Saudi Arabia. The facility includes a refinery, smelter, cast house, and rolling mill. Roux was tasked to design an Engineered Natural System (ENS) to treat all wastewater (sanitary, process, and stormwater) from construction through operation, incorporate transitioning through phases, and plan for future expansion of the facility and increased wastewater flow rates.

The 9-hectare (23-acre) ENS was designed to treat a total flow of 5,445 m³ per day (1.4 million gallons per day) without the addition of chemicals or the creation of odors associated with conventional tank systems.

The major system components include:
• Dump station with truck hook-up ports to collect and convey sanitary wastewater during construction of the industrial facility;
• 1,000 m³ primary sedimentation and anaerobic treatment tanks which break down and separate organic material in the water;
• 1,000 m³ oil/water separator;
• Patented enhanced subsurface flow constructed wetlands which utilize micro-organisms and vegetation to remove organics and nitrogen;
• Downflow soil filters for disinfection and phosphorus removal;
• UV disinfection system;
• 1,000 m³ treated water holding tank and pump station which conveys the treated water back to the facility for reuse;
• Infiltration basins; and
• Innovative treatment cells to remove fluoride from facility stormwater runoff.

The effluent from the wetlands is reused in the manufacturing process and for irrigation, thus reducing water demand by over one million gallons per day and saving more than $7MM annually, which would otherwise be used to purchase fresh water. In addition to saving water and money, the wetland treatment system was constructed six months faster than a conventional tank-based system and eliminated an estimated 1,000 metric tons of steel for piping and tanks.

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