UNIQUE FEATURES OF SWRO PLANTS Pelton Wheel as Energy Recovery Device Pelton Wheel in SWRO Plants **********************************************...
Published on by Fayyaz Mubeen, Senior Desalination Expert
Pelton Wheel as Energy Recovery Device Pelton Wheel in SWRO Plants
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After Reverse Centrifugal Pumps or Francis Turbines, the next energy recovery device incorporated in SWRO Plants was Pelton Wheel (or Hydraulic Turbine) which is still used in many SWRO Plants. The achievable efficiency of Pelton wheels is 80 to 85% .
The first ever use of Pelton Wheel Energy Device was in SWCC Umm Lujj SWRO Desalination at Red Sea. This plant, owned by the SWCC, has two trains named 100 and 200. Each train has one HPPs that is coupled with a Pelton wheel. The Umm Lujj Pelton Wheel has a capacity of 251 m3/hour at 53 bars with overall efficiency of 85%.
The Pelton Wheel Energy Recovery Devices could be of single wheel design or double wheel design depending on the number of bucket wheels used. In Shuqaiq SWRO Plant, two-wheel design has been used. Other important installations of Pelton Wheels are: Point Lisas SWRO Plant (140,000 m3/day), Las Palamas III SWRO Plant (86,000 m3/day), Al Dur SWRO Plant (212,00 m3/day), Rabigh SWRO Plant (192,000 m3/day), Kindasa Jeddah (24,000 m3/day) and Shuqaiq (216,000 m3/day) .