Mott McDonald Engineers has completed a review of the potential environmental impacts of the Taweelah A-2 Project on behalf of ECPC, in which the air, water, land and noise issues were examined. This review report was used as the framework for preparing a comprehensive Environmental Management Manual (EMM) for development and operations. ECPC has appointed an Environmental Engineer to take the prime responsibility for all environmental matters connected with operation of the plant, including monitoring day-to-day compliance with the EMM, reporting any non-compliances and issuing corrective action notices.
The assessment of atmospheric emissions of Taweelah A-2 is based on various factors including current emission limits, existing air quality criteria and dispersion modeling of Taweelah A-2 sources. In gas turbines, the emission of nitric oxide (NOx) is controlled during natural gas firing by means of premix combustion in the upper load range. When burning fuel oil, the NOx emission will be controlled additionally by water injection. Control of sulphur dioxide (SO2) will be through the burning of natural gas as the primary fuel and back-up fuel oil with low sulphur content. The heat recovery steam generators are equipped with a modern burner management system for the control of CO and unburned hydrocarbons. The exhaust stack height of 55 meters will effectively disperse the gaseous pollutant. The plant is equipped to monitor and record continuously NOx, SO2, CO and O2 emissions.
The plant is designed to ensure that the temperature of sea water brine from the desalination units combined with reject cooling water from the power units discharged from the plant is not more than 10o C above the temperature of the incoming sea water. Combined discharges from the Taweelah Complex should not increase by more than 1o C. the temperature of the receiving seawater. The plant is equipped to continuously monitor and record water temperature at the seawater inlet and at the outlet.
Primary sedimentation and biological clarification and an effluent disinfection unit treat sanitary and domestic wastewater streams before the wastewater is discharged into the sea. Oil contaminated water is treated in oil separators. All the treated wastewater streams are discharged to the sea in accordance with local permit requirements and the emission limits.
The entire plant area will be inspected regularly for any soil contamination, and necessary measures/arrangement will be made to minimise the environmental impact.