Design and construction of a water purification plant for Mariel industrial park

Need

A vast industrial park, the largest in the Gulf of Mexico area, has been built in Mariel, located 50 km west of Havana. It is already operational, but it is still expanding. The last planned lot, called A6, is under construction. This lot, like all other lots already in operation, will be served by a sewage system which requires a water purification plant to treat the effluent from the various industries and then discharge it into a watercourse.

Solution

The quality of the wastewater to be treated is known, but the volume of daily wastewater in the medium and long term is not known, as the industrial site is still expanding. We designed the system in three equal modules, which can be manufactured separately, in order to provide the customer with maximum flexibility. We adopted MBBR technology since the purification plant will be managed by local personnel who are not specialised in water treatment; this technology requires smaller volumes and boasts management and process simplicity.

We designed and built the purification plant using prefabricated technology so as to speed up and make the construction work safer. Vitrified steel circular tanks were assembled on site, and there are stainless steel lamella clarifiers, a technical room with machinery and an electrical system inside two 40 ft. high-cube equipped sea containers. Most of the electromechanical works left Italy already installed, wired and tested.

Plant performance

• Population equivalents: 22,000 (1st batch of 3)
• Current daily flow rate: 4,400 m3/day
• Max. future daily flow rate: 13,200 m3/day
• COD in: 700 mg/L
• COD out: < 120 mg/L
• Receiving body: surface water