Saudi Aramco Abqaiq Plants Journey in Water Reduction, Reuse, and Sustainability

Abstract Saudi Aramco Abqaiq Plants’ vision to protect the environment and conserve water is an important target that must be achieved on yearly bases. We aim to reduce the consumption and improve the efficiency, while sustaining these improvements and continuously achieving our results and targets. Our main focus is on the ground water conservation and replacing ground water sources since the region has high water scarcity. In our water conservation journey, we will start with optimizations and consumption reduction initiatives that involve the least amount of implementation costs. This is achieved by optimizing the available processes and utilizing waste water streams in proper locations and processes. We will begin the reuse initiatives with reusing Reverse Osmosis (RO) reject in many applications, such as using RO reject in multimedia filters backwash, which resulted in 60 Gallon Per Minutes (GPM) reduction in ground water use, while using the RO reject in soft water regen. process resulted in 28 GPM. Other optimization includes cooling tower blowdown cycle of concertation optimization, which resulted in 90 GPM, drinking water optimization (30 GPM), and demineralization plant elimination (100 GPM). The next initiatives required implementation costs such as cooling towers chemical injection and blowdown automation, which resulted in saving 80 GPM, but this initiative is in progress as there are other cooling towers planned for automation. The next one is Heat Recovery Steam Generators (HRSGs) blowdown reuse in a cooling system (25 GPM). There are also other optimizations that were originated from procedural changes and resulted in water savings such as sampling practice optimization, steam traps integrity program, skim tanks optimizations, and tube leak early detections. The total ground water conserved due to the aforementioned initiatives and other water conservation intimins within a four-year period is approximately 900 GPM. Saudi Aramco Abqaiq Plants are still moving forward with new optimizations, initiatives, technology deployments, and finding alternative water resources to save the highest amount possible and reduce our carbon emissions.