- More than 56% of the amount of water used in backwashing was reduced in each cycle.
- Savings of around 33% in the estimated operating cost of the filtration system.
- Savings of about 75% in the total annual operating cost of the filtration system.
- The use of 7 tanks with multimedia filters was initially considered. However, the number of tanks was reduced to 4 by using Zeomedia filters, as the water produced was optimal for reverse osmosis and for discharge into the pool.
- The quality of the water produced by Zeomedia made the additional installation of a microfiltration filter unnecessary.
Surf Abu Dhabi has become an attractive and innovative destination for beginners and professional surfers looking to tame the world’s largest and highest artificially created waves.
Located on Hudayriyat Island in the United Arab Emirates, this pool covers 75 thousand square meters, has the capacity to generate waves of up to three meters, and is becoming the first attraction of its kind in the world to be salt-water based.
Leading companies in their field, Zeomedia and Corodex Industries joined forces to optimize the purification process of the famous attraction. By combining a sophisticated desalination system with high-performance zeolite filter cartridges, the Surf Abu Dhabi team can ensure that the water meets the desired purity levels.
| Zeomedia 14-40 | Silica sand | Units | |
| Inlet flow | 1,162 | 1,162 | m3/h |
| Cross-sectional area per filter | 15.6 | 15.6 | m2 |
| Tanks (operation + stand-by) | 3+1 | 6+1 | # |
| Filtration Rate | 24.8 | 12.4 | m/h |
| Inlet Turbidity | 7.7 | 7.7 | |
| Outlet Turbidity | 0.42 | 0.7 | NTU |
| Average operating cycle | 48 | 23 | h |
| Power required per backwash cycle | 128 | 344 | Kw/h |
| Total power of backwash pumps | 76 | 115 | Kw |
| Total power of backwash blowers | 0 | 19.5 | Kw |
| Amount of water used in backwash | 753 | 1,751 | m3/cycle |
| Estimated cost per filtration system | $1,125,800 | $1,688,700 | USD |
| Total cost of operation of the filtration system | $ 215,092 | $859,816 | USD/year |
A partnership that achieves optimal results
Corodex Industries is a company with more than 40 years in the market. It offers engineering, manufacturing, assembly, and manufacturing services for various water purification and wastewater recycling plants in the United Arab Emirates and the Middle East region.
On the other hand, Zeomedia is a Zeomex brand that provides filter media based on zeolite and other materials that maximize efficiency compared to traditional materials in water treatment systems of any size.
With this partnership, the Surf Abu Dhabi project was in expert hands, achieving the best result.
The desalination protocol begins with the intake of seawater, which enters the DAF systems to eliminate algae and marine life. The water is then filtered with zeolite cartridges, serving a dual purpose: on the one hand, they prepare the liquid for the final step of the process; simultaneously, they take water from the wave basin and circulate it. This mixed purpose combines pool water with desalinated water from reverse osmosis and sends it to a tank, where it overflows into the wave basin.
As a final step, the water undergoes a reverse osmosis process, where three units are purified, each producing 700 cubic meters per day of pure water that will serve as a replacement for the waves and compensate for evaporation losses.
Comparing zeolite and silica sand
What advantages and benefits have you found with the Zeomedia filter compared to the conventional media you used in the past?
“With the zeolite media filter, the first advantage and the most important is the size of the micron filtration. It’s a very low micron filtration, which in this specific case is a lot of help because we need to go down as low as possible on the micron size for the water that is going to the surf ranch pool to make it really crystal clear.
The second advantage is the plot plan. With these types of filters or media, you don’t need the same size because of the higher filtration rate. So, you go lower on the plot plan and the area required for the filters.
The third advantage is the backwash. You don’t have to backwash every day; it can be every three or five days, depending on the requirement.
So those three advantages are more than enough really to convince us that these filters are the most suitable application for this process”.
What is the number of filters you think are needed for using multimedia instead of Zeomedia?
For the same size, I would estimate that around seven filters. This is four versus seven if we go for the normal multimedia, but with the current limitation that the multimedia filter will not retain small particles, you will have to have coagulation filter cartridges and it will be more complicated.
Bassem Halabi, General Manager at Corodex Industries.
With Zeolita 14-40, Zeomedia and Zeomex are positioning themselves as international suppliers of zeolite and cutting-edge materials for water filtration projects.