Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd., (MRPL), which had to shut down two of its three units during this summer’s water scarcity, is exploring deploying a portable sea water desalination plant to tide over a similar crisis next summer.
Interacting with reporters here on Saturday, MRPL Managing Director M. Venkatesh said the temporary measure is being taken till the 70-MLD permanent desalination plant, which will produce industrial quality fresh water using reverse osmosis, is commissioned, sometime by December 2020.
The global market has favourably responded to MRPL’s portable plant requirement, Mr. Venkatesh said, adding the unit could produce about 3 MGD of water. It will be located at a corner of the permanent plant’s site at Tannirbhavi.
Group General Manager (Corporate Strategy) M. Sushil Chandra told The Hindu that the permanent plant’s intake head, outfall defuser, and freshwater pipeline from the plant to refinery will have to be completed first for the portable plant to be functional.
Chennai-based Indian Multinational Company VA Tech Wabag Ltd., has bagged the contract for ₹620 crore for the permanent plant.
The contractor will also operate and maintain the plant for 10 years coming up on NMPT’s 13-acre leased land at Tannirbhavi.
The project has received environment clearance from Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on April 18.
The oil-refining major, catering to fuel requirements of coastal and hinterlands of Karnataka and parts of Kerala, had shut down its third phase unit for periodic maintenance from April this year while phase 1 had to be shut down from May 10 for water scarcity.
Phase 2 was functional with 3 MGD treated sewage from Mangaluru City and some in-house treated waste water. While fuel production got drastically reduced, MRPL ensured that people did not feel the impact with help from other public sector oil companies.
Mr. Venkatesh said MRPL’s goal is to reduce consumption of fresh water as much as possible. It is prepared to receive more sewage from the city for which Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) and Mangalore Special Economic Zone (MSEZ) are working hard.
The refinery uses about 11 MGD fresh water besides 3 MGD sewage and in-house treated waste water. Director-Designate (Refinery) M. Vinay Kumar, CFO S. Raviprasad, CGM (Corporate Strategy) Deepak Prabhakar, and others were present.
