Water treatment system for Saudi drinking-water producer

Makkah Water Company, a Saudi-Arabian drinking-water producer, has finished updating and expanding capacity at its main plant in Jeddah. The new, high-performance water treatment system from Krones passed final acceptance testing in October 2022. Before that, acceptance testing on two new high-speed filling lines was completed in spring 2022.

The company began operations and production in 1975. Its Jeddah plant now has seven complete lines from Krones up and running. At its second plant, Al Janoub, in the city of Gizan in southern Saudi Arabia, Makkah Water is still working with mix-and-match lines that include a variety of blow moulders, fillers and labellers from Krones. The Jeddah plant produces Safa Water while the Gizan plant is focused on the Mozn brand.

In this project phase, Makkah Water replaced its existing wet end of an 81,000 bph line with an ErgoBloc L. Later in the update project, the company swapped out two existing lines for Krones systems. Each of the three ErgoBloc L lines fills still table water at 81,000 containers per hour.

The water treatment system is one of the largest of its kind that Krones has built, rated at 3x110 m³ per hour. The system, comprising three units equipped with ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis and electrodeionisation, processes demineralised sea water. With the electrodeionisation (EDI) module, the result is ultrapure, deionised water to which the desired minerals can then be added. The addition of the EDI module is important for producing still table water with a mineral content that has no tolerance for deviation, as is the case at Makkah Water.

The scope of supply also included an activated-carbon filter and modules for remineralisation and ozonisation. The Hydronomic MDS mineral-dosing station uses a mass flow meter to deliver precise quantities of various minerals. The Hydronomic OZ water ozonisation system stabilises the product microbiologically prior to filling.

“The new water treatment system replaced our existing equipment. Installation and commissioning went according to plan,” said Makkah Water owner, Sheikh Ali. “For this water treatment project, we chose to work with Krones based on the new technology and our long and excellent partnership — and that has so far served us well.”