MRPL setting up desalination plant

Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd. (MRPL) is setting up a water desalination plant near New Mangalore Port in Mangaluru. According to Mr. M. Venkatesh, Managing Director, initial stages of engineering and tendering activities are going on and the project is on target as of now with mechanical completion by March 2020.

The plant will have the initial capacity of 5-mgpd (million gallons per day), expandable up to 10-mgpd. He said the desalination plant is meant to reduce the freshwater dependency of the refinery.

The refinery’s current freshwater requirement is around 12-13 mgpd. As of now, the company is receiving around 2.5-3 mgpd of domestic sewage from the municipal corporation. “We are seeking more and more domestic sewage so that fresh water consumption can be brought down even today. We will maximise domestic sewage as and when corporation supplies to us,” Mr. Venkatesh said.

The annual report of the company for 2017-18 had stated that supply of water was one of the risks for it. Terming water as a vital input for the operations of the refinery, the report had said, “Water supply disruption occurred in the past during summer months. This severely affected the operations of the refinery.”