Diagnosis and improvement of diffuser performance of Fouka Desalination Plant (Algeria)

A significant increase in salinity, which sometimes exceeds 40 g/L, has been observed in the intake waters of Fouka station located in Tipaza State (Algeria). An interaction was suspected between the discharge and the intake waters due to insufficient dilution or a deviation of the brine plume. The purpose of this study is to diagnose this diffuser and to investigate its behaviour concerning climatic variations such as wind velocity and current velocity. To achieve this, we simulated several dispersion scenarios of release in the marine environment using the Cornell Mixing Expert System (CORMIX) code. Indeed, the environmental speeds related to both wind and current play an important role in the development of the plume and therefore the dilution of the brine. To further exploit the simulation results, we plotted the plume profiles in space for the three velocity cases (favourable, intermediate, and unfavourable) according to UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator) coordinates, considering the position of the water intake point. Alternatives and solutions were proposed at the end of this analysis, to improve the performance of this diffuser.