Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru

Mangaluru, Aug 18: The Government of Karnataka has given permission to Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) to set up reverse osmosis (RO) based desalination plant at Mangaluru.

With this, MRPL’s dependency on fresh water for its operations will reduce as the Rs 595 crore plant will have a capacity to desalinate 13 million gallons seawater per day.

The plant which is expected to be ready by 2020 will be set-up on the 15 acre land provided by New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT).

MRPL Chairman Shashi Shanker in his report to shareholders had explained that the desalination plant will become an alternative source of water and reduce risk of depending on freshwater, which is currently the single source.

At present, MRPL which needs 13 MGD water obtains 7-8 MGD from freshwater sources. It also operates an RO plant with a capacity of 3.4 MGD where municipal sewage water is treated. This will give the refinery additional 3 MGD water.

Shanker said that 2 MGD water will be supplied to Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilisers (MCF).

MRPL is also undertaking Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) project of 400 m3/h capacity. This projects falls in line with MRPL’s ‘zero effluent discharge to sea’ vision. The capital expenditure for this project is pitched at Rs 339 crore and Engineers India Limited has completed the feasibility study for the project.

Once the ZLD is implemented, it will further reduce MRPL’s dependency on freshwater by 15 per cent, Shanker said.

MRPL is also gearing up to produce BS-VI standard diesel by March 2019 and petrol in December 2019. Land has been identified to set-up 2G Ethanol project and will be acquired through Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board. The Licensor selection for the technology is in progress, and the project may get commissioned by 2021.