Cannon Artes is building a large-scale, advanced wastewater treatment and water reuse plant in one of the top three petrochemical complexes in the Middle East region. The system will cater to the water recovery needs of a gigantic polyolefin plant in Qatar, and when in operation will treat up to 25,000 cubic meters a day of effluent water and cooling-tower-blow-down water. With a recovery capacity of 780 cubic meters per hour, the facility is set up to minimize the discharge rate, adopting a Near-Zero-Liquid-Discharge philosophy. This greatly exceeds regulatory requirements and underlines Cannon Artes’s ongoing commitment to environmental sustainability, recovering and reusing nearly 80% of the effluent water thus largely surpassing the regulatory requirements. “Cannon Artes was chosen as the supplier of choice earlier this year, due to our proven ability to deliver large-scale and complex industrial wastewater treatment solutions that meet the highest environmental and efficiency standards,” said Alessio Liati, Sales Director at Cannon Artes. “To give an idea of the project’s scale, the water treatment plant alone spans an area comparable to three football fields, with more than 1,600 reverse osmosis membranes, 360 ultrafiltration modules, and over 17,000 square meters of active MBR membrane surface”
The wastewater treatment and reuse plant facility supplied by Cannon Artes is part of a nearly 2 billion USD project focused on building a new polyethylene plant featuring two polymerization units, with an overall capacity approaching 2 million tons per year. Utilizing the most advanced membrane technologies, the plant manages two types of wastewater discharges: industrial effluents undergo biological treatment using Cannon Artes’ proprietary EmbioArt® Membrane BioReactor (MBR) while cooling water blowdown is treated and reused with ultrafiltration (UF) and reverse osmosis (RO) technologies. The total treatment capacity approaches 1,000 cubic meters per hour.
The scope also includes a 600 cubic meters per hour remineralization plant designed to increase pH and reduce recovered water corrosivity. Equipped with six advanced calcite filters, this facility raises the bar for industrial remineralization technology.
Although large-scale implementations like this are rare, the Qatari project underlines Cannon Artes’ unique ability to integrate all the necessary building blocks for such a complex contract—from process design to procurement, manufacturing, assembly, testing, and delivery. All plant components are fully customized to fit the client’s specifications, including advanced technologies such as EmbioArt® MBR, UF, and RO, and ensuring the highest efficient and environmentally sustainable water-reuse solutions currently available on the market.
Construction began in August 2024, with infrastructure expected to be completed in six months, by early 2025 – an impressive timeline given the project’s complexity. Full mechanical completion is scheduled for Q4 2025.
This state-of-the-art wastewater treatment and reuse facility solidifies Cannon Artes’ reputation as a trusted partner for large-scale, complex industrial projects worldwide. Beyond the oil and gas, chemical, and petrochemical sectors, Cannon Artes has delivered customized effluent treatment plants (ETPs) and wastewater treatment (WWT) solutions in over 80 countries, working with leading global players across industries such as pharmaceuticals, pulp and paper, textiles, and food and beverage.
Cannon Artes is exhibiting at Stand 2112 at ADIPEC 2024 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (November 4-7).
About Cannon Artes:
Since 1977, Cannon Artes has been a global leader in providing tailored water and wastewater treatment plants, blending expert engineering, vast know-how, and Italian craftsmanship. As part of the Cannon Group, the company has enhanced its focus on innovation and international reach, helping clients worldwide reduce their water footprint and treat over 500 million cubic meters of water annually. With a rich portfolio of proprietary technologies, Cannon Artes addresses the demands of the most challenging industrial sectors, including energy, petrochemicals, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, food, and pulp & paper. The company specializes in critical areas such as Produced and Injection Water Treatment, Condensate Polishing, and Effluent Water Treatment & Reuse. Cannon Artes is qualified with major global and regional energy players.
About Cannon Group:
Founded in 1965, Cannon Group comprises 30 companies, with a global presence in more than 40 countries, and is recognized as a market leader in technologies, processing and molds for polyurethanes and urethane elastomers for the plastics and composites industries. The Group designs and manufactures high- and low-pressure dosing machines and mixing equipment, for continuous slab and discontinuous molded polyurethane foams. Dedication to continuous innovation now positions Cannon Group as a driving force offering the design, manufacture, servicing, and maintenance of equipment also in other key technology areas including: Energy – industrial boilers for standard and special applications, comprising steam boilers, hot water heaters, heat recovery boilers, and thermal oil heaters, with in-house engineering and fabrication services; Water & Wastewater Treatment – deaerators, condensate treatment and recovery, effluent treatment plants, sanitary water treatment and sewage treatment, injection water treatment, demineralization, produced water; and Automation, where Cannon Group offers process digitization and condition monitoring, connect-IT and emissions monitoring. Cannon Group is committed to reducing the ecological footprint of all the Group’s technologies and industrial processes offered to the market through energy efficiency, resource consumption reduction, and emissions reduction. Cannon Group delivered net sales of €290 million in 2023.