Mirfa Power and Desalination Plant is one of the main plants in Abu Dhabi Emirate. It is located at the Arabian Gulf coast. The plant is vulnerable to oil pollution because oil fields, offshore pipelines and refineries are located close to it. A risk analysis study was carried out to determine the trajectory and horizontal spread of oil slick released from different locations. The results give the potential risks of oil pollution at the seawater intake in terms of oil slick concentrations and properties.
Mirfa Power and desalination plant is an important plant for water and power production in Abu Dhabi Emirate. It abstracts the seawater from the Arabian Gulf through an intake channel of about 150 m wide and 2.3 km long. The design capacity of the intake inflow is 400,000 m3/h and the maximum flow velocity is 0.25 m/s. The plant is threatened by the oil slick which may reach the plant from oil tanker accidents and errors in the operations at the oil terminals and oil fields in the plant vicinity. The objective of the study is to analyze the potential of oil spills which may threaten the plant intake. The study will assist in the selection of effective protective measures which prevent the oil intrusion in the intake channel. Generally, oil spills in water may lead to surface floating oil, oil components in the atmosphere due to the evaporation and oil droplets in the water column entrained by breaking waves. Submerged floating or sunk semi-solid oil lumps and tar balls in the seawater may happen after severe weathering of surface slick and the uptake of seawater and emulsification process leading to density of oil mass that is very close or even greater than seawater density.
