Field Trips are Fun even in Saudi

For my membranes class this fall, we had the opportunity to take a tour of the Desalination plant and the wastewater treatment plant.  I think it's pretty cool that we get to drink the same water that we can go swimming and boating in.  It's a pretty big win for science and the desert.

The plant just opened last year and it was so sparkling clean.  The plant I worked in this past summer has been in operation in various forms since the early 20th century, so a lot of it was filthy dirty, even though they were making soap!

Exterior pumps!

View of campus from the RO plant

Large strainers inside the plant.

Membrane units in the plant

Exit side of the membrane modules.

Since membrane units are modular, it's really easy to expand in the future.

Exterior of the Wastewater Treatment Plant

Sinky poop water being aerated.

Aerators, seen because this tank wasn't being used.

Cooling towers off in the distance.

All in all, my membranes class was pretty interesting, and I learned a lot about something I didn't really know much (anything) about.  Sadly that wasn't the case for most of my classes.  I'm not really sure if anything I learned will be directly applicable in the future, but you never know right?

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We're leaving tomorrow for Greece, but we'll still have some posts that will go up automatically while we're gone.  Since they'll go up automatically, we won't necessarily be posting links to them on Facebook.