Desalination & Reuse Handbook - Flipbook - Page 30
IDA
WATER SECURITY
HANDBOOK
Technologies
Membrane technologies continue to dominate the desalination market, with just a few markets remaining for thermal desalination
technologies. A key driver of this decline has been the uptake of membrane technologies in extra-large utility projects in the GCC, where
no extra-large thermal projects were awarded in 2017–2018. New capacity in the region over the next five years will predominantly use
SWRO, with a handful of thermal projects in Kuwait and the thermal portion of Saudi Arabia’s Jubail IWPP making up the majority
of the global market for the technology. With precious few of these vast utility projects, the thermal market will be mostly reduced to
industrial MED projects, mostly in the Asia-Pacific region.
The 31st inventory features several extra-large nanofiltration projects: a 150,000 m3/d WTP in Tabouk, Saudi Arabia, and the
100,000 m3/d Zhangjiagang WTP in Jiangsu Province, China reversing the prevailing trend since 2016 for NF for sulphate removal to
outweigh NF for municipal water supply. The latter project claims to be the world’s largest plant with a UF-NF treatment train. Large
municipal NF projects have typically been constructed in the US to address hardness or in northern Europe to handle organic matter,
or in sulphate removal applications in the oil & gas sector. In the municipal sector, increased attention to micropollutants in the USA
and continued building in China are likely to be key sources of large NF projects. 2017 also saw the award of the first sulphate removal
facility in Saudi Arabia. The 69,266 m3/d NF project was awarded to Safbon Water Technology for a water injection facility in the
Ghawar oilfield, and is also the first project to use the technology for an onshore field.
Additional contracted desalination capacity by technology, 2000–2018
6
Capacity millions (m3/d)
5
Membrane
Thermal
4
3
2
1
0
2000
2002
2004
2006
Plant suppliers
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018*
Source: GWI DesalData / IDA
*Values through June 2018
Acquisition of GE Water, finalised in October 2017, makes Suez comfortably the world’s largest plant supplier by installed capacity since
2017 – GE Water accounts for 4.3 million m3/d of Suez’s 7.2 million m3/d of capacity contracted since 2017. Suez is also comfortably the
largest plant supplier by contracted capacity in the 31st inventory. Just over half of its 709,000 m3/d total is a result of the 378,000 m3/d
Rosarito project in Mexico, with the remainder coming from a list of over 100 references with an average size of 2,850 m3/d. Shanghai
Safbon Water Service’s acquisition of Doosan Hydro Technologies in May 2017 added a smaller but still significant reference list to
Safbon’s total contracted capacity. Several companies are present in the list as a result of a single project (Mapna, IDE, Hitachi Zosen,
Wetico, Beijing Origin, Greentech), in some cases shared with another consortium member (Fisia, Besix). Others had a greater spread of
small- and medium-sized projects (Aquamatch Turkiye, Utico). Only Acciona, Abengoa and Safbon secured more than one project with a
capacity of 50,000 m3/d or greater in the 31st inventory.
Private finance in desalination
Just three extra-large seawater desalination projects were procured under build-operate-transfer/build-own-operate (BOT/BOO)
contracts. The capacity of privately-financed projects in 2018 has already surpassed last year, with 1.04 million m3/d in privately financed
SWRO projects awarded in Oman, the UAE, Mexico, Kenya, Iran and China. Largest among these are the 378,000 m3/d Rosarito project
in Mexico, the 272,300 m3/d Hamriyah expansion in Sharjah, UAE, and three 100,000 m3/d SWRO plants awarded in Mombasa, Kenya
and Liaoning Province, China. This represents 40% of total capacity contracted in the first half of 2018.
This figure is still likely to rise, with bids submitted for the 600,000 m3/d Rabigh IWP, 450,000 m3/d Shuqaiq IWP and 227,300 m3/d
Ad Dur IWPP in August-September 2018. The decision by Saudi Arabia’s Water & Electricity Company (WEC) to pivot to the IWP/IWPP
model marked the end of a decade-long preference for EPC contracts in the kingdom, and the majority of a planned
5 million m3/d of new capacity over the next five years is likely to be procured using private finance. This mirrors increased uptake of the
IWP/IWPP model across the Gulf, with Kuwait’s PPP programme launching in 2016 and IWP/IWPPs in the UAE being used beyond
Abu Dhabi for the first time.
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