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Tuesday, 20 September 2022

Major green desalination projects in the pipeline for KSA and UAE

Neom announces major desalination project that could give its green economy a shot in the arm: Saudi Arabia’s Neom plans to build a desalination plant by 2024 that will not only be entirely powered by renewable energy, but that would also bolster plans to produce and export green hydrogen in a big way, according Peter Terium, CEO of Enowa, its water and energy subsidiary.

100% renewables powered: “The desalination project will be a benchmark in sustainability because it will be powered by 100% renewable energy,” Terium told Arab News on the sidelines of the Future Desalination International Conference last week. “The first thing would be bringing a large wind and solar field into NEOM, and then we need to add to that,” Terium added.

The project will help get green hydrogen plans off the ground: He also implied that the water processed by the plant will be used to supply Neom’s upcoming green hydrogen production plant — potentially the world’s largest utility-scale green hydrogen project. The facility — a JV between ACWA Power and Air Products — is expected to produce 650 tonnes of green hydrogen each day and 1.2 mn tonnes a year of green ammonia when completed in 2026, ACWA Power notes.

And with it exports: “We are in a position where we can export to any place where green hydrogen is needed and cannot be produced,” Terium told the newspaper.

Cue the giant, man-made lake: Terium did not disclose the planned size of investment or the anticipated output of the desalination plant, but noted that water from the project will be used to create an artificial freshwater lake in Trojena.

MEANWHILE, OVER IN THE UAE…

The issued a tender yesterday for two “low-carbon” desalination plants. The Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC) called yesterday for developers to bid on building two new “low-carbon” reverse osmosis water plants, according to a EWEC statement. The project will involve the development, financing, construction, operation, maintenance, and partial ownership of the two plants — which form part of EWEC’s Abu Dhabi Islands Reverse Osmosis Independent Water Project. EWEC already operates six reverse osmosis desalination plants.

What do we know about the new plants? They’ll be located on the islands of Saadiyat and Hudayriat and will use reverse osmosis to provide some 455k cubic meters of water a day — enough to supply up to 180k households, the statement estimates.

Up to 40% ownership is up for grabs: Whoever executes the project would own up to 40% of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that will then enter into a long-term water purchase agreement with EWEC, the statement notes. The Abu Dhabi government will hold the remaining equity in the project.

SOUND SMART- Is reverse osmosis really low-carbon? It all depends on what kind of energy is powering the tech: Though developments are underway to make reverse osmosis less energy intensive, the process itself generally relies on electricity generated by fossil fuels, notes a recent article written by ACWA Power’s CEO Paddy Padmanathan and shared by the World Economic Forum. Using renewable energy to power this process can significantly reduce the cost and environmental impact of reverse osmosis, he adds. In general, reverse osmosis has “two major environmental drawbacks”: high energy requirements (which lead to greenhouse gas emissions) and the release of brine (which harms marine ecosystems), note several academic studies, including one from September 2022.

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