Toray Industries of Japan tells Green prophet that its new technology called ROMEMBRA – a reverse osmosis (RO) tech will be working for Saudi Arabia to create even more desalinated water. Saudi Arabia is looking for desalination technology to help provide drinking water for its growing population.
Remember we wrote about this plan to update Saudi Arabia’s water supply back in 2010. A new company has entered into the desalinated water tech solution for this oil-rich, water-poor nation.
Saudi Arabia has the means, from oil, to produce water energy intensive desalination. Only rich nations can afford this. Environmentalists see this as a last resort solution when all other options to conserve water have been explored.
Japanese reverses osmosis for desalinated water
Japanese technology will be used at Saudi Arabia’s largest desalination plant facilities (Shoaiba 3 Extension 2 and Shoaiba 4 Desalination Plants). This will bring the oil-rich nation a total of 650,000m cubic meters of water per day. A lot of water needed.
Israel leads the world in reverse osmosis desalination tech, but with shaky relations with Saudi Arabia, the eastern neighbor chooses Japanese solution.
The Japanese-made RO membrane will not only help severe water shortages in the Middle East. Yemen, Syria and Jordan are among the worst hit and maybe Japan will work with them too. This move in Saudi Arabia helps cement its new new Saudi Vision to reduce its need for oil, a national initiative which the Japanese government supports.
Desalinated water the only choice for Middle Eastern nations
Gulf countries like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are investing in desal tech to cater to rising populations and a dire situation due to mismanaging resources and climate change. And they are looking to solar and alternative energy solutions to power such technologies.
The RO or reverse osmosis method consumes less energy over conventional evaporation method.
The oil-fire powered desalinated water, desalination plant in Shoaiba Saudi Arabia. Think of all the resources used to create fresh water from the sea.
Shoaiba, Saudi Arabia’s second largest city located around 120 kilometers south of Jeddah, has also decided to implement RO method in its first expansion of Shoaiba 3 desalination complex. They have been producing up to 150,000 cubic meters of water daily after going online in 2009.
Toray has supplied ROMEMBRA in all of its desalination system since, after being highly evaluated for over 10 years of stable operation at Shoaiba 3 expansion plant, contributing to the region by producing 800,000 cubic meters of water a day.
If you are into this market, MIT is always looking for new and more efficient solutions too. Follow MIT to see what’s new with desalination tech.
It is expected that there will be higher demand of water in the Middle East with increase in population and growth of industry in the near future.
ROMEMBRA is used not only at desalination plants, but also for waste water treatment , achieving a production capacity of 68,000,000 cubic meters a day, which is equivalent to the water needs of 480 million people, more than 6% of the world’s population.
Author: Karin Kloosterman
Karin Kloosterman is an award-winning journalist and publisher that founded Green Prophet to unite a prosperous Middle East. She shows through her work that positive, inspiring dialogue creates action that impacts people, business and planet. She has published in thought-leading newspapers and magazines globally, owns an IoT tech chip patent, and is part of teams that build world-changing products to make agriculture and our planet more sustainable. Reach out directly to [email protected]
