#desalination technology

The Middle East Desalination Plants Market is expanding steadily as the region faces increasing water demand driven by urbanization, industrial growth, and climate variability. Desalination has emerged as a reliable solution to ensure consistent water supply in arid environments.

Market assessments indicate that the Middle East desalination plants market reached a valuation of USD 8,272 million in 2023 and is projected to grow to USD 15,541 million by 2030, registering a CAGR of 10.0%. This growth reflects rising investments in large-scale seawater and brackish water desalination projects.

The Desalination Plants Market is increasingly adopting reverse osmosis technology due to its energy efficiency and scalability. Governments are prioritizing next-generation desalination systems to reduce environmental impact and align with national sustainability targets.

In countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, desalinated water accounts for a major share of potable water supply. Expanding tourism, smart city developments, and industrial zones are further boosting demand for reliable desalination infrastructure.

Despite strong growth prospects, challenges such as energy dependency, high operational costs, and environmental regulations continue to influence project timelines. Market players are actively investing in renewable energy integration and waste management solutions to overcome these barriers.

Future development strategies emphasize efficiency optimization and sustainable operations, shaping desalination market trends in the Middle East and strengthening the region’s overall water security framework.

Meta Description: Middle East Desalination Plants Market expands as rising water demand and infrastructure investment support long-term regional growth.

https://www.unisa.edu.au/media-centre/Releases/2024/billions-of-people-to-benefit-from-technology-breakthrough-that-ensures-freshwater-for-the-world/ The news below is grand news for the planet and the people everywhere.  Water is going to be a desperately needed highly valuable necessity.  Also I have another doctor’s appointment this morning.  Hugs —————————————————————————————————— 04…

Water stress in different regions of India has made people to accept Seawater Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) desalinated water as an alternate solution to alleviate drought. However, the following myths and misconceptions still exists among a few. Clarifications are provided to overcome the myths and misconceptions.

Myth 01: Desalinated water from Municipal Desalination Plants do not have enough minerals and use of desalinated water depletes minerals from the body

SWRO plant’s design is flexible with modular and multistage arrangement to produce water of any required specification. Potable water produced is of high quality, reliable and free from bacteria and virus. The potable water from SWRO plants are designed to meet ISO 10500 standard or World Health Organisation (WHO) specification or they can be design to produce high purity Process water for Industries with Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) < 10 mg/l. Typical analysis of selected potable water parameters from a desalination plant are given below:

Hence, it is not true that potable water produced by the municipal SWRO plants do not have minerals.

Myth 02: Desalination plants kill fish and other marine life in that region

In designing desalination plants, protection of marine life is given priority. The Intake is designed providing large flow area so that water enters the Intake velocity head at very low velocity so that fish, fish eggs and other marine lives are not drawn inside. Intake velocity head is located deep inside sea. Hence, protection of marine life from being drawn along with seawater is ensured. Typical Intake velocity head arrangement is illustrated in figure 1 and 2.

Figure 1 : Intake velocity head (Bar Screen Type)

Figure 2 : wedge wire type Intake screen

Desalination Plant ensures that only salt water is discharged without any impurities or chemicals. The chemical cleaning solutions are neutralized before being discharged to the sea. Many plants remove sludge from the backwash waters before it is discharged in to the sea. The outfall discharge is located away from shore deep inside sea with the multiple nozzle diffuser design to recirculate the seawater and dilute the brine salinity closer to the seawater salinity at a radius of 50 meters, so that the fish and marine lives are not affected. The environmental protection agencies monitor the seawater quality close to the outfall.

Myth 03: Desalination Plants increase salinity of well water close to the shore

The recovery (percentage of low salinity water recovered from seawater) is in the range of 40 to 45%. The salt rejected from the 45% low salinity water separated in the RO plant is returned to the sea as brine along with 55% seawater. However, the brine gets diluted in salinity and it reaches close to the seawater salinity at a radius of 50 meters from the discharge point. Hence the salinity of the seawater near shore remains unaltered.

Myth 04: Desalinated water cost is very high and not affordable

The cost of water produced by desalination has come down considerably in the last 30 years due to developments in membranes with higher productivity, innovation in energy recovery devices, economy of high capacity units, more efficient higher capacity pumps etc. The O&M cost in Nemmeli 100 MLD desalination plant owned by CMWSSB and being Operated and Maintained by VA Tech WABAG is Rs 39/m3. New desalination technologies are bound to reduce the cost of desalinated water further. Electric power cost which forms >75% of the O&M cost of a SWRO plant in India can be brought down further by using green energy, much lesser in cost compared to power from thermal power plant.

Myth 05: Desalination consumes more energy

Dwindling availability of freshwater supplies, increased salinity of ground water, and development of innovative energy efficient desalination technologies are poised to drive the global market for Desalination Technologies to exceed US$36.8 billion by 2024.

Desalination can be defined as the process of converting saline unusable water into fresh usable one, through extraction and removal of dissolved salts from available water sources in order to make it viable for human use. Commercial interest in water desalination is supported by growing awareness about the need to address impending usable water crisis; increasing focus on making well informed water management decisions regarding conservation, use, allocation; and growing interest in developing technologies which provide fresh water to humans in regions where fresh water availability is dwindling.

Brackish groundwater desalination is growing in popularity among inland communities largely as a result of the substantially lower cost of treating groundwater, which is less salty and thus requires lower energy and less complex desalination facilities. Increased salinity of ground water and surface as a result of over exploitation and over-pumping of water is driving demand for desalination technologies.  Traditionally sea water desalination has been essentially dependent upon thermal processes such as multi-stage flash (MSF) and multi-effect distillation (MED) for desalinating water. However, with most of the world, vying for limited energy resources coupled with persistent escalation in energy costs, alternative membrane based desalination technologies like Reverse Osmosis (RO) has been increasingly gaining attention. Driven by growing environmental concerns over excess use of fossil fuels, and constant escalation in crude oil prices, renewable energy based desalination including solar desalination, hybrid desalination is gaining in popularity.  

Ongoing innovations in desalination technology are aimed at reducing specific energy consumption, desalination more sustainable and affordable. As energy consumption accounts for about half of the total cost of seawater desalination, improving energy efficiency is an important area of research. Advancements in RO technology are aimed at reducing energy consumption and maximizing flux, and minimizing scaling and fouling. Some of the advanced technologies include new methods of pre-treatment, thin-film nanocomposite membranes, captive deionisation, and forward osmosis. In the brackish water desalination space, focus is presently on minimizing brine and increasing recovery of freshwater, mainly due to the environmental issues and high cost incurred in brine disposal.  

As stated by the new market research report on Desalination Technologies, the Middle-East represents the largest market worldwide.  The region provides an attractive opportunity for water desalination owing to the short supply of water as a resource. Several large-scale investments are underway along Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast, and other markets including Oman, Abu Dhabi, UAE, and Kuwait to meet the rising demand for consumable water.  Asia-Pacific represents another high growth market over the analysis period led by growing severity of water shortage in the region amid an expanding population and increasing urbanization and industrialization trend.

Major players in the market include Abengoa SA, ACCIONA SA, Aqualyng AS, Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co. Ltd., Dow Water & Process Solutions, Danfoss A/S, Evoqua Water Technologies LLC., FISIA ITALIMPIANTI S.p.A, Hyflux Limited, H2O Innovation, IDE Technologies Ltd., John Holland, Koch Membrane Systems Inc., Suez Environment, Tianjin MOTIMO Membrane Technology Co. Ltd., Toray Industries Inc., Toyobo Co. Ltd., Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies SA among others.

The research report titled “Desalination Technologies - Market Analysis, Trends, and Forecasts”, announced by Global Industry Analysts, Inc., provides a comprehensive review of market trends, issues, drivers,  mergers, acquisitions and other strategic industry activities. The report provides market estimates and projections in US dollars for all major geographic markets including the United States, Canada, Japan, Europe (France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, Spain, Russia and Rest of Europe) , Asia-Pacific (Australia, China, India and Rest of Asia-Pacific), Middle-East, Latin-America (Brazil, Mexico and Rest of Latin-America). Key technology segments analyzed in the report include Multi-Stage Flash (MSF), Multi-Effect Distillation (MED), Reverse Osmosis (RO) and Others.

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