Saudi Arabia's Watertight Solution

By Simon West

The Saudi government’s approval this year of more than 60 commercial-scale water projects worth about US$9.3 billion has strengthened the nation’s status as the world’s largest water desalination market.

Once completed, these projects are expected to add an additional 5 million cubic meters per day of desalination capacity, according to state-run utility Saudi Water Partnership Co., or SWPC.

More than US$5.5 billion worth of projects are being built, the SWPC said, a construction drive that is providing breakbulk and project cargo with a raft of cargo-carrying opportunities.

“There is a lot of development happening in desalination,” said Eyad Hamza Arafah, heavy transportation and project logistics director at Almajdouie Logistics, a Saudi-based company that transported cargo for Ras Al Khair, one of the world’s largest desalination plants with a capacity of more than 1 million cubic meters per day.

“It is the main source of our water – the country is using it domestically and for industrial and agriculture needs.”

Saudi Arabia consumes more than 8 million cubic meters per day of water, one of the highest rates in the world, according to the U.S.-Saudi Business Council. Consumption is forecast to reach 12.3 million cubic meters per day by 2040.

But arid landscape, low rainfall and a lack of lakes and rivers, along with aggressive industrialization and rapid population growth, are putting huge pressure on the country’s ability to quench its thirst.

About 7.6 million cubic meters are produced daily, accounting for 22 percent of global output. In 2019, 60 percent was produced from desalination, with the remainder sourced from non-renewable groundwater, reclaimed wastewater and surface water supplies.


Water Production Goals

The government is aiming to double water production capacity to about 16 million cubic meters per day, as part of its Vision 2030 strategy to reduce dependence on oil and gas and invest in more sustainable forms of energy.

The Saline Water Conversion Corp., or SWCC, a Saudi state-owned company that produces about 70 percent of the country’s desalinated water, is investing billions of dollars in world-scale water and wastewater systems.

More recently, the government has adopted public-private-partnership, or PPP models, as a procurement strategy, as the country seeks international investment and know-how to support its diversification plans.

“The Kingdom is driven to attract and house homegrown and international industrial development with a focus on high-tech industries – semiconductors, electric cars, renewable energy related industries – all of which require water,” said Nikolay Voutchkov, president of the U.S.-based Water Globe Consultants, and advisor to the SWCC.

“In order to fulfil this vision, Saudi Arabia has to double its water availability.”

According to Voutchkov, costs to produce water are falling, with developers able to recoup their investments by selling high-quality minerals extracted from brine, the concentrated saltwater produced as a by-product of desalination.

“The cost of desalinated water based on the last several large project bids is less than 50 cents per cubic meter – the cost of direct or indirect potable water reuse in California is two times this cost,” the advisor said. “Energy to produce desalinated water is comparable to producing drinking water by direct potable reuse.”

More efficient methods to purify seawater are proving profitable.

Most existing plants in Saudi Arabia use multistage flash, or MSF, distillation, a technique whereby seawater is heated to make steam and then condensed to produce desalinated water; or the multi-effect distillation, or MED, process that uses steam and evaporators to process seawater.

MSF and MED are typically integrated with combined-cycle power systems.

More modern facilities rely on reverse osmosis, or RO, whereby high pressure is applied to pre-treated seawater, forcing it through semi-permeable membranes to produce drinking water. Some plants, such as Ras Al Khair, are hybrid, employing MSF and RO technologies.

According to Frederic Claux, managing director of thermal and supply for French power company Engie’s Asia, Middle East and Africa region, all current desalination tenders in the Middle East are based on RO technology.

“Reverse osmosis is gaining ground very fast. This is a more recent technology which is proving more efficient – especially regarding energy consumption – and can produce desalinated water at a cheaper tariff,” Claux said. “I certainly see RO becoming the dominant technology.”

According to Arafah, RO-based plants are more compact than those that use MSF or MED technologies and combined-cycle power systems, although they still call for significant logistics support to shift heavy components such as substations, storage tanks and pipelines.

In a bid to reduce pressure on the grid, newer projects are turning to renewable energy – especially solar – to supply their power needs. Demand for transformers, solar panels, trackers, steel structures and other heavy-lift components means more business for breakbulk.


Project Ramp Up

More world-scale projects are slated for start-up in the coming years.

The Yanbu 4 independent water project, or IWP, located close to the port city of Yanbu on the Red Sea coast, will be the country’s first renewably integrated, seawater RO facility. The 450,000 cubic meter plant will include 20 megawatts of solar PV capacity.

Yanbu 4 will be operated and maintained as a PPP project by Engie. Luis Pascual, Yanbu 4’s CEO, told Breakbulk the plant was on track for start-up in November 2023.

“Currently we are working with civil works for different buildings and the erection of the product water tanks,” Pascual said.

“Major equipment is expected to start installation from July and August, while erection of the towers for the transmission line is expected to start in June. With regards to the substation, civil works for buildings will finish in July, and from August onwards we will start with the installation of all the major electrical equipment.”

Engie is also developing the Jubail 3B project on Saudi’s eastern Middle East Gulf coast, with ground-breaking slated to begin at the end of May.

The plant will also use RO technology to produce 570,000 cubic meters per day of water destined for the regions of Riyadh and Qassim, and will be powered by a 61-megawatt solar facility – the largest in-house solar capacity for a Saudi water project.

Construction work on the solar facility will begin in November, with the complex’s commercial operations starting in early 2024.

“With rapid demographic and economic growth taking place across the kingdom, the Jubail 3B IWP plant will be essential in providing a secure and sustainable source of water to local populations,” Engie said.

According to the SWPC, six water and wastewater projects are being built, with a further 16 under procurement, including the Rabigh 4 IWP, also on the Red Sea coast.

The SWPC late last year said eight bidders had been pre-qualified to take part in a tender for the 600,000 cubic-meters-per-day plant, including Saudi renewable energy utility ACWA Power, Spain’s Acciona Agua and France’s Veolia.


Ready for Project Support

Commercial operations at the RO-based facility are expected to begin in 2025. Companies such as Almajdouie Logistics are ready to support the build-out.

In 2014, the operator deployed 200 axle lines of self-propelled modular trailers to carry an evaporator weighing 5,737 tonnes – the world’s heaviest at the time – for the Yanbu 3 power and desalination project.

The company told Breakbulk it is preparing a bid to support the construction of a solar-powered water and wastewater system at Neom, a US$500 billion “smart city” on the Red Sea coast that will also house port facilities, sports stadiums, green hydrogen plants and a 170-kilometer metro line dubbed The Line.

The government signed a deal two years ago with UK-based Solar Water Ltd. to construct the Neom plant using “solar dome” technology, which uses solar radiation to heat and evaporate seawater to produce potable water. Investment in desalination is also a priority for other countries in the region, with governments facing similar challenges to ensure water security.

In early May, the UAE’s energy ministry revealed that spending on new projects in the emirates of Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Umm Al Qaiwain totaled some US$2.1 billion, with the sector growing at 3 percent every year.

The country boasts what is being billed as the world’s largest pure RO-based plant – the 909,000 cubic-meters-per-day Taweelah facility in Abu Dhabi. Full commercial operations are slated to begin by the end of 2022.

The UAE is the world’s second-largest desalination market, with some 70 commercial-scale plants generating about 14 percent of total worldwide output.

“Desalination (in the region) has great potential,” said Peter K Matthew, managing director at Dubai-based Fleet Line Shipping. “We already have many units, but with the growing population and the modern technology, these existing ones will also need upgrading or replacing.”

Colombia-based Simon West is senior reporter for Breakbulk.

Photo: Saudi state-owned Saline Water Conversion Corp. is investing billions of dollars in world-scale water and wastewater systems. Credit: SWCC