Saudi Arabia-based power plant developer ACWA Power has signed an industrial development agreement with the leading research and technology development firm Water Global Access (WGA) in order to integrate Hydraulic Injection Desalination (HID) technology at scale.
The agreement will involve the implementation of a pilot project that includes HID in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, following research that has demonstrated that the technology has the potential to break the 2.0 kilowatt per hour (kWhr) barrier of energy consumption to produce one cubic meter of water from seawater.
The latest agreement comes six months after both companies signed a collaboration agreement to develop a roadmap for HID across ACWA Power’s projects.
Paddy Padmanathan Vice Chairman & CEO ACWA Power
“With continued industrialization and demographic growth, water consumption across the world continues to rise at a rapid rate requiring urgent solutions. The potential emanating from water production utilizing cost-effective, low carbon-intensive technologies is truly exponential and we are proud to pilot the ground-breaking HID technology, which is going to be a giant step forward in revolutionizing the desalination industry.”
“With its low energy footprint, HID technology has the potential to lower operational costs for our desalination business, which we hope will lead to lower tariffs in the long term. For governments, this means that it is more affordable to produce water. For investors, this could mean higher profits per facility. And for communities, it means that they are getting usable water with the least impact on the environment,” Mr. Padmanathan added.
A demonstration project is expected to be completed by 2023. If the project demonstrates the same outcomes in using less than 2kwhr/m3, then ACWA Power will have the lowest rate of specific energy consumption in producing desalinated water from seawater in the GCC region, as per the statement.
Mr. Eusebi Nomen, Chief Executive Officer of WGA said that, “Technical readiness tests confirm that the capacity of HID to break the 2kWh/m3 seawater desalination threshold, opening a new paradigm in the industry’s efficiency levels. WGA’s industrial development roadmap objective aims to complete advanced technical readiness levels by the end of 2023 and commercialize HID by 2024.”
