Desalination Plant of the Year
Arrecife containerised SWRO
What is it?
Five identical 2,500m³/d containerised seawater reverse osmosis desalination plants commissioned in 2025 on Lanzarote, Canary Islands, delivering agricultural water in one of Europe’s most water-stressed island environments. Each unit was delivered in less than nine months from award to commissioning.
Who is involved?
The project was delivered by a joint venture of TAGUA and IMESAPI, with key technology contributions from Danfoss (high-pressure pumps and active ERDs), LG Chem (RO membranes), Düchting Pumpen (booster pumps), and Protec (pressure vessel ports).
What makes it special?
- Through a fully integrated design combining Danfoss active isobaric MPE70 ERDs, high-efficiency pumping, and an optimised membrane configuration, the RO system achieved a specific energy consumption of 1.819 kWh/m³, challenging the assumption that energy efficiency is the preserve of mega-scale plants.
- The Arrecife project makes an important argument for decentralised, containerised desalination as a component of a viable resilience strategy. In a world where the vulnerabilities of large, centralised water infrastructure are increasingly apparent, the ability to rapidly deploy, replicate, and remotely operate highly efficient small-scale installations represents a powerful capability that will only become more important with time.
Ashdod rehabilitation
What is it?
A comprehensive rehabilitation of the 274,000m3/d Ashdod seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant in Israel, upgrading an ageing facility with a suite of cutting-edge process, energy, and control innovations.
Who is involved?
The plant is owned and operated by a consortium of BlueGen (formerly GES) and Shapir Engineering and Industry. The key technology suppliers were MAN Energy Solutions (direct-drive gas engines), TPI (CO₂ capture system), Energy Recovery (pressure exchangers), LG Chem (RO membranes), Flowserve (high-pressure pumps), and Entegris (cartridge filters).
What makes it special?
- For the first time in desalination, an existing plant was retrofitted to bypass the conventional fuel-to-electricity-to-mechanical-energy chain entirely, coupling high-pressure pumps directly to MAN gas engines to minimise energy conversion losses at source. The result is a 30% reduction in energy costs and a plant not merely brought back to life, but to the cutting edge of modern SWRO design.
- The rehabilitation repurposes CO₂ emissions from onsite power generation as a cost-free substitute for commercially purchased acid in the remineralisation process, eliminating a recurring procurement cost while simultaneously reducing the plant’s carbon footprint. Combined with a new multi-media filtration system that cut overall chemical costs by 40%, the project demonstrates that circularity in desalination can be as much a financial argument as an environmental one.
Cap Blanc SWRO
What is it?
A 300,000m³/d seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant in Oran Province, Algeria, supplying water to around three million people. Commissioned in February 2025, Cap Blanc is the first of five new-build facilities completed under Algeria’s $2.4 billion national emergency desalination programme.
Who is involved?
The project was delivered by national civil engineering company GCP for the client and owner, Algerian Energy Company, with Hangzhou Water Treatment Technology Development Center (HWTT) acting as the systems integrator. Key equipment suppliers included DuPont (RO membranes), Energy Recovery (ERDs), and Andritz (high-pressure pumps).
What makes it special?
- The first project to be commissioned under Algeria’s emergency desalination build-out, Cap Blanc is compelling proof that the programme is bearing tangible fruit. Delivered within 24 months of breaking ground, the project sets a benchmark for fast-track execution at scale.
- Cap Blanc is a case study in the value of intelligently applied marginal gains. By repurposing the residual pressure in the RO concentrate stream to convey brine to elevated storage, the design team created a gravity-fed backwash system for the flap filters, eliminating dedicated backwash pumps and replacing fresh water backwash with concentrate, delivering a 2% improvement in water recovery. Further process optimisations contributed to a reported whole-plant SEC of 2.9 kWh/m³, reflecting disciplined, out-of-the-box thinking.
Shoaiba 3 IWP (SWRO conversion)
What is it?
A 600,000m³/d seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant in Shoaiba, Saudi Arabia, supplying potable water to over three million people. It replaces a co-located MSF thermal desalination facility with a modern, renewables-integrated RO plant.
Who is involved?
The project was developed by a consortium of Acwa, Badeel/PIF, and Haji Abdullah Alireza & Co., with NOMAC acting as O&M contractor. The EPC work was contracted to Doosan Enerbility, with key technology contributions from Toray (RO membranes), Hyundai and Torishima (main process pumps), ABB (MV variable frequency drives), and LBP KSA (captive solar PV installation).
What makes it special?
- The project is the largest conversion of thermal desalination capacity to reverse osmosis anywhere in the world. The project was delivered ahead of time, allowing the legacy MSF facility to be shut down 50 days earlier than planned, meaningfully accelerating fuel savings and carbon reduction.
- The new plant powerfully showcases the step change in efficiency offered by a switch to membrane technology, delivering water at a tariff 45% lower than its predecessor, and saving over 22 million barrels of crude oil and 9.7 million tonnes of CO₂ annually. The project team also outperformed their contractual specific power consumption target by 4%, achieving 2.93 kWh/m³.
Yulong hybrid MED-RO
What is it?
A 160,000m³/d seawater desalination system supplying process and domestic water for the Yulong integrated refining and petrochemicals complex in Shandong, China.
Who is involved?
The project was delivered and is operated by Shanghai Electric, incorporating its proprietary waste heat-driven F-MED-RO hybrid configuration. The client is Shandong Yulong Petrochemical Co., Ltd.
What makes it special?
- The project represents a fundamental rethink of the relationship between thermal and membrane desalination. Rather than running in parallel and blending outputs as in conventional hybrid plants, the thermal component directly supports the membrane process, utilising the residual heat from the F-MED step to preheat RO feedwater. This maintains stable operation through cold coastal winters, saving significantly on energy costs. It is the first time thermal and membrane desalination systems have been deployed in a directly symbiotic manner.
- The world’s first industrial-scale application of F-MED-RO hybrid desalination, Yulong pioneers Shanghai Electric’s proprietary Flash MED (F-MED) technology, a low-temperature MED variant that introduces an additional flash evaporation step to extract more vapour from the brine stream at each effect, improving thermal efficiency at the lower heat grades typical of industrial waste streams. CO₂ emissions are reduced by approximately 200,000 tonnes per year.