SWCC’s Saudi Arabia hybrid desalination plant begins operations

Saline Water Conversion (SWCC)’s SAR27bn ($7.2bn) Ras Al-Khair hybrid desalination plant on the Persian Gulf has commenced production of water.

As well as reverse osmosis (RO), the plant uses a hybrid system comprised of multistage flashing (MSF) technology, which involves heating seawater to produce steam.

The plant will comprise of eight MSF units and 17 RO units with the capacity to produce 160 million gallons a day and 68 million gallons a day respectively. Once fully operational, it will be the world’s largest desalination plant, with the capacity to produce 1.025 billion cubic metres of desalinated water daily.

The plant was connected to the country’s power grid in February and is operating at 380kV capacity at present. It will initially pump 900,000m³ of water to the Saudi capital Riyadh, and 100,000m³ to the Hafr Al-Batin region.

Construction on the plant commenced in early 2011. It is expected to generate 15,000 jobs in total.

In 2013, SWCC announced its plans to build a major desalination plant in Rabigh on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast. With a capacity to make 600,000m³ of potable water a day, the project is expected to be completed in four years.

The Saudi government is in the process of expanding water works in the country. It has allocated SAR16.6bn ($4.4bn) in 2014 alone for desalination projects.