Water Desalination in Saudi Arabia

Introduction
Water desalination is the series of processes that are applied to remove excess salt and
minerals from water. This process is therefore used to convert salty water to fresh water for
human consumption especially in regions with depleting sources of fresh water, deserts,
shoreline locales and islands. The reason why water desalination is not as widespread as would
be expected is due to the fact that construction of a desalination plant requires dedicated
infrastructure that is expensive to obtain as well as the fact that desalination plants generally
consume a high amount of energy. Consequently, desalination plants are built in accordance to
the increasing need for fresh water negatively correlating to decreasing sources for the resource
and not as a form of environmental conservation. Water desalination was initially used on ships
and submarines to provide the crew with fresh water but the process has been increasingly
deployed in arid and semi-arid areas particularly in regions along the shoreline. Currently the
Jebel Ali Desalination Plant located in the United Arab Emirates is the worlds largest
desalination plant with the capacity of producing approximately two hundred and eighty million
cubic meters of water annually (Fischetti, 2007). Saudi Arabia has the highest number of water
desalination plants, making it the world's largest producer of desalinated water.
Saudi Arabia has 27 desalination plants, and more are under construction with the current
plants providing fresh tap water to most metropolitan, agricultural and industrial centers through
a system of underground pipes that cover a distance of about three thousand miles. The main
desalination processes are vacuum distillation, which is the boiling of saline water at low
atmospheric pressure and harnessing the vapor, multi-stage flash distillation (MSF), which is the
passing of saline water steam through a series of pipes with varying temperatures in order to
crystallize the dissolved salts, and reverse osmosis (RO) which entails the passing of sea water

Water Desalination in Saudi Arabia

under pressure through a series of semi-permeable membranes in order to separate dissolved

salts from the water.
Importance of Desalination
Water desalination is increasingly becoming a primary requisite for arid and semi-arid
regions such as Saudi Arabia for a myriad of reasons. Most importantly is the fact that the
country lacks adequate fresh water sources to replenish a fast growing population which rose
from 21.3 million in 1999 to 29.02 million in 2010, and a progressing metropolitan and industrial
region with emerging cities (Bushnak, 2001). Such significant changes in the demographics of
not only Saudi Arabia but the entire Middle East has elevated the demand threshold for fresh
water signified by an exponentially rising annual trend. In addition, developments in technology
have facilitated the integration of agricultural practices in most UAE nations with the aim of
providing food security (Fischetti, 2007). Fresh water is required for the irrigation of large scale
farms, an actuality that further stained the existing fresh water grid thus further augmenting the
demand for fresh water. Desalination in Saudi Arabia is therefore an essential and indeed
achievable venture considering the kingdom is bordered by the Red Sea to the west and the
Persian Gulf to the east (Abderrahman, 2006). Saudi Arabia receives hundreds of thousands of
pilgrims who visit Mecca for the Islamic Hajj festival. Such a high influx in population does
exert an enormous pressure to the inadequate fresh water resources in Saudi Arabia such as the
Zamzam springs thus pointing out a growing need for alternative sources of the basic necessity
(Bushnak, 2001).
At present desalination provides about 70% of Saudi Arabias drinking water which is an
indication of the significance of the process to the country. Saudi Arabia has also been able to

Water Desalination in Saudi Arabia

make improvements on desolation plants to maximize on the kinetic and potential energies
developed within the process. The desalination plants are therefore used to generate electricity
which is in effect used to cyclically fuel the high energy demand created by the plants while the
remainder is contributed to the national electric grid. Apart from electricity, desalination plants
also produce salt as a by-product and most plants have the capacity to refine the sea salt into
table salt (Abderrahman, 2006). Some industries especially companies in the foods and beverage
industry have also been able to acquire adequate supplies of fresh water. Previously,
establishment of such industries was restricted by the government due to the limited fresh water
resources and existing companies were compelled to enforce water recycling procedures that
were costly and also had a negative effect on the image of a company and its products (Fischetti,
2007). Desalination has however facilitated the expansion of the foods and beverage sector
through the establishment of additional companies as well as reduced supplementary expenses in
recycling, with policies focusing more on conservation. Consequently such companies reduce
importation costs for the government and also contribute to the gross domestic product (GDP) of
Saudi Arabia.
The Cost of Desalination
The existing desalination plants were constructed at a net cost of approximately US$10
billion while the desalination process costs approximately US$ 0.70 per cubic meter of water.
Water is transported under pressurized pipes to all major regions in the country and the cost of
transportation per cubic meter is approximately US$ 1 which makes the total cost of one cubic
meter delivered to a household nearly US$ 2 (Bushnak, 2001). The Saline Water Conversion
Corporation (SWCC) is a proxy of the Saudi Arabian government that is solely responsible for
administrating over all desalination plants and projects of a similar nature. The SWCC makes an

Water Desalination in Saudi Arabia

average annual investment $2.69 billion to cover all ongoing desalination developments but with
reference to the current consumption estimates of 200 liters per person per day, the body
anticipates a reduction of the annual investment to $1.7 billion (Bushnak, 2001). The SWCC
oversees all 27 desalination plants four of which are situated on the Arabian Gulf and the
remaining 23 being located on the Red Sea. The four plants located on the Arabian Gulf plants
produce about 54% of the desalinated water while the plants on the Red Sea account for 46% of
the water (Abderrahman, 2006).
Water Desalination Patenting In Saudi Arabia
King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology is responsible for granting exclusive
protection documents and rights for all new inventions that are kernelled in Saudi Arabia. New
inventions are regarded as ideas or solutions that have not been publicly disclosed, major
changes to an existing product or ideas with the capacity to be applied in the industry sector.
King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology is therefore essentially responsible for
safeguarding an inventor's intellectual property from commercial or social exploitation
(Bushnak, 2001). The institution allows inventors to develop their idea with the confidence that a
similar idea will not be legitimized without the consent of the initial inventor for a period of at
least twenty years. An annual fee is paid by the inventor to affirm the patent, failure upon which
an individual is required to pay double after three months while a lack of compliance for the
subsequent three months leads to invalidation of the patent.
The Directorate of Patents at the King Abdul-Aziz City of Science and Technology has
patented numerous ideas pertaining to water desalination. Most notable is the patent issued to
IBM for a solar powered desalination plant intended for the IBM/KAST Saudi Arabia plant

Water Desalination in Saudi Arabia

which will use a solar concentrator system to harness solar energy for a plant that will have a
daily remittance of30, 000 cubic meters of fresh water.IBM also patented a proprietary cooling
technology that uses a liquid metal interface that facilitates exceptional cooling rates and hence
more intense energy utilization (Westervelt, 2010). The company developed this concept after
extensive research in chip manufacturing and mainframe computer cooling and the technology is
intended to reduce system failure and minimize maintenance costs (Westervelt, 2010). King
Abdul-Aziz City of Science and Technology also patented Shoaiba Desalination Plants design
for the vertical mixed-flow brine re-circulation pump which was devised to preemptively
separate the saline solution before it was passed through other processes thus minimizing the
time taken to desalinate one cubic meter by 50 % (Bushnak, 2001). A recent patent issued to the
Jebel Ali Desalination Plant (Phase 2) was for the use of a multilayered reverse osmosis semipermeable membrane that incorporated activated charcoal to effectively reduce the number of
solvents that passed through each membrane. The membrane is estimated to reduce the volume
of solvents by 80% at the penultimate stage thus effectively underscoring the surface area of the
membrane as the major determinant of the time taken to desalinate a given volume of saline
water (Abderrahman, 2006).
Conclusion
Water desalination is currently a fundamental pillar of Saudi Arabias economy as well as
an important source of fresh water for the countrys citizens. With 70% of the population relying
of desalinated water, the Saudi government perceives the process as a long term investment
rather than a transient solution. This is because Saudi Arabia is located in the arid region in the
Middle East meaning fresh water is a rare commodity and only a few wells can actually tap into
underground streams. Existing fresh water sources are being depleted by an increasing

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population, expanding cities and industrialization and so it was only prudent for the government
to invest in desalinating sea water which makes up a significant portion of the nations borders.
Desalination is however expensive and the country requires and annual budget of approximately
US$ 2 billion in order to construct new plants and maintain existing ones. Desalination also
requires a significant amount of energy but that challenge has been overcome by incorporating
solar concentrators and harnessing electricity from the plants. King Abdulaziz City for science
and Technology patents any new innovations in the desalination field and as the need for
environmental and energy conservation rises, newer energy efficient desalination processes are
likely to be patented.

References
Abderrahman, W., (2006). Water demand management in Saudi Arabia. Retrieved from:
http://www.idrc.ca/cp/ev-93954-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

Water Desalination in Saudi Arabia

Bushnak, A. (2001). Investment Needs and Privatization of Water Services in Saudi Arabia.
Water Resources Development, 17(2), 257-260. Retrieved from:
http://ipac.kacst.edu.sa/eDoc/eBook/3031.pdf
Fischetti, M., (2007). Fresh from the Sea. Scientific American, 297(3), 118119.
Westervelt, A. (2010). IBM Launches Solar-Powered Desalination in Saudi Arabia. Retrieved
from: http://solveclimatenews.com/news/20100407/ibm-launches-solar-powereddesalination-saudi-arabia