World Record; Saudi’s SWCC records lowest water desalination energy usage

Saudi SWCC Image
Representational Image
By Rahul Vaimal, Associate Editor
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Saudi Arabia’s government-owned Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) facility set a new world record of using the lowest energy requirement in water desalination. 

The Guinness World Records stated that the facility used just 2.271 kWh of energy to process every cubic meter of water in March 2021.

With its latest feat, SWCC has reiterated its position as a pioneer in promoting environmental sustainability while adopting innovative technologies to lower the use of power and cost of produced water in the desalination industry.

The facility which uses Reverse Osmosis (RO) to desalinate the water, has seawater take systems powered by energy recovery techniques and equipped with high-efficiency pumps energy recovery device (ERD) to reduce the energy consumption during the process.

Eng. Abdullah Ibrahim Al-Abdulkareem Image
Eng. Abdullah Ibrahim Al-Abdulkareem
Governor – SWCC

“We are proud of this milestone achievement featured in Guinness World Records. In line with Vision 2030, the SWCC works to enable local talent in its current and future developmental projects; this initiative covered the full project life cycle utilizing pre-existing competencies and expertise to localize the desalination industry fully.”

SWCC’s heavy investments in its engineering and research expertise have not only resulted in the expansion of design innovation and supply high-efficiency, low-energy, and more flexible desalination plants but also in obtaining operational environmental licenses of the 3rd category and ISO 14001 certificate for the environment.

The facility has significantly reduced gas emissions from its production systems in carbon dioxide by 22% of the total targeted reduction for the Kingdom until 2030.

Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC)

Saline Water Conversion Corporation has a total of 32 desalination plants in 17 locations operated and managed by 10,340 employees with Saudization up to 96 percent and several desalination plants under construction with a total production capacity of up to 3.6 million cubic meters per day.

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