Desalination

Seawater: implementing alternative resources

With 40% of the world’s population (2.4 billion people) living within 100 kilometres of the sea, desalination of seawater and brackish water is a promising solution. Currently, this technique produces nearly 1% of the drinking water used in the world.

With the help of significant investments in research and development, SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT has helped to implement membrane filtration by reverse osmosis; a proven desalination technology that makes it possible to retain the salts dissolved in water and eliminate 99.9% of them.

In ten years, production costs have been halved and production capacity has doubled, thanks to the constant optimisation of reverse osmosis processes. This technology is an economically viable answer for industrialised countries and for regions that lack water resources.

Desalination: proposing innovative approaches

As a pioneer in reverse osmosis solutions (first facility in 1972 on the Ile d’Houat, France), Degrémont provides its customers with controlled, commercial-scale and custom-made solutions. Since then, the company has built more than 250 desalination plants worldwide in Perth (Australia), Barka (Oman), etc.

Recently, the company has won major tenders, including:

• the construction of the largest desalination plant in the southern hemisphere in Melbourne (Australia), which will provide 450,000 m³/day of drinking water, or a third of the city’s needs;
• the design, building and installation (by Degrémont and Agbar) of the largest desalination plant in Europe in Barcelona (Spain), which will produce 200 million litres of drinking water per day to supply nearly 600,000 people.

• “Desalination Contract of the Year” for the Victoria Desalination Plant in Melbourne (Australia), which provides power to the installation using only renewable energy

Key figures

• Thanks to Degrémont, a pioneer of seawater desalination by reverse osmosis, 10 million people worldwide consume desalinated water produced by the company’s 250 plants
• The desalination plant in Perth (Australia), built by Degrémont, supplies 250,000 people with drinking water
• The desalination plant of Barcelona (Spain), developed by Degrémont and operated by Agbar, provides drinking water to 20% of the population