Saudi Arabia aims to slash the carbon cost of desal

Saudi state desalination body the Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) says it is on course to wipe 34 million tonnes a year from its carbon footprint – 57% of the 2019 total – by 2024 as it slashes its use of oil and gas for desalting.

SWCC, which generates around 5.9 million m3/d of potable water for the Kingdom, is in the process of replacing its thermal-driven desalination facilities with newer plants based on electrically powered reverse osmosis. Through this, it plans to completely eliminate its reliance on the 10.8 million tonnes of oil a year currently burned to produce desalinated water at its plants, and reduce by 43% the 715Mbtu of natural gas consumed for the same purpose.

At the same time, it estimates the reduction in energy costs could save it some SAR8.8 billion ($2.3 billion) a year in operating expenditure.