Desalination Market Analysis

Desalination plants operate in more than 120 countries in the world, including Saudi Arabia, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Spain, Cyprus, Malta, Gibraltar, Cape Verde, Portugal, Greece, Italy, India, China, Japan, and Australia. The largest Seawater Desalination Plant in the Americas came online in 2015 in Carlsbad, CA producing 50 million gallons per day. Worldwide, desalination plants produce over 3.5 billion gallons of potable water a day. The installed RO desalination plant capacity has increased in an exponential scale over the last 30 years.

Historically the desalination market has been led by brackish water plants the US, and seawater plants in the Gulf states. Saudi Arabia work with>15million m³/Day and USA work with >8 million m³/Day

The US has led the membrane market, while Saudia Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have led the thermal market. In Unite State built many famous brand like Dupont/Dow/Filmtec, Hydranautics/Nitto, Koch etc. Japan and Korea also own Toray/CSM, LG, Tokybo etc.

The gulf states have traditionally favoured thermal desalinationination, powered by access to abundant oil supplies.

More recently, Spain and the UAE have pushed the US into fourth place in the global desalination market.

Growth since 2003 has been driven by established desalination markets of the Gulf (GCC) region as well as new programmes in Algeria, Australia, and Spain. Desalinationination programmes in these countries have now peaked, and future growth is expected to come from countries such as China, South Africa, and Chile.

Since 2003, the demand for large seawater desalination plants has grown significantly. Seawater now accounts for almost two-thirds of all feedwater.

Whos is the Top 20 EPC Desalination plants contractors?

Desalination plants are created by engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors. In terms of contracted capacity 2000-2011, Veolia is the top ranking EPC contractor.

Who is the Top 10 desalination plants in the world?

The recently awarded Rabigh 3 desalination project in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to ACWA Power was branded as one of the world’s largest desalination plants.

To put it into perspective, with a capacity of 600,000 m3/day, that’s 600 million litres of water that will eventually be produced per day. There is no doubting at that size, the Saudi mega-size project will be one of the largest out there and the second largest awarded RO desalination plant.

Yet most desalination professionals will know it’s not the largest and it raises the question of well, with over 20,000 desalination plants contracted around the world, which are the largest?

We set out to put together this top ten list.