NEOM signed a memorandum of understanding with the Japanese trading company Itochu and the French energy company Veolia to build a desalination facility powered completely from renewable energy. NEOM plans for the facility to produce 500,000 cubic meters a day of water by early 2024. The new plant will meet the water needs of NEOM with a production capacity of 500,000m3 of desalinated water per day by project completion in 2025, approximately 30% of NEOM’s forecasted total water demand. In line with NEOM’s environmental goals, it will use advanced and innovative membrane separation technologies to produce water, as well as concentrated brine streams. This enables the brine to be classified as a product, rather than waste, therefore minimizing the plant’s environmental impact and redefining the entire business model for desalination facilities of the future. Brine generated from the desalination plant will be treated by ENOWA to feed industries utilizing High Purity Industrial Salt, Bromine, Boron, Potassium, Gypsum, Magnesium and Rare Metal feedstocks.
MoU supports ENOWA’s ambition to develop advanced green desalination systems and create future water solutions to tackle global water scarcity. ENOWA’s water team is changing the future of water supply through pioneering desalination systems and technologies. ENOWA aims to provide a blueprint for green, sustainable water production, management, and treatment, which can be scaled throughout the world. The technology developed as part of this MoU and used in NEOM to provide water could be exported to other countries to tackle global water scarcity. Launched in March 2022, ENOWA is committed to transforming nature’s abundance through design and technology by taking advantage of NEOM’s clean slate approach and establishing energy, water and hydrogen production and regulation using circular systems and sustainable economic framework, realizing substantial return on investment with zero footprint.