Partnership Between Masdar And Veolia On The Renewable Energy Water Desalination Program

Masdar, also known as the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, has selected Veolia, through its desalination specialist SIDEM, as an industry partner to collaborate on the ambitious Renewable Energy Water Desalination Program launched early 2013. Signature of this agreement has taken place this day.

The Renewable Energy Water Desalination Program is a pilot program to test and develop advanced energy efficient seawater desalination technologies suitable to be powered by renewable energy sources. The long-term goal of the program is to implement renewable energy-powered desalination plants in the United Arab Emirates.

As technology partners, Veolia and MASDAR will share the costs to build and operate a pilot plant - the first step of this partnership - that will have the same characteristics as future large scale innovative and low energy consumption desalination plants.

The 15-month operation period will be split into a performance proving period and an optimization period during which higher performances shall be reached for the benefit of future large scale plant improvement. The water produced by the pilot shall be distributed via Abu Dhabi's drinking water network.

Built in Ghantoot area, this pilot will be capable of handling very harsh sea water conditions (salinity up to 52 g/l, temperature up to 42°C and harmful algal blooms) using technologies developed by Veolia, such as high performance sea water pretreatment combining air floatation and filtration and a new osmosis membranes feed configuration allowing high treatment fluxes. Pairing state-of-the-art energy efficient desalination technologies with renewable energy should allow power recovery up to 98%.

This partnership shall also extend to future large desalination projects in the Gulf countries.

Xavier Joseph, CEO, Veolia Gulf Countries said “as the global leader in desalination, Veolia is proud to have been chosen by MASDAR as Industry Partner for the Renewable Energy Water Desalination Program. Through co-innovation, and by working closely with MASDAR, we aim to develop the next generation of sustainable desalination technologies.”

About Veolia
Veolia is the global leader in optimized resource management. With over 200,000 employees* worldwide, the company designs and provides water, waste and energy management solutions that contribute to the sustainable development of communities and industries. Through its three complementary business activities, Veolia helps to develop access to resources, preserve available resources, and to replenish them.

In 2013, Veolia supplied 94 million people with drinking water and 62 million people with wastewater service, produced 86 million megawatt hours of energy and converted 38 million metric tons of waste into new materials and energy. Veolia recorded revenue of €22.3B* in 2013. For more information, visit www.veolia.com.