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Abengoa inaugurates world’s largest commercial RO desalination plant

| By Mary Bailey

Abengoa SA (Seville, Spain) announced the inauguration of the Rabigh desalination plant, the largest reverse-osmosis (RO) desalination plant in commercial operation in the world, with a capacity of 600,000 m3/day.

The CEO of Abengoa Agua y Energía, Ángel Alday, highlighted that “this iconic project is a clear example of Abengoa’s interest in participating in the achievement of the strategic objectives of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, with an extraordinary development of desalination in the country, and an interest in setting records in reducing water tariffs and minimizing the carbon footprint”.

Recently, the Rabigh plant was recognized as the world’s largest reverse osmosis desalination facility by Guinness World Records, the world’s leading authority on record-breaking. Among other benefits, it has been recognized as the plant with the highest level of operating efficiency and respect for the environment, as well as the lowest electricity consumption and noise levels in the world.

Abengoa has been shortlisted also for the awards organized annually by the prestigious water sector publication, Global Water Intelligences (GWI), in the category of desalination plant of the year for the Rabigh 3 project. 

Rabigh 3, with a capacity of 600,000 m3/day, and located in Saudi Arabia, is the largest reverse osmosis desalination plant in commercial operation in the world. The plant, which is already supplying water to the network at full capacity, ensures the supply of drinking water to more than three million people in the cities of Makkah, Al-Mokarramah, Jeddah and Mastorah.

The contract for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of this project was awarded in 2018 to the consortium formed by Abengoa, SepcoIII (Power China) and Sidem (Veolia), hand ACWA Power. Once the project is completed, the desalinated water is supplied to the state-owned Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC).

This project is a world reference as it features a design that allows it to reduce energy consumption and increase plant availability. Furthermore, it contemplated a local Saudi content of 40 % of supplies and subcontracting during construction, a great achievement reached by the consortium integrated by Abengoa.

Abengoa currently has five plants under construction and a total installed capacity of 2.4 million m3/day, distributed in more than 30 desalination plants in 13 countries, which will be increased to 4.3 million when the portfolio under execution is completed.