Desalination

Seawater desalination is an increasingly important solution to the rising water scarcity afflicting many of the world's regions.

With more than 100 years of desalination experience, Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies is a leader in helping municipalities and industries around the world implement desalination strategies.

We build seawater desalination plants and units using three types of solutions:

Thermal water desalination

Saline content is separated by evaporating seawater in distillation systems. A process known as Multiple Effect Distillation (MED) reuses the energy generated during vapor condensation, reducing the energy consumption required to heat the water.

Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies' subsidiary SIDEM is a recognized leader in MED with more than 250 projects successfully delivered.

Reverse osmosis for water desalination

Reverse osmosis involves pushing water under pressure through a membrane that retains the salt and other impurities.

The Veolia-designed, built and operated SWRO desalination facility in Sydney, Australia, third largest in the world, provides up to 15% of the city's daily water needs.

Hybrid water desalination solutions

Increasingly, thermal desalination and reverse osmosis are being combined, an innovation that allows electricity use to be optimized and reduces production costs.

This solution was implemented at the Fujairah plant in United Arab Emirates.