Pilot to desalinate seawater with solar heat

The largest desalination company in the world, state-owned Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) in Saudi Arabia has placed an order with Absolicon for a pilot solar collector field. The purpose is to evaluate Absolicon’s patented solar concentrator T160 for sea water desalination.

Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) is the largest desalination company in the world, producing 4.6 million cubic meters per day. SWCC is a Saudi Government Corporation responsible for the desalination of seawater in the Kingdom.

Desalination is consuming large amounts of oil and gas in the Kingdom. At the same time, the country has high solar insolation and can use solar thermal to run a substantial part of the desalination processes. However, up to now, large scale solar thermal systems has not been implemented in desalination processes in the region.

The solar thermal field now ordered will be operated by the Desalination Technologies & Research Institute owned by SWCC. The institute will evaluate the effectiveness of the Absolicon T160 Solar collector in desalination processes under the weather conditions in the region, in particular exposure to soiling and sand.

The installation and evaluation of the pilot solar collector field is a cost share project and includes the installation of a 44 m2 solar collector field. The performance of the field will be evaluated over 12 months. Subsequently, the parties are set to introduce the technology widely within SWCC desalination plants in Saudi Arabia.

SCWW desalination plants aim primarily at supplying areas of the region suffering from water scarcity with water through purification and desalination of seawater.