Desalination Market Analysis
Where does desalination work?
Desalination plants operate in more than 120 countries in the world, including Saudi Arabia, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Spain, Cyprus, Malta, Gibraltar, Cape Verde, Portugal, Greece, Italy, India, China, Japan, and Australia. The largest Seawater Desalination Plant in the Americas came online in 2015 in Carlsbad, CA producing 50 million gallons per day. Worldwide, desalination plants produce over 3.5 billion gallons of potable water a day. The installed RO desalination plant capacity has increased in an exponential scale over the last 30 years.
Historically the desalination market has been led by brackish water plants the US, and seawater plants in the Gulf states. Saudi Arabia work with >15million m³/Day and USA work with >8 million m³/Day
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The US has led the membrane market, while Saudia Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have led the thermal market. In Unite State built many famous brand like Dupont/Dow/Filmtec, Hydranautics/Nitto, Koch etc. Japan and Korea also own Toray/CSM, LG, Tokybo etc.
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The gulf states have traditionally favoured thermal desalinationination, powered by access to abundant oil supplies.
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More recently, Spain and the UAE have pushed the US into fourth place in the global desalination market.
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Growth since 2003 has been driven by established desalination markets of the Gulf (GCC) region as well as new programmes in Algeria, Australia, and Spain. Desalinationination programmes in these countries have now peaked, and future growth is expected to come from countries such as China, South Africa, and Chile.
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What technologies are used on Desalination?
Today there are two main types of desalination technologies – membrane (RO) and thermal (MED, MVC and MSF) desalination. Reverse Osmosis (RO) desalination uses the principle of osmosis to remove salt and other impurities, by transferring water through a series of semi-permeable membranes. Membrane desalination has grown rapidly since 2003, and despite expectations of decline, thermal desalination also continues to grow.
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Why we need a desalination plant
The growing need of safe, reliable and consistent supply of water had made many manufacturing industries and water treatment plants to look for efficient desalination plants. Desalination is process by which minerals are removed from the water – seawater, brackish water or treated water–to make it pure for various industrial use. Many industries need processed water for manufacturing, water treatment and other activities. The municipal sector uses the largest amount of desalinated water. However, industries such as power generation have the greatest number of desalination facilities.
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Since 2003, the demand for large seawater desalination plants has grown significantly. Seawater now accounts for almost two-thirds of all feedwater.
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Whos is the Top 20 EPC Desalination plants contractors?
Desalination plants are created by engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors. In terms of contracted capacity 2000-2011, Veolia is the top ranking EPC contractor.
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No.1 Veolia (NYSE:VE)
Veolia is a $9.7 billion French company operating in 3 business areas:water, environmental services, energy services and transportation.Water management(not just desalination) represented 45% of the Company's $28 billion revenues in 2013. Veolia has over 1,700 desalination plants located in over 80 countries.
No.2 Suez
General Electric (NYSE:GE) is a $256 billion conglomerate involved in what seems to be a little bit of everything as well as desalination.
Degremont is a French company specializing in the production of drinking water with10,000 facilities around the world. The Company is owned bySuez Environnement Company (EPA:SEV), an $8.8 billion French holding company. 49% of Suez revenues come from water treatment in France and Spain.
In 2013~2014, Suez emerged GE and Degremont, it had been over Doosan to rank No.2
No.3 Doosan Group
Doosan Group is a South Korean conglomerate which is a member of the Fortune Global 500, and is involved in electrical power, construction, machinery, defense , houses, highways and bridges, chemicals, engines… and desalination.
General Electric (NYSE:GE) is a $256 billion conglomerate involved in what seems to be a little bit of everything as well as desalination.
Fisia Italimpianti is an Italian desalination company predominantly working in the Middle East. The Company is owned bySalini Impregilo (BIT:SAL), a $1.9 billion Italian construction company involved in large-scale infrastructure, such as dams, hydroelectric plants, motorways, railways, bridges, etc.
No.4 IDE
IDE is currently working on theCarlsbad Projectin San Diego, the largest desalination plant in the western hemisphere when finished. The Company also worked on theSorek Project, the world's largest and most advanced desalination plant which comprises 20% of the municipal water demand in Israel.IDE is jointly and equally owned by Israel Chemical Ltd. (TASE:ICL), a global minerals and specialty chemicals company; and the Delek Group, one of Israel's largest holding groups.
No.5 Acciona
Acciona (BME:ANA)is a $4.3 billion Spanish conglomerate group dedicated to civil engineering, construction and infrastructure. Water and services make up just 9% of the Company's $6.6 billion in revenues.
No.6 Hyflux
Hyflux is a $728 million Singapore company which built the SingSpring desalination plant that now provides 10% of Singapore's drinking water. When theTuaspring Desalination Plant is completed, 25% of Singapore drinking water will be provided by Hyflux desalination plants. The Company's focus is on advanced membranes used for desalination with 1,300 membrane products and systems worldwide.
Hyflux has undergone bankruptcy and reorganization after 2018
No. 7 Befesa
Befesa is a Spanish company predominantly involved in industrial waste management. In looking through their investor presentation, it seems that desalination is a small part of the Company's overall business focus.
No.8 Sadyt/Valoriza
Sadyt/Valoriza is a Spanish water treatment company specializing in desalination with plants incountries such as Spain, Israel, Australia, Algeria, Chile, and Tunis. The Company is owned bySacyr (BME:SCYR), a $2.7 billion Spanish construction and engineering company.
No.9 Biwater
Biwateris a private UK based company involved in the provision of clean water and the treatment of wastewater. The companyhas the largest installed capacity of membranes in the United States as well as the largest installed capacity of membrane bio-reactors (MBR's) in the UK. Membranes are a key part of areverse-osmosisdesalination system.
No.11 Tedagua
Based out of Spain,Tedaguadesigns, constructs, maintains desalination plants and plants for recycling water from sewerage feedwater. With water treatment contracts in all five continents, the Company considers itself to be a world leader in the water treatment sector. Tedagua is part of the Spanish construction giant, theACS Group. With over $56 billion in revenues in 2013, ACS is the #1 international contractor in the world by revenues, of which desalination is a small part.
No.12 Cadagua
With 40 years experience, Spanish companyCadaguais a leader in the field of water and sewage treatment and seawater desalination.Cadaguais a wholly owned subsidiary ofSpain's Ferrovial SA (BME:FER),a $14.5 billion multinational company engaged in the transportation infrastructure sector.
No.13 Wetico
With Saudi Arabia having more desalination plants than any other country in the world, it's not surprising to see a Saudi-based company in the list. Privately heldWeticois a 100 employee company which builds and runs water, desalination, sewage and wastewater treatment plants. Weticowas awarded the contract to build Shoaiba Barge, the largest offshore desalination plant in the world designed to ease the water shortage in the Western Province of Saudi Arabia.
No.14 Nomura Micro Science
Nomura Micro Scienceis a $32 million micro-cap company that trades on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TYO:6254) and is involved in water treatment and chemicals. The Company has a proprietary reverse osmosis systemcalled HEROwhich they claim hasovercome all disadvantages of a conventional reverse osmosis system.No breakdown of revenues is provided in the financials, so it is difficult to know what percentage is coming from desalination. The company history on the website listing accomplishments over the past 44 years mentions nothing about desalination.
No.15 Inima
GS Inimais a worldwide leader in the water treatment sector with more than200 water treatment installations. Inima is is part of theGS E&C group which has holding companies in the areas of engineering, construction andenvironmental services.Inima claims to have developed the first desalination plant in the world. Today, they have 30 desalination plants in Spain, Algeria, Chile, Mexico, and the U.S.
No.16 aqualia
According to Global Water Intelligence,aqualiais the currently the third-largest water management company in the world. Aqualia is owned by FCC (BME:FCC), a $2.5 billion publicly traded Spanish company with 63,000 employees which is involved in infrastructure, environmental services, and energy. Just 15% of FCC's total revenues are from water management, 80% of which are from Spain. Spain is the country with the 4th largest number of desalination plants in the world.
No.17 Mitsubishi
Mitsubishi Heavy Industriesis a $20.5 billion diversified manufacturer which is publicly traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TYO:7011). The Company is primarily involved in marine vessels, power engines, general machinery, aviation, and special vehicles. With over 80,000 employees and over 390 group companies,Mitsubishi's desalination businessmakes up a small part of the Company's overall business activities.
No.18 Aquatech
Founded in 1981, Pittsburgh-basedAquatechis a private company with more than 600 employees and offices around the globe.Aquatech claims to be one of the few companies in the world offering both membrane-based and thermal waterdesalination technologies. The Company has a broad offering of water treatment solutions targeting various industries.
No.19 Kurita Water Industries
Kuritais a $2.5 billion water treatment company that is publicly traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TYO:6370). The company's business is split about equally between water treatment chemicals and water treatment facilities. Inthis 4-page documentdescribing the company's products and services, not one mention is made of desalination leading us to believe that this occupies a small portion of the company's business.
Who is the Top 10 desalination plants in the world?
The recently awarded Rabigh 3 desalination project in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to ACWA Power was branded as one of the world’s largest desalination plants.
To put it into perspective, with a capacity of 600,000 m3/day, that’s 600 million litres of water that will eventually be produced per day. There is no doubting at that size, the Saudi mega-size project will be one of the largest out there and the second largest awarded RO desalination plant.
Yet most desalination professionals will know it’s not the largest and it raises the question of well, with over 20,000 desalination plants contracted around the world, which are the largest?
We set out to put together this top ten list.
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