Saudi Arabia is one of the richest countries in the world that relies on oil as the pillar of its economy. Unfortunately, the country of King Salman does not have sufficient water sources because most of its territory is a desert.
In fact, Saudi Arabia is on the list of countries with the highest level of water consumption. So, how does Saudi Arabia provide clean water to support its people?
Launching the US-Saudi Business Council page, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia began developing Independent Water and Power Projects (IWPPs) since 2002. Also read: Revenge, Iran Releases Animated Video of Drone Attacks at Trump Residence Desalination is the right way for the Saudi government.
The explanation given in the Journal of Nuclear Energy Development entitled General Description of Desalination Technology, desalination is a process of separating salt levels in seawater and producing clean water.
Although there are many ways to desalinate, the goal remains the same, namely to produce clean water from sea water and brackish water.
This desalination technology has been used in nearly 100 countries. Meanwhile, there are 10 countries that have desalination capacity and almost half of them are in the Middle East (including Saudi) and Africa.
Quoting Arab News, 50% of drinking water in Saudi comes from desalination, 40% from groundwater drilling, and another 10% comes from mountain water that only exists in the southwestern part of Saudi Arabia. The largest desalination company in Saudi is Al Jubail.
The company is located in Jubail, Saudi Arabia with a water capacity of 600 thousand cubic meters per day. As the largest desalination company, Al Jubail has an investment value of USD 650 million. The desalination process carried out at the company is RO or reverse osmosis.
In the RO desalination process, seawater will be pressurized so that clean or fresh water passes through a separating wall or membrane. There are several components contained in the RO system, namely pre treatment, high pressure pump, membrane assembly and post treatment. The most important component is pre treatment, because it can prevent and reduce salt buildup and the growth of marine life on the membrane.
Not only separating salt from clean water, Al Jubail can also get useful minerals, such as sodium, hydrochloric acid, magnesium and calcium extracted from sea water.
