Spain’s Acciona announced on 2 November that it has ramped up production during final testing of Saudi Arabia’s Shuqaiq 3 reverse osmosis (RO) desalination plant to full capacity of 450,000 m³/d. Acciona says the Red Sea plant can supply 2mn people and “is one of the largest to be built in Saudi Arabia and is already supplying the water network of Abha and Jizan in the southwest of the country.” The Spanish firm is the EPC contractor for Shuqaiq Three Company, which is the owner of the Independent Water Project (IWP) and has a long-term water purchase agreement with the Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC).
Meanwhile, SWPC announced on 4 November that trial operations at the even larger 600,000 m³/d Rabigh 3 RO plant have begun. SWPC says Rabigh 3 will be the largest RO plant in the world. Commercial operations of the $750mn plant located on the Red Sea coast are due to start in 1Q 2022. (CONTINUED - 154 WORDS)