The very word “desalination” usually triggers thoughts of oil-rich, water-poor countries in the Middle East. And while it is true that several such countries – Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait – are among the largest markets for desalination, there are desalination facilities in more than 100 countries. The continued proliferation of desalination facilities has created a global market of more than $8 billion, with continued rapid growth anticipated. The most traditional techniques for desalination have involved thermal processes. The most common contemporary thermal processes, multi-stage flash (MSF) distillation and multiple-effect distillation (MED), are highly reliable and capable of producing remarkably pure water from the saltiest seawater sources. However, these techniques -- especially MSF – consume large amounts of energy. These techniques tend to be economically viable only when water shortages are most severe and when local energy supplies are abundant – such as in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and a few other countries in the region. Elsewhere, shortages of quality water can also be daunting. This is true in China, Spain, Australia and parts of the United States -- where populations have outgrown native water supplies or local water supplies contain so much salt and other dissolved solids that they are not fit for use. These difficulties are perhaps most severe in Middle Eastern and North African nations not endowed with plentiful oil and gas reserves but beset with similarly arid conditions and lack of indigenous water supplies. Membrane-based technologies are growing more rapidly than the overall fast-growing desalination market. Membrane systems have been the technology of choice for brackish water desalination in the US, Europe and elsewhere. Seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) is expected to be one of the fastest growing niches in the global desalination market for a number of key reasons. First, the US, Spain, China, Australia and several other countries are using more seawater as the source water for desalination processes. Most of the largest municipal facilities in these countries will be using membrane-based techniques. Second, many countries in the Africa/Mideast region -- such as Algeria and Saudi Arabia-- are relying on membrane desalination to supply their growing water needs. RO, MED desalination to register fastest growth Overall, RO (reverse osmosis) and MED techniques are expected to account for a large majority of new capacity, and the products used in conjunction with these technologies are projected to register the fastest growth. Technological improvements to membranes extending their functional lives and reducing their vulnerability to fouling will drive demand for RO systems, and for the membranes, pretreatment filters, chemicals and other products used in these systems. Growth for MED systems -- including evaporators, pumps and other products -- will be driven by improved energy efficiency, especially when compared with MSF.
