AES Arabia wins $14m SWRO plant contract in Saudi Arabia

Water and wastewater firm AES Arabia has been awarded a $14m (SAR 52.5m) contract to work on a dedicated SWRO (seawater reverse osmosis) plant for King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST) Research Park.

The contractor on the project is China National Chemical Engineering Company (CNCEC), under the management of Saudi Aramco. AES says that it was awarded the contract through a competitive bidding process based on its previous track record, and particularly its long experience of projects with Saudi Aramco.

Under the contract, AES will be responsible for design, manufacture, construction, commission and start-up at the site. Once complete, the plant will be capable of producing up to 2,752 GPM (gallons per minute) of freshwater.

Seawater for the facility will be taken from a deep open intake, and will be subject to extensive pre-treatment before being pumped to the desalination plant. Water will then be further treated to remove Boron and then re-mineralised to meet WHO water standards.

AES Arabia has previous experience working at KAUST, having completed an 8000 CMD MBR (cubic metres per day membrane bio reactor) sewage treatment plant, and been involved in the construction of KAUST’s 52,000 CMD SWRO facility.