QATAR – ACCIONA has revealed it will finance an Artificial Intelligence (AI) project at the Umm Al Houl desalination plant in Qatar to lower the carbon footprint of the plant by 12,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. The plant, scheduled to become operational by April 2021, will use an AI platform called Maestro, to optimise operations and achieve energy savings. The Maestro AI platform processes operational data in real-time to allow predictive, autonomous and continuous optimisation at scale. (Construction Week)

NAMIBIA – The governments of...

DJIBOUTI – A new desalination plant located in Doraleh was inaugurated on March 14^th by Djibouti’s president. The plant was constructed by Eiffage genie civil, a subsidiary of Eiffage, in partnership with Tedagua. The plant is powered by a nearby wind farm and is one of the few wind-powered water treatment plants in Africa. The plant has a production capacity of 22,500 m³/d and will supply drinking water for up to 250,000 Djiboutians. There are plans to extend the capacity of the plant to 45,000 m³/d after the full completion of the ‘...

BELGIUM – Macquarie Capital has partnered with AVAIO Capital in finalising the development and construction of a new desalination plant in Port of Antwerp. The project intends to cut down industrial use of water sourced from the Albert Canal while minimising the need for water treatment chemicals. AVAIO in collaboration with Port of Antwerp and its anchor customers including Covestro and Evonik, plan to apply for core permits in 2021 and begin construction in 2022, with the aim to commission the plant by 2024. Macquarie Capital will aid in...

U.S.A. – The Bureau of Reclamation is awarding $3.6 million to 10 projects that seek to improve technologies for water supply development from non-traditional waters, including seawater, brackish groundwater and municipal wastewater. Reclamation selected six laboratory projects and four pilot-scale research projects. The $3.6 million will be matched by $5.3 million in non-federal funding to support the research projects. The Desalination and Water Purification Research Program supports President Biden’s new Executive Order on Tackling the...

MOROCCO – The Irish company Ingersoll Rand’s Engineering Project Solutions has been selected by Abengoa to supply a compressed air system for the Chtouka desalination plant. The plant is currently under construction by the Abengoa subsidiary Aman El Baraka. Ingersoll was chosen for its CompAir technology, which will also power the station’s pneumatic equipment, valves and electrical controls.

The desalination plant will launch operations in March 2021 and will supply 150,000 m³/d water to the drinking water grid of Greater Agadir and will...

GERMANY – Floating WINDdesal (FWD) is a European industry initiative developing a new technology concept that combines a desalination plant and a floating offshore wind turbine, both supported by a floating semisubmersible structure. The technology will be implemented in the Middle East region later this year.

At present three modules of varying sizes are in preparation, with respective water treatment capacities of 15,000, 30,000 and 50,000 m³/d. Utilizing a semi-submersible support structure, partially derived from deep water drilling rigs...