Austrailian engineering company Worley announced that it has entered into an agreement to provide engineering and advisory services to ENOWA, the energy and water company for planned smart city NEOM, for desalination and brine beneficiation facilities.
Worley will provide its services for water supply infrastructure that will deliver up to two million cubic meters of desalinated water per day to NEOM, located in the northwest of Saudi Arabia. The project scopes relate to water production, brine beneficiation, management, and storage.
“NEOM intends to deliver a sustainable circular water economy, and we are pleased to be able to use our global expertise to deliver ‘first of a kind’ water solutions that minimize impacts on the natural environment and align with our purpose of delivering a more sustainable world,” said Jim Lenton, group senior vice president for Worley
These water infrastructure projects will be powered by renewable electricity, and the desalination process will not discharge any brine into the sea. This will help reduce negative environmental impacts on the Red Sea’s ecosystem.
“This agreement provides the initial steps to revolutionize the water industry toward a truly sustainable and circular solution,” said Gavin van Tonder, executive director of ENOWA Water
The innovative approach will see Worley provide services for implementing commercially viable solutions for brine beneficiation — a by-product of seawater desalination — into sellable products such as gypsum, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), salt, potassium-based fertilizers, and magnesium.
These facilities will help create a circular water economy from unavoidable brine production from the desalination plant. Aligned to the production of low carbon footprint of potable water, the beneficiated brine products will be sustainably produced and thus valuable in their respective markets.
The services will be executed by both Advisian, Worley’s global consulting business, and Worley staff from 17 countries around the globe. Advisian will generally focus on advisory, consulting and pre-FEED activities, whilst Worley will deliver FEED, detailed engineering, procurement, and project management services.
This award extends Advisian and Worley’s relationship with ENOWA, which has grown over the last two years from feasibility and advisory studies to include six portfolios encompassing the satellite zero liquid discharge desalination plants, demonstration testing facility, research and development, large-scale desalination plant, brine processing and technical/commercial advisory support.
