Dwindling Global Freshwater Sources Drives Focus on Desalination as a Viable Antidote to the Looming Water Crisis
Dwindling
availability of freshwater supplies, increased salinity of ground water, and development
of innovative energy efficient desalination technologies are poised to drive
the global
market for Desalination Technologies to exceed US$36.8 billion by 2024.
Desalination
can be defined as the process of converting saline unusable water into fresh
usable one, through extraction and removal of dissolved salts from available
water sources in order to make it viable for human use. Commercial interest in
water desalination is supported by growing awareness about the need to address
impending usable water crisis; increasing focus on making well informed water
management decisions regarding conservation, use, allocation; and growing
interest in developing technologies which provide fresh water to humans in
regions where fresh water availability is dwindling.
Brackish
groundwater desalination is growing in popularity among
inland communities largely as a result of the substantially lower cost of
treating groundwater, which is less salty and thus requires lower energy and
less complex desalination facilities. Increased salinity of ground water and
surface as a result of over exploitation and over-pumping of water is driving
demand for desalination technologies. Traditionally sea water desalination has been
essentially dependent upon thermal processes such as multi-stage flash (MSF)
and multi-effect distillation (MED) for desalinating water. However, with most
of the world, vying for limited energy resources coupled with persistent
escalation in energy costs, alternative membrane based desalination
technologies like Reverse Osmosis (RO) has been increasingly gaining attention.
Driven by growing environmental concerns over excess use of fossil fuels, and
constant escalation in crude oil prices, renewable energy based desalination
including solar desalination, hybrid desalination is gaining in
popularity.
Ongoing
innovations in desalination technology are aimed at reducing specific energy
consumption, desalination more sustainable and affordable. As energy
consumption accounts for about half of the total cost of seawater desalination,
improving energy efficiency is an important area of research. Advancements in RO
technology are aimed at reducing energy consumption
and maximizing flux, and minimizing scaling and fouling. Some of the advanced
technologies include new methods of pre-treatment, thin-film nanocomposite
membranes, captive deionisation, and forward osmosis. In the brackish water
desalination space, focus is presently on minimizing brine and increasing
recovery of freshwater, mainly due to the environmental issues and high cost
incurred in brine disposal.
As stated
by the new market research report on Desalination
Technologies, the Middle-East represents the largest market worldwide. The region provides
an attractive opportunity for water desalination owing to the short supply of
water as a resource. Several large-scale investments are underway along Saudi
Arabia’s Red Sea coast, and other markets including Oman, Abu Dhabi, UAE, and
Kuwait to meet the rising demand for consumable water. Asia-Pacific represents
another high growth market over the analysis period led by
growing severity of water shortage in the region amid an expanding population
and increasing urbanization and industrialization trend.
Major players in the market
include Abengoa SA, ACCIONA SA, Aqualyng AS, Doosan Heavy Industries &
Construction Co. Ltd., Dow Water & Process Solutions, Danfoss A/S, Evoqua
Water Technologies LLC., FISIA ITALIMPIANTI S.p.A, Hyflux Limited, H2O Innovation,
IDE Technologies Ltd., John Holland, Koch Membrane Systems Inc., Suez
Environment, Tianjin MOTIMO Membrane Technology Co. Ltd., Toray Industries
Inc., Toyobo Co. Ltd., Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies SA among
others.
The
research report titled “Desalination Technologies - Market
Analysis, Trends, and Forecasts”,
announced by Global Industry Analysts, Inc., provides a comprehensive review of market
trends, issues, drivers, mergers,
acquisitions and other strategic industry activities. The report provides
market estimates and projections in US dollars for all major geographic markets
including the United States, Canada, Japan, Europe (France, Germany, Italy,
United Kingdom, Spain, Russia and Rest of Europe) , Asia-Pacific (Australia, China,
India and Rest of Asia-Pacific), Middle-East, Latin-America (Brazil, Mexico and
Rest of Latin-America). Key technology segments analyzed in the report include
Multi-Stage Flash (MSF), Multi-Effect Distillation (MED), Reverse Osmosis (RO)
and Others.
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