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IBM and KACST Collaborate on Solar-Powered Desalination Technology

Desalination is an energy-intensive process, which has limited the deployment of such plants outside desert regions like the Middle East. But I.B.M. and the Saudi research institute, the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, plan to dramatically reduce the electricity costs by building a 10-megawatt solar farm that deploys ultra-high concentrator photovoltaic arrays.

The new, energy efficient desalination plant with an expected production capacity of 30,000 cubic meters per day will be built in the city of Al Khafji to serve 100,000 people.

KACST plans to power the plant with the ultra-high concentrator photovoltaic (UHCPV) technology that is being jointly developed by IBM and KACST; this technology is capable of operating a CPV system at a concentration greater than 1,500 suns.

Inside the plant, the desalination process will hinge on another IBM-KACST jointly developed technology, a nanomembrane that filters out salts as well as potentially harmful toxins in water while using less energy than other forms of water purification.

According to KACST scientists, the two most commonly used methods for seawater desalination are thermal technology and reverse osmosis, both at a cost ranging from 2.5 to 5.5 Saudi Riyals per cubic meter. By combining solar power with the new nanomembrane, the goal of this project is to significantly reduce the cost of desalinating seawater at these plants.

‘Currently, Saudi Arabia is the largest producer of desalinated water in the world, and we continue to invest in new ways of making access to fresh water more affordable,’ said Dr Turki Al Saud, vice president for research institutes, KACST.

‘Water has the first priority in the Science, Technology and Innovation Plan of the kingdom, overseen by KACST.’ The KACST / IBM joint research focuses on improving polymeric membranes through nanoscale modification of polymer properties to make desalination much more efficient and much less costly.

‘Our collaborative research with KACST has led to innovative technologies in the areas of solar power and of water desalination,’ said Sharon Nunes, vice president, IBM Big Green Innovations.

In February 2008, IBM and KACST signed a multi-year collaborative research agreement, under which scientists from IBM and KACST work side by side at IBM Research labs in New York and California as well as at the KACST / IBM Nanotechnology Centre of Excellence in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

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