Saudi Arabia’s Al-Jubail: Inside the world’s biggest water desalination plants

Saudi Arabia’s Al-Jubail: Inside the world’s biggest water desalination plants

AL JUBAIL, Saudi Arabia - The world's largest producer of indus water, Saudi Arabia also makes the most amount of waste from this energy intensive industry; but local researchers are trying to change that.Ahmed al-Amoudi, head of a government-run desalination research institute, sees a future where industrially useful minerals such as sodium chloride salt, magnesium and calcium are extracted from the seawater alongside clean water, and no highly-salty wastewater - known as brine - flows back into the sea."We can benefit from the sea and its treasures by the extraction of minerals," Amoudi said.Amoudi works for the government's Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC), which says it makes 69% of Saudi's desalinated water. Its researchers have filed several patents on technologies to extract minerals and other products, he said.An aim is