ACWA Holding, Toyobo Co., Ltd. and Itochu Corporation signed the agreement for the formation of a joint venture company to manufacture reverse osmosis membrane elements for seawater desalination.
The signing for the new company, "Arabian Japanese Membrane Company", held Tuesday at the Four Seasons Hotel in the presence of the water and electricity minister, the deputy minister of commerce and industry, Khalid Al-Sulaiman and Tawfig Alrabiah, director general of Saudi Industrial Property Authority (MODON).
Speaking to newsmen, the minister said that the demand for desalinated water in the world was steadily growing. "There is a 20 percent worldwide increase in the demand every year," he said pointing out that the Kingdom needed half of the desalinated water consumed in the world. Describing the new company products and services as high-tech, the minister said that this was a good initiative to participate in desalination projects in the Kingdom.
Mohammed Abunayyan, chairman of ACWA Holding, said that the new company would be the first manufacturing facility in the Middle East and North Africa. It will be located in Rabigh Technical Park, 150 km north of Jeddah on the Red Sea. "The manufacturing facility with production is scheduled to begin in March 2011 localizing the vital and the latest technology from Toyobo."
The partners estimate the total investment in the next decade will be about SR1.32 billion. The company headquarters and the manufacturing facility will be in Rabigh, while a sales office will operate from Riyadh.
Toyobo President Ryuzo Sakamoto said the company would manufacture reverse osmosis membrane elements for desalination using hollow fiber technology. "The membranes manufactured will supply potable water to Saudi Arabia which is considered the largest country in the world to utilize seawater desalination technology due to the scarcity of natural water resources. Securing water resources is a particularly important issue in Saudi Arabia, and this new company will contribute to securing an integral potable water supply in Saudi Arabia."
The local partner ACWA Holding is a leading infrastructural developer in the region especially in the water and power sectors, with major ownership in over 25 companies in this region. One of them has won four IWPP projects in Saudi Arabia.
Toyobo has over two decades of experience in sales and operations in the seawater desalination business in Saudi Arabia. Toyobo famous membranes technology is already utilized in most of the largest desalination plants in the Middle East, including the Shuqaiq plant (212,000 m3 per day) and RAWEC plant (216,000 m3 per day). Toyobo boasts 80 percent of the seawater desalination membrane market in Saudi Arabia and over half the share in the Middle East/Gulf region. Toyobo's desalination elements utilize the principle of Reverse Osmosis, by applying pressure greater than that of osmotic pressure to allow water to permeate through the membrane while preventing ions from passing through the membrane.
The membrane is hollow fiber made from cellulose triacetate, which is highly resistant to the residual chlorine, used to prevent the growth of microorganisms. These elements have an excellent track record in many plants in Japan and around the world.
The third partner Itochu has had experience building seawater desalination plants in the Kingdom since 1970s. Elsewhere from the beginning of 1980s, Itochu has been promoting Toyobo seawater RO desalination membranes in the Gulf Region. In addition, it has another company with ACWA Holding in the desalination plant construction and engineering.
