Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has invested in its first seawater reverse osmosis solution (SWRO). The Indian company has ordered its first such unit from IDE Technologies, a market leader in this sector. IDE Technologies is a global provider of water treatment solutions and apart from being a market leaderspecializes in the development, engineering, construction and operation of some of the world’s largest and most advanced thermal and membrane desalination facilities and industrial water treatment plants.
Commenting on the renewed partnership with Reliance Industries, AvshalomFelber, CEO of IDE Technologies said, “Over the past several years, we’ve established a strong partnership with Reliance built on trust and success with our reliable desalination solutions. With Reliance’s first installation of our SWRO solution, we look forward to taking our partnership to the next level of success and growth.”
Reverse Osmosis as a process is fairly simple to understand. The world right now is facing water shortage. Clean, potable water is not abundantly available. However, the seas and oceans present a great opportunity. What reserve osmosis does is remove all the salts and minerals from sea water, treat it using advanced chemical processes and this results in water which is clean, potable and can be used for a variety of industrial applications.
The new SWRO plant commissioned by RIL will produce pure water. The need for this was apparent considering the needs one of the largest refineries in the world. With increased capacity and rapid expansion of the Jamnagar Oil Refinery, it became obvious that RIL needed better resources to meet the increased capacity demands. Also, the fact that the plant is located in close proximity of the sea will reduce the length of piping and in turn lead to reduction in costs related to pumping.
“We are excited that one of India’s largest seawater desalination plants is to follow in the tradition of our other large-scale SWRO plants, including our leading projects at Ashkelon, Hadera, Cape Preston, Sorek and Carlsbad,” said Mr. Felber. The move to SWRO is a sign of the ambitious growth plans of RIL as a company. The company clearly wants to invest in a sustainable future and ensure that all the variables with regards to supply issues and raw materials in its Jamnagar Refinery are taken care of and pose no problems for the foreseeable future.