The SW Desalination Technology Incubation and Acceleration Program is dedicated to advancing SW desalination technologies by enhancing their efficiency, reducing capital, operational, and maintenance costs, lowering energy consumption, and improving reliability, availability, and production sustainability—particularly during periods when seawater quality deteriorates due to seasonal climatic changes.

The program aims to empower investor and innovators to develop smart SW desalination technologies, efficient operation and maintenance systems, and innovative solutions that increase production capacity and improve water quality in the existing SW desalination plants.

Summary:

Innovation incubators and accelerators are program designed to help and support innovators to developing their idea into prototypes, provide technical and research support, provide workspaces and laboratories, guidance from technical experts and researchers, support in preparing business plans and economic models, provide training and capacity building, connect innovators with partners and manufacturers and turn it into a market ready product or company.

 Objectives:

• Support innovation in seawater desalination technologies.
• Localize the manufacturing of desalination technologies.
• Increase local content in seawater desalination projects, materials, and spare parts.
• Reduce capital, operational, and maintenance costs of SW desalination plants.
• Reduce energy consumption per cubic meter of produced water.
• Increase production capacity and improve the water quality produced by existing SW desalination plants.
• Enhance the reliability, availability, and sustainability of desalination plants—especially when seawater quality declines due to seasonal climatic variations.
• Enable investors and innovators to implement, commercialize, and operate their inventions.
• Leverage artificial intelligence applications within the seawater desalination plants and support AI-driven innovative solutions.
• Utilize renewable energy sources to power seawater desalination plants.
• Discharge rejection SW and brine SW back into the sea in accordance with approved environmental standards and regulations.
• Dispose of waste materials from SW desalination plants in compliance with environmental requirements.
• Reduce membrane fouling and minimize the frequency of membrane cleaning.

Challenges and Focus Areas:

• High energy consumption for producing one cubic meter of desalinated water.
• SW RO membranes monopolized by foreign manufacturers.
• DCS and SCADA systems monopolized by foreign manufacturers.
• Limited utilization of renewable energy sources in seawater desalination plants.
• Decline in seawater quality below acceptable limits (e.g., increased SDI, red tide events, high turbidity and SW contamination).
• Continuous water leakage within SWRO pipes and systems.
• reject and brine SW disposal back into the sea.
• Limited adoption of artificial intelligence applications in seawater desalination plants.
• Membrane fouling and frequent cleaning cycles, negatively impacting membrane lifetime and plant availability.
• Membranes need high seawater pressure.

How We Support You:

• Provide workspaces and laboratories
• Guidance from technical experts and researchers.
• Assistance with business setup, licensing, feasibility studies.
• Assistance with intellectual property protection.
• Training and capacity building.
• Connecting startups with investors and funding entities.
• Access to investors and industry partners.
• Product development, testing and market entry support.
• Business consulting and promotion.