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  • A reliable alternative source for securing water supply
  • Sustainable desalination solutions and management
  • Robust, high‑quality water production solutions

260+
desalination plants designed and built by our teams

0.1%
is the portion of total water usage from desalination in the US

50%
of the world's population will experience a shortage of fresh water by 203

Advanced pretreatment for reliable seawater desalination efficiency

Securing sustainable water supply demands innovative seawater desalination. With advanced pretreatment, high‑rate clarification, and optimized reverse osmosis, we turn seawater into reliable potable and industrial water while reducing costs, protecting membranes, and minimizing environmental impact.

We work with you to ensure seawater becomes a reliable, sustainable water resource. By integrating our specialized technologies, we provide a complete solution that optimizes every stage of desalination, from pretreatment and clarification to reverse osmosis.

Sea Clean strengthens the foundation of your desalination process by delivering high-performance pretreatment. This advanced filtration and adsorption system removes suspended solids, organic matter, and biofouling agents before they reach your reverse osmosis membranes. By capturing contaminants early, Sea Clean protects membranes from premature degradation, improves operational stability, and helps you reduce chemical usage and energy consumption, making your water production more sustainable from the start.

Complementing this, Densadeg provides advanced high-rate clarification that handles variable seawater quality with ease. It rapidly settles solids, algae, and other impurities, ensuring that downstream processes operate smoothly. Its compact footprint and high efficiency make it ideal for coastal plants facing fluctuating turbidity, helping you maintain consistent water quality even under challenging environmental conditions.

Once pretreatment and clarification are optimized, Sea Pro ensures the efficient transformation of seawater into potable and industrial water. Using energy-optimized reverse osmosis technology, Sea Pro protects membranes from scaling and fouling while maximizing water recovery and reducing operational costs. Designed to adapt to high salinity and temperature variations, Sea Pro ensures reliable, long-term performance, giving you confidence in your water supply even as demand grows.

Together, these technologies provide a seamless, integrated approach to seawater desalination. Sea Clean removes contaminants at the earliest stage, Densadeg clarifies and stabilizes water quality, and Sea Pro delivers final purification, each step building on the last to maximize efficiency and membrane life. By combining the strengths of Sea Clean, Densadeg, and Sea Pro, we help you unlock alternative water resources, meet stringent regulatory standards, and build climate-resilient water strategies.

Whether you are a utility, industrial operator, or community water provider, our solutions support your goals of operational efficiency, environmental stewardship, and sustainable water production.

We work with you to make seawater a safe, reliable, and low-impact source for your long-term water needs. Together, we combine our expertise and technology to support your goals for sustainable, resilient water supply.

Sustainable and high‑performance desalination unit

Every desalination plant we design is a customized solution built to address specific water challenges. While each project is unique, all share a commitment to economic efficiency, environmental performance, and the use of advanced, high‑precision desalination technologies.

Design‑build solutions tailored to your water challenge

We draw on decades of global experience as a builder‑operator to deliver accessible, reliable, and scalable desalination solutions. Each system is engineered to meet your operational needs and the characteristics of the seawater or brackish water being treated.

Modular desalination units for every application

Our modular systems are designed for a wide range of uses, including:

  • Drinking water production
  • Agricultural irrigation
  • Industrial process water

These units can be deployed for small, medium, or large‑scale

Advanced technologies to ensure reliable water productio

We integrate proven, high‑performance technologies to maximize the availability and reliability of freshwater production, regardless of source water quality.

  • Robust solutions validated over 20+ years on large‑scale desalination plants (over 100,000 m³/day or 26.4 million gpd)
  • High‑efficiency systems designed to maintain consistent output and operational stability

Optimized operations and service support

Our operational expertise ensures long‑term performance and cost control.

  • Continuous focus on operational excellence, including reduced operating costs and minimized water losses
  • Smart plant management powered by predictive modeling
  • Flexible service packages: spare parts supply, plant rehabilitation, operator training, and more

Innovating to reduce the cost of desalinated Water

We deliver innovative, high‑performance technologies and financial models to help reduce both capital and operating costs:

  • Financial and contractual solutions that lower upfront investment
  • Cutting‑edge process optimization to reduce energy consumption
  • Operational support tools that secure freshwater production and improve long‑term efficiency
  • Collaborative partnerships for integrated water and wastewater management, helping reduce costs and environmental impact

A reduced and responsible environmental footprint

Aligned with our sustainability roadmap, we are committed to advancing circular and environmentally responsible desalination solutions.

  • Energy recovery systems that significantly reduce overall plant energy consumption
  • Integration of renewable energy sources, including wind and solar, to lower carbon emissions
  • Responsible brine management practices that protect marine ecosystems
  • Opportunities for brine recycling to support circular resource use

These solutions help address the environmental and energy challenges facing North American communities and support the transition toward a circular water economy.

Continuous innovation to meet your future drinking water need

For more than 50 years, our R&D teams have been advancing desalination technology to deliver increasingly efficient, cost‑effective, and sustainable solutions. We stay ahead of market trends and evolving water challenges by optimizing desalination plants with next‑generation innovations, including advanced reverse osmosis pre‑treatment and brine recovery systems.

Pre‑treatment: a critical step in reverse osmosis desalination

In modern reverse osmosis (RO) desalination plants, water passes through multiple treatment stages to ensure it is purified and safe for drinking. Seawater pre‑treatment is one of the most essential steps, directly improving RO performance and long‑term reliability. Our pre‑treatment technologies help you:

  • Ensure consistent plant availability under all seawater conditions
  • Reduce overall pre‑treatment water losses, even when seawater quality fluctuates
  • Improve pre‑treated water quality to extend the lifespan of RO membranes

High‑speed filtration for good seawater quality

When seawater quality is stable, high‑rate filtration upstream of the RO membranes prevents fouling and maintains optimal performance. Our SeaClean pressure filter technology delivers high‑quality inlet water while supporting chemical‑free membrane operation.

 

Dissolved air flotation for challenging seawater conditions. When seawater quality is more difficult—such as during algal blooms—an additional flotation step is required. Our dissolved air flotation (DAF) systems protect RO production from harmful events and improve downstream treatment performance year‑round.

Brine recovery: transforming waste into valuable resources

Innovative brine recovery technologies now make it possible to design more sustainable desalination plants by reducing environmental discharge and creating new resource streams. This approach delivers significant economic and societal benefits. We are developing a complete brine recovery platform that enables you to:

  • Capture and reuse CO₂ to meet alkalinity requirements for treated water
  • Improve freshwater quality by reintroducing a balanced blend of calcium and magnesium minerals
  • Produce reusable acid for seawater pre‑treatment and RO membrane cleaning These advanced processes are scalable and suitable for desalination plants of all sizes, supporting long‑term sustainability and operational efficiency

They trust us

Victoria state desalination plant (Melbourne, Australia): the largest desalination plant in Australia, sustainable and environmentally friendly

One of our most emblematic projects is the desalination plant in the state of Victoria in Australia, a major public-private partnership. This $3.5 billion project has been entrusted to Aquasure, a special purpose vehicle composed of 8 shareholder investors, including SUEZ. It can produce up to 150 gigaliters of desalinated water per year (450,000 m3/d or 118.9 thousand gpd), with a capacity expandable to 200 gigaliters, serving about 4.5 million inhabitants. We are also at the forefront of technological innovation, reducing the energy needs of our plants through energy recovery systems and offsetting energy consumption through renewable energy sources.

Victorian Desalination Project brochure

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Wanhua Penglai Desalination Plant (China): a complementary water source for the chemical industrial complex that will save more than 36 million m³ of fresh water per year.

The desalination plant, with the first phase having a capacity of 100,000 m3 per day (26.4 million gallons per day), will supply the industrial complex with process water. When at full capacity, it will provide 300,000 m3 (79.2 million gallons per day). Our technical expertise has made it possible to provide a unique solution to support Wanhua Chemical Group and its partners towards an ecological transition by preserving local freshwater resources and protecting the environment.

26.4

million gal

of capacity per day

9.5

billion gal
of freshwater saved per year
Learn more about water desalination

Our other collaborations

Sri Lanka Water
Seawater desalination in Sri Lanka - a first!
Australia Water
Protecting the future of Perth's drinking water through seawater desalination

Frequently asked questions

The principle of desalination is to remove salt and impurities from seawater, saline water, or brackish groundwater to produce fresh water suitable for drinking water, city water supply, and irrigation. Most modern desalination plants use reverse osmosis, a water desalination process where high pressure forces water through a reverse osmosis membrane, separating salt from water. Other desalination processes include thermal desalination, where heat evaporates seawater and condenses it into desalinated water. Both reverse osmosis desalination and thermal desalination processes are widely used in North America, coastal counties, and arid valley regions where surface water and traditional water sources are limited. Whether powered by grid energy, solar energy, or hybrid systems, the core principle remains the same: convert seawater into fresh water through a controlled desalination process that supports long‑term water supply desalination needs.

A desalination plant discharges as much water as it produces, but what is characterised today as a discharge will be considered tomorrow as an alternative resource for producing minerals. Energy consumption remains higher than that of treatment processes on conventional freshwater resources, however optimisations are still possible and the use of carbon-free energies limits the environmental impact.

The energy consumption of a desalination plant depends on the desalination process used. Reverse osmosis desalination typically requires less energy than thermal desalination, but both are considered high‑energy processes. A modern reverse osmosis plant uses high‑pressure pumps to force seawater through a reverse osmosis membrane, consuming several kilowatt‑hours of electricity per cubic meter of desalinated water produced. Thermal desalination plants, which rely on heat to evaporate and condense water, often require even more energy, especially in large‑scale seawater desalination plants. Some facilities are integrating solar energy and waste‑heat recovery to reduce desalination plants energy demand. Because energy consumption directly affects the cost and sustainability of water desalination, improving efficiency remains a major focus of research, engineering, and water science. SUEZ technologies support this goal by incorporating high‑efficiency membranes and energy‑recovery solutions that help lower overall power consumption.

Yes, desalinated water is safe for human consumption when properly treated. Modern desalination plants use reverse osmosis, distillation, or

hybrid desalination processes to remove salt, minerals, and contaminants from seawater or brackish groundwater, producing fresh water that meets drinking water standards. After the desalination process, minerals are often added back to stabilize the desalinated water and improve taste, making it suitable for drinking water, irrigation, and municipal water supply. Many communities rely on desalinated water as part of their long‑term water supply desalination strategy, especially in regions where surface water and traditional water sources are limited. With proper monitoring and quality control, desalinated water is a reliable and safe option for human consumption and supports resilient water supply systems in coastal and drought‑prone regions.

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