New technologies allow for widespread wastewater recovery in the Middle East

Given the region's rapid urbanization and population development, water scarcity remains at the forefront of discussions about the region's long-term viability. Despite significant improvements in efficiency, water desalination is still a costly and energy-intensive procedure that isn't yet the global panacea for water shortages. Similar to surface water, groundwater levels in the area have been steadily falling, heightening the urgency of finding a lasting solution.

Wastewater treatment methods are well-known and widely used in the Middle East. Nonetheless, due to the high costs and technical challenges connected with such treatments, their implementation has been limited thus far. For example, in the highly developed emirate of Abu Dhabi, only 5% of the water supply comes from recycled water, 35% from desalination, and 60% from the quickly depleting groundwater, as reported by World Future Energy Summit.

Several significant improvements in core wastewater treatment areas are thankfully emerging as 2022 proceeds. As the cost-effectiveness of these treatment processes improves and the pressure to find sustainable water security solutions increases, we can anticipate an increase in the prevalence of wastewater reuse and recycling technology in the area.

To rapidly transition from simply disposing of wastewater (an expensive and often ecologically harmful process) to actively recovering and reusing it, the Middle East is taking advantage of a number of recent technological advances.

Activated Sludge (AS) improvements-Although AS has seen widespread adoption due to its simplicity, efficiency, and performance, sludge bulking and foaming continue to be a common problem that leads to water pollution. Recent advances at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Hydrobiology, however, have revealed that bacterial floc formation is crucial to resolving this problem. The first direct experimental proof that PEP-CTERM proteins are necessary for bacterial floc formation has been uncovered thanks to their work, which has important implications for the efficient separation of sludge and effluent and the subsequent recycling of AS.

Passive Aeration Biofilm Oxygenation technique-Murdoch University researchers have come up with a game-changing solution to the age-old problem of oxygenating the beneficial, naturally existing bacteria that is grown as a biofilm for decomposing organic matter in wastewater. To aerate the wastewater, the team's 'passive aeration' method drains the water from the treatment reactors and exposes the microbes to the air. By cutting the process's energy consumption by at least half, this method yields substantial cost savings in operation.

Advances in Ultrafiltration (UF) membranes- Ultrafiltration is frequently used in the pre-treatment (prefiltration) step of reverse osmosis (RO) systems to aid in solute separation and remove fouling-causing particulates. Production difficulties in creating UF fibers, which are the building blocks of membrane modules, have historically been a major barrier to the widespread adoption of UF. A critical factor that essentially affects the quality of the filtration process is the difficulty of producing millions of pores with a uniform pore size distribution. But with recent developments like Cloud Point Precipitation (CPP), the pore size variation is now only 2-5% outside the allowable boundaries. As a result, filtration efficiency is both improved and more consistent, as the pore size distribution is more uniform.

Imbedding more tech driven solutions

Desalination, wastewater treatment, and digitalization have all been identified in a new report commissioned by the World Future Energy Summit 2023, the premier corporate event for future energy and sustainability taking place in Abu Dhabi this month. In addition, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Turkey were named as water sector growth hotspots in a study prepared by business consultancy Frost & Sullivan for the World Future Energy Summit.

According to the study, even though the Middle East and Africa already account for 48% of global desalination capacity, there is room for expansion due to the region's struggles with inadequate groundwater, low per capita water availability, and rising water requirements. Reverse osmosis (RO) plants powered by renewables, such as solar, are predicted to replace more energy-intensive thermal desalination methods in the area.

Zero liquid discharge (ZLD) solutions have been recognised as a high-potential opportunity in the wastewater sector because they allow for the recovery of usable water and treated contaminants from wastewater before reducing it to solid waste without any negative environmental impact. By 2025, the Middle Eastern ZLD market is expected to generate up to US $100 million in income, according to the report's projections of 8% CAGR.

According to MEED, sewage treatment capacity will need to more than double over the next six years to keep up with economic expansion. Growth among the GCC continues robust despite the global recession's impact on Middle Eastern countries.

Saudi Arabia likely to become third largest water reuse market

Emerging water reuse technologies offer an important way to address water scarcity issues in the area and beyond. Communities and nations can get more use out of their freshwater resources by recycling treated wastewater and seawater for uses like drinking water, irrigation of crops and landscaping, and manufacturing. Many nations in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) recycle more than 70 percent of their wastewater, with many of them hoping to recycle all of their treated sewage effluent within the next few years.

When measured against the population, Saudi Arabia has the third highest water consumption rate worldwide. According to the Sustainable Water Alliance, it is projected to overtake both the United States and China to become the third biggest water reuse market globally within the next few years. The current rate of wastewater reuse in the nation is only around 18 percent, or 1.84 million m3 per day.

Saudi Arabia has made extensive changes to its water sector regulatory system to make it more investor friendly in order to better access this potential market. Because of these shifts, institutions like the National Water Company have emerged, with ambitious plans to spend roughly $23 billion on sewage collection and treatment facilities in Saudi Arabia over the next two decades. With these funds, we hope to expand our wastewater network to encompass 100 percent of the city, up from the current 45 percent.

Improvements in effluent treatment have given Middle Eastern nations the confidence to aim for significantly higher rates of reuse. Tertiary filtration is crucial to the success of a wastewater reuse program because of its ability to reliably produce high-quality effluent while simultaneously boosting the disinfection process (through chlorination and UV) and increasing water quality. A reduction in total suspended solids (TSS), turbidity, and biological oxygen consumption can be achieved with the help of a quality tertiary filter, which is necessary for obtaining discharge permits. Biological treatment has been shown to be an effective tertiary treatment technique for reuse purposes, both economically and technically.

Countries in the Middle East are looking to repurpose and recycle water technologies to combat water scarcity, and they could benefit from learning from the methods and successes of other countries like the United States and China.