🚰 Desalination plants to produce fresh water on ocean floor

• Three companies are developing technology to desalinate seawater in deep water, which can reduce energy consumption by up to 40 percent.
• The first large-scale facility will start producing 1 million liters of water per day in Norway in 2026.
• The technology utilizes the ocean's natural pressure at depths over 400 meters instead of pumping water up on land.

Ocean pressure replaces energy-intensive pumps

Now companies are developing technology that places desalination plants on the seabed to solve water shortages, writes the Wall Street Journal.

The method utilizes the extreme water pressure in deep water instead of consuming large amounts of energy to pump seawater up on land. At depths of at least 400 meters, seawater naturally wants to pass through the desalination membrane, as long as the fresh water on the other side is pumped up to the surface.

The result is an energy saving of up to 40 percent compared to traditional land-based facilities. Traditional desalination costs between 15 and 45 kronor per 1000 liters of water.

Three companies lead development

Oslo-based Flocean, Dutch Waterise and American OceanWell are all developing systems for deep-sea desalination. The companies use existing technology from the oil industry, including deep-sea robots and underwater pump cables.

Flocean already has a pilot facility off Norway that produces ultra-pure water for a local company that manufactures cocktail ice. The company's first major customer will be the Mongstad industrial facility in Norway, which will produce approximately 1 million liters of water per day from a 40-ton unit.

Waterise has signed an agreement with Jordan Phosphates Mines to deliver 25 million liters of desalinated water per day from the Gulf of Aqaba. The company plans to start building its first facility later this year, with capacity to produce between 30 and 49 million liters per day.

Advantages of deep-sea placement

The facilities can be placed far from the coast and are not visible from land, which eliminates competition for beachfront properties. The systems can be expanded without negotiating for new land.

At great depths, the saltier byproduct disperses quickly in the ocean without harming aquatic plants or animals. The seawater is also cleaner at depth, free from microorganisms and other contaminants that can quickly clog desalination membranes.

Deep water intakes avoid sucking up marine animals, a problem that led California to reject a desalination plant in Huntington Beach in 2022 after decades of planning.

First large-scale facility in 2026

Flocean's facility at Mongstad is expected to come online during the second half of 2026 and will be the world's first large-scale deep-sea desalination plant.

The technology is not based on new scientific discoveries but on deep-sea robots, underwater cables and other technology becoming more available and cheaper.

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