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Sustainable
Desalination
KAUST is continually exploring more sustainable desalination techniques at our Water Desalination and Reuse Center. One recent success is KAUST startup company MEDAD’s solar-powered pilot desalination installation.
This hybrid cycle technology desalinates seawater at temperatures of 60 ºC to 80 ºC, using solar energy. The pilot plant built at KAUST allowed to consolidate the technology, which has been commissioned for use at other locations, including the Solar Village at KACST, in Riyadh.
KAUST researchers have also been developing other desalination technologies and improvements, from hybrid systems that generate solar power and desalinate water simultaneously, to decentralyzed systems able to harvest atmospheric water to that both cools PV systems and is then used to irrigate crops.
MEDAD was awarded the Sustainability Medal 2020 at the MEED Projects Awards.
KAUST supports the
