BW Offshore and BW Group have established a 50/50 joint venture entity (JV) — BW Elara — to design and build Floating Desalination Units (FDUs), producing fresh water from salt water.
“This partnership combines BW Offshore’s capabilities with BW Water’s desalination expertise to address the world’s growing fresh water demand”, said BW Group chairman Andreas Sohmen-Pao.
BW Offshore will oversee the overall FDU project execution, including hull design and construction, and system integration, and will co-invest alongside a company affiliated with BW Group. BW Water will design and build the desalination plant using its custom-engineered reverse osmosis (RO) systems.
“FDUs fill a critical gap between emergency relief and long-term infrastructure investments in today’s market for water desalination solutions,” added Matthew White, executive chairman of BW Water.
“We combine an efficient modular design with a seawater intake system and a flexible service supply model,” he said, “Our solution has generated strong interest from potential clients globally in both municipal and industrial sectors.”
This challenge is acute in mid-size municipal and industrial settings, where existing emergency water supply options such as containerised units are insufficient to meet demand, while large onshore desalination plants take too long to address urgent needs.
Developed over the last two years, the ready-built FDU can be deployed and operational within three months from contract signing. The modular unit can supply 20-40 million L/day of drinking water.
It is ideal for urgent deployment in response to droughts, delays in land-based desalination projects and temporary industrial demand spikes. The JV sees a clear market potential to develop and operate a multi-regional fleet over time.