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 to address growing global water constraints. The FDUs will combine BW Offshore’s experience from developing over 40 floating production units with BW Water’s 35-year desalination expertise to offer a rapidly deployable fresh water solution.
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; and BW Water will design and build the desalination plant using its custom-engineered reverse osmosis systems.
Access to fresh water is an emerging global challenge. While permanent infrastructure remains the typical long-term solution, there is a widening gap between immediate water requirements and availability in many areas. This challenge is particularly 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 on proven technology, the FDU concept offers a flexible and scalable solution to bridge that gap. A ready-built FDU can be deployed and fully operational within as little as three months from contract signing. The modular unit can supply 20 to 40 million litres of drinking water per day. It is ideal for urgent deployment in response to droughts, delays in land-based desalination projects and temporary industrial demand spikes. The JV sees clear market potential underpinning our intention to develop and operate a multi-regional fleet over time.
“The formation of BW Elara is testament to the wide-ranging capabilities of the BW network, leveraging synergies between our affiliates. This partnership combines BW Offshore’s capabilities with BW Water’s desalination expertise to address the world’s growing fresh water demand”, says Andreas Sohmen-Pao, Chairman of BW Group.
“Applying our extensive offshore engineering and operations expertise to developing new floating transition solutions is a strategic focus area for BW Offshore. Together with BW Water, we will tackle this challenge with innovative solutions, and thereby seek to deliver long-term value,” says Marco Beenen, CEO of BW Offshore.
“Floating Desalination Units fill a critical gap between emergency relief and long-term infrastructure investments in today’s market for water desalination solutions,” says Matthew White, Executive Chairman of BW Water. “We combine an efficient modular design with a proprietary seawater intake system and a flexible service supply model. Our solution has generated strong interest from potential clients globally in both municipal and industrial sectors.”
