Cutting water costs with a digital twin for desalination

Water — specifically, drinking water — is the number one resource for economies, and desalination is a key technology for producing sufficient and affordable drinking water. While the market for desalination is growing steadily, it is also subject to enormous cost pressures, even though the cost of water produced has gone down immensely as the technology has matured. For example, with average prices for desalinated water ranging between US$0.50 and US$1.50 per cubic metre in 2019, depending on the location and size of the plant, prices are expected to sink even lower, making the cost comparable to that of traditional freshwater sources — between US$0.10 and US$0.50 per cubic metre in many regions. At the same time, however, both capital and operational expenditures have risen globally, making new plants more expensive to build and operate. Desalination plants, especially mega-sized facilities producing over 500,000 cubic metres of water per day, require substantial up-front investment. For each 100 cubic metres produced per day, the capex of a desalination plant ranges between US$0.65 million and US$1.20 million. What’s more, operational costs remain high due to energy-intensive processes, complex plant maintenance, and the need for precise control over water quality and quantity.

By simulating plant operations before construction, Siemens’ digital twins can reduce project lead times and engineering costs by up to 30%

Increasing revenue in a highly competitive environment

Construction companies and plant operators are facing a dilemma: The market is expanding, providing opportunities to increase revenues, but both new and existing plants have to become cheaper to be profitable. To achieve optimal plant performance and return on investment, the industry needs to streamline the design, construction, commissioning, and operation of desalination plants. Greenfield projects need to be executed as smoothly as possible, challenging the industry to find new ways of engineering and commissioning. Brownfield plants need to keep operational costs under control and perform at maximum efficiency to minimise their energy consumption and environmental footprints.

Changing the game through digitalisation

For optimal performance and ROI, the industry needs to streamline the design, construction, commissioning, and operation of desalination plants

To do all of this, the industry needs to draw on a resource that is often undervalued and unexploited: plant and process data, which can help optimise processes on every level, from automation to performance to operation and maintenance. Digital technologies and tools that have already been successfully applied in many other industries—such as oil and gas, chemical, and automotive—are well-suited to help design, construct, operate, and optimise desalination plants. For example, digitalisation and automation solutions from Siemens provide all the tools for streamlining design and commissioning, as well as for increasing plant and process performance. By combining data from different systems and sources, these solutions make it possible to create a digital twin of the desalination plant—a virtual representation of the entire plant that can be put through various virtual scenarios and conditions. A digital twin enables both engineering companies and operators to make well-educated, data-driven decisions in real time without resorting to costly physical testing.

An interoperable and open approach to the digital twin enables users to integrate data and processes across the entire plant life cycle.

A digital companion for the entire plant life cycle

“The digital twin in desalination is a smart window that transforms data into actionable insights” - Rami Youssef, Siemens AG

Creating a digital twin can benefit both greenfield and brownfield applications: It helps integrate data from different sources and compile them into reliable digital information, and it ensures a coherent stream of data through all phases of the plant life cycle, from process design through engineering and all the way up to operations, maintenance, and modernisation. For desalination plants in particular, a digital twin helps target three central areas: design and engineering, operational optimisation, and maintenance. By simulating plant operations before construction begins, Siemens’ digital twins can reduce project lead times and engineering costs by up to 30%. Real-time analytics and process automation, and optimisation can cut energy consumption and improve efficiency, leading to a potential operational cost savings of 10%–15%. Digital worker concepts and predictive maintenance tools reduce unplanned downtime and extend assets’ lifespans, resulting in maintenance cost reductions of 20%–40%. On top of all these savings, choosing a modular design and standardised digital libraries enables successful plant models to be reproduced faster, potentially reducing expansion costs by 10%–20%.

Closing the integration gap

Given the potential for such impressive savings, why are many desalination plants still not making use of their plant and process data? The answer: often, a lack of data integration. In order to be able to connect isolated databases and systems, the industry needs to make use of state-of-the-art technologies for data exchange and networking, as well as secure, industry-grade solutions.

In addition, choosing suitable partners and technologies is essential to reaping the full benefits of digitalisation and automation—and to creating a digital twin for each user’s specific needs and purposes. Solutions have to be open and scalable to allow companies to choose the best approach to reduce infrastructure and deployment costs, as well as to break down data silos. Siemens supports this kind of open and flexible approach to the digital twin with a broad and proven portfolio of products and services for both plant-level data integration and IT/OT integration. This integrated and interoperable portfolio also helps standardise the automation design and optimise operational processes within desalination plants, increasing plant transparency and supporting informed decision-making.

A window for transparency, efficiency, and reliability

According to Rami Youssef, business developer of water industry at Siemens, “the digital twin in desalination is not just a mirror of the plant. It is a smart window that transforms data into actionable insights and enables transparency, optimisation, and reliability for a sustainable water future.” He has supported many seawater desalination plants, including large-scale deployments, using Siemens’ digital technologies.

A digital twin enables engineering companies and operators to make well-educated, data-driven decisions in real time without costly testing

One example is the Al Khobar 1 desalination plant in Saudi Arabia, where Siemens supported construction, start-up, and commissioning with a model simulation of the automation system using a virtual controller that starts the desalination process. This virtual model is also used for testing and operator training. Thanks to the plant’s digital twin, the contractor was able to start commissioning, conduct testing, and optimise processes remotely with minimal on-site personnel, resulting in a significant reduction in execution time and cost.

State-of-the-art desalination plants target maximum production costs of US$0.50 per cubic meter, a figure that can be reached only through extensive optimisation of all aspects of the plant life cycle.

A cost-efficient path to sustainable desalination

As this example shows, digitalisation increases operational reliability, reduces the requirements for physical prototyping and testing, and helps optimise operations for minimum consumption of energy and other resources. By addressing cost efficiency through digital twins and automation, Siemens empowers water utilities and industries to deliver desalination solutions that are sustainable, reliable, and affordable.