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2013 Press Releases-35

Yokogawa Wins Control System Order for Reverse Osmosis Desalination Plant in
Saudi Arabia
Computer-generated image of SWRO-4 plant
Yokogawa announces that its subsidiary, Yokogawa Middle East &
Africa, has received an order from Petroleum, Chemicals & Mining
Company Limited*1 (PCMC) to supply the control system for the
SWRO-4 Desalination Plant, which is being built in Jubail, Saudi
Arabia by the Power & Water Utility Company for Jubail and Yanbu
(Marafiq).
Jubail, located in the northern part of the Arabian Gulf, is one of the
two major industrial cities in Saudi Arabia (the other is Yanbu on the
Red Sea), and Marafiq provides electricity and water to both cities.
The plant under construction, SWRO-4, will utilize reverse osmosis (RO) membranes to desalinate seawater*2,
and will be able to produce 100,000 cubic meters of potable water per day. This is greater than the combined
output of 77,000 cubic meters per day from the five desalination plants that Marafiq currently owns and operates
in Jubail. The desalinated water from the new plant will be provided to the Jubail area.
Yokogawa will deliver the CENTUM VP integrated production control system and the Plant Resource Manager
(PRM) integrated device management package, the latter of which will be used for the monitoring and online
diagnosis of the instrumentation devices in this plant. In addition, Yokogawa will deliver an operator training
system to improve operator performance. Yokogawa Middle East & Africa is responsible for the entire project,
including the engineering and commissioning of these products. Delivery is scheduled for 2014 and the plant will
start operation at the end of September 2014.
In the Middle East, there is a serious water shortage due to rapid industrialization and population growth,
especially in urban areas. To alleviate this problem, there are plans to construct many desalination plants.
Desalination plants that use RO membranes are more efficient than those that rely on the evaporation of
seawater, and so there is considerable demand for the construction of such plants throughout this region, as well
as in other regions such as North America and Asia. Yokogawa aims to leverage this order to expand its control
business with desalination plants and other segments of the water infrastructure market.
*1
A major EPC company in Saudi Arabia involved in the construction, engineering, and operation of plants in
the oil, petrochemical, and gas industries
*2
Plants of this type rely on a technology that involves the application of pressure to seawater, thereby
pushing it through a special membrane. Desalination occurs as the salt cannot pass through the
membrane.