Desalination: Global Market Scenario, Trends, Opportunity, Growth and Forecast, 2020-2030

Market Definition

Desalting brackish or seawater is frequently brought up as a potential answer to the planet’s rising water demand in the face of diminishing supplies. Desalination for large-scale units has seen periods of rapid expansion and times of relative inactivity throughout its evolution. The expansion phase has been propelled by quick cost reductions and technology advancements, while it has been hampered by erratic finance sources, poor infrastructure, sustainability issues, and shifting energy prices. This paper examines the desalination industry’s growth-promoting factors as well as its ongoing difficulties.

Market Insights

There is a definite need for new water sources, and brackish and seawater play important roles in supplying that demand. The most important indicator is population growth, which corresponds to increased agricultural and energy demands, which are the main factors driving water demand. By 2050, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) predicts that more than half of the world’s population would reside in water-stressed areas, and 1.6 billion people will do so in flood-prone areas. According to the German Federal Environment Agency, 1 billion people reside in water-scarce regions, and by 2050, 25% of the world’s population will have chronic or ongoing water shortages.

In all parts of the world, a significant portion of the population resides in coastal areas, and this number is rising. A whopping 40% of people are thought to reside within 100 km of a shoreline, yet many of them depend on groundwater or water brought in from the interior. These coastal towns are turning more and more to the ocean for both their drinking water needs and the water required for industrial growth. Currently, desalination produces around 1% of the water used worldwide. But that proportion is quickly shifting. By the end of 2021, there will be over 20,000 brackish water and seawater processing facilities, with a combined desalination capacity of over 115 million cubic metres per day (m3/d), up from 67.4 million m3/d in 2010. This capacity is expected to double by 2050.

Reverse osmosis (RO), multi-stage flash (MSF) distillation, multi-effect distillation (MED), nanofiltration (NF), electrodialysis (ED), electrodeionization (EDI), electrodialysis reversal (EDR), and other technologies are technological subgroups of the desalination market. With 84% of all active desalination plants and 61.7% of all desalinated water produced globally in 2021, RO is by far the most prevalent desalination technology. Despite being relatively few in number, the other two primary thermal technologies, MSF and MED, will generate the majority of the remaining desalinated water in 2021, with market shares of 21.4% and 9.0%, respectively. Plants using NF (4.0%) and ED/EDI/EDR (2.2%) technologies produced less desalinated water overall in 2021, accounting for only 92.2% of the total desalinated water produced.

The market for seawater and brackish water desalination is divided into the municipal, industrial, power stations, and other market segments based on application. According to capacity, the municipal sector accounted for the majority of desalinated water use in 2021. Municipal use accounted for about 65.5% of desalinated water production. This pattern develops because industrial desalination facilities have a lower capacity than desalination plants that provide municipal water. In the municipal sector, the market for seawater and brackish water desalination was assessed at $8.9 billion in 2021. The power and agricultural sectors use a tiny but important amount of the generated desalinated water, despite the fact that municipal and industrial sectors account for the large bulk of the world’s seawater and brackish water desalination capacity.

Market Dynamics: Drivers

Climate Change

In many places, climate change is causing issues. Both industrialized and developing nations are feeling the effects of extreme weather events, such as heat waves, droughts, episodic storms, excessive rainfall, flooding, flash floods, hurricanes, wildfires, and bushfires, as well as increasing sea levels. Increased drought and flooding are both being caused by changes in the annual rainfall. Floods make up half of all natural disasters worldwide, and they are responsible for 84% of disaster-related fatalities. In some places, the frequency and severity of floods, including flash floods, urban floods, river flooding, and coastal flooding, are increasing. According to the international disasters database, from 2011 to 2020, floods claimed the lives of around 1,500 Indians per year. Floods in underdeveloped areas can also cause delayed effects including cholera, malaria, scabies, typhoid, and diarrhoea. Water supplies can become contaminated by floods, especially in places where there may already be leaking or broken pipes.

Market Dynamics: Challenges

Make Desalination More Energy-Efficient and Cost-Effective

Reverse osmosis for brackish water desalination has been demonstrated to be a mature technology, but it is still thought to be expensive and energy intensive. Reverse osmosis technology has evolved into a highly optimized form in terms of specific energy usage over the years. The current energy usage of RO systems is close to 2 kWh/m3, which is considered to be close to the practical minimum. The incorporation of renewable energy sources, particularly solar PV, into RO systems has been made possible by these decreases in energy use.

Recent significant desalination projects in the Middle East shattered records, claiming to attain costs as low as $0.31/m3. Although these prices may be exorbitant compared to water treatment plans for conventional groundwater and surface water, they are currently competitive in coastal locations where extensive treatment is required to disinfect and remove micropollutants.

Market Segmentation

• Based on Technology, the Global Desalination market is segmented into
  • RO
  • MSF Distillation
  • MED
  • NF
  • ED/EDI/EDR
  • Others
• Based on Water Capacity, the Global Desalination market is segmented into
  • Municipal
  • Industrial
  • Power stations
  • Others
• Based on Geography, the Global Desalination market is segmented into
  • Asia-Pacific
  • North America
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • Middle East & Africa

• All market revenue has been given in US Dollar and volume in thousand cubic meter per day

Historical Year: 2020-2021
Base Year: 2022
Estimated: 2023
Forecast- 2024-2030

Key Questions this Study will Answer

• What are the key overall market statistics or market estimates (Market Overview, Market Size- By Value, Market Size-By Volume, Forecast Numbers, Market Segmentation, Market Shares) of Global Desalination Market?
• What is the region wise industry size, growth drivers and challenges key market trends?
• What are the key innovations, opportunities, current and future trends and regulations in the Global Desalination Market?
• Who are the key competitors, what are their key strength and weakness and how they perform in Global Desalination Market based on competitive benchmarking matrix?
• What are the key results derived from the market surveys conducted during Global Desalination Market study?