ENOWA, the energy, water, and hydrogen subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s $500 billion giga project NEOM, has signed a MoU with Japan's ITOCHU, and France's Veolia to build a desalination plant powered by 100 percent renewable energy in OXAGON.
OXAGON is NEOM's advanced manufacturing and innovation city.
The desalination plant with a 500,000 cubic metres per day capacity, will meet approximately 30 percent of NEOM’s forecasted total water demand when it is completed in 2025, according to a statement. 
The plant will use high-recovery reverse osmosis process to produce separate, highly concentrated, brine streams in addition to desalinated water. 
The brine would be treated by ENOWA to feed industries utilising High Purity Industrial Salt, Bromine, Boron, Potassium, Gypsum, Magnesium and Rare Metal feedstocks.
The statement said the project will redefine the business model for desalination facilities of the future through the reclassification of brine as a product, rather than waste, while achieving Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) in alignment with NEOM's commitment to developing a circular economy.

In January 2020, Zawya reported that NEOM would build the world's first 'solar dome' desalination plant.

(Writing by Anoop Menon; editing by Seban Scaria ) 
anoop.menon@lseg.com