Oman close to commissioning first solar thermal desalination plant

Austrian solar-tech company Heliovis AG is preparing to commission in the coming weeks a solar-thermally powered desalination plant for the treatment of produced water in Oman, the company said in a social media post.

The plant is built on behalf of Omani ARA Petroleum at Qarat al Milh, a small oil field near Qarn Alam in central Oman.

Heliovis was hired in 2022 as an EPC contractor to deploy its technology to produce up to 140 cubic metres of drinking water per day from highly saline produced water. The water naturally occurs in oil reservoirs and is co-extracted during the hydrocarbon production process.

Two HELIOtubes, Heliovis's solar thermal technology, have already been successfully installed at the Qarat Al Milh field, ARA said on Tuesday. It noted that the HELIOtubes utilise the forward osmosos method for produced water treatment, which reduces GHG emissions substantially.

"The technology uses recyclable inflatable tubes and mirror films to collect and concentrate sunlight which then provides clean industrial process heat in the hard-to-decarbonize mid-temperature range of 90°C to 400°C," ARA explained further.

Vienna-based Heliovis has developed HELIOtube, aiming to make solar thermal power economically sustainable and more competitive. The technology is meant to provide clean process heat for various industries like oil and gas, food and beverages, water desalination and treatment, mining, chemicals and plastics, pharmaceuticals, pulp and paper as well as solar cooling.

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