Global Water Desalination Market 2024–2033

Reports Description

The Global Water Desalination Market is anticipated to witness substantial growth from 2024 to 2033, driven by increasing water scarcity, population growth, and industrial development.

Water desalination, a process of removing salts and impurities from seawater or brackish water to produce freshwater suitable for consumption or industrial use, plays a crucial role in addressing water stress and ensuring water security in regions facing water shortages.

The market is projected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of approximately 12.8% during the forecast period, with the market size estimated at USD 20.62 Billion in 2024 and expected to reach USD 44.03 Billion by 2033.

Advancements in desalination technologies, membrane materials, energy efficiency, and process optimization contribute to the expansion and efficiency of water desalination facilities worldwide. With the increasing demand for freshwater in municipal, industrial, and agricultural sectors, governments, utilities, and private enterprises are investing in desalination projects to augment water supplies, mitigate water stress, and ensure sustainable water management.

The Water Desalination Market encompasses various desalination technologies, including reverse osmosis, multi-stage flash distillation, multi-effect distillation, and electrodialysis, each offering unique advantages in terms of energy consumption, cost-effectiveness, and scalability.

Reverse osmosis, characterized by its high efficiency and flexibility, dominates the global desalination market, particularly in coastal regions and arid areas with limited freshwater resources. Desalinated water finds applications across diverse sectors, including municipal water supply, industrial processes, agriculture, and water reuse projects.

Municipal desalination plants provide potable water to urban populations, ensuring access to safe and reliable drinking water in water-stressed regions. Industrial desalination facilities cater to the water needs of industries such as power generation, oil and gas, mining, and food and beverage, supporting production processes and operational sustainability.

Agricultural desalination projects enable irrigation and agricultural development in arid and semi-arid regions, enhancing crop yields and food security. Additionally, water reuse and recycling initiatives contribute to sustainable water management practices, reducing freshwater consumption and environmental impact in water-scarce regions.

The Water Desalination Market is characterized by a growing emphasis on sustainability, innovation, and resource efficiency, driving research and development in desalination technologies, membrane materials, and renewable energy integration.

Desalination projects increasingly prioritize environmental sustainability, energy recovery, and brine management to minimize ecological footprint and address concerns related to energy consumption, carbon emissions, and saline discharge.

Water Desalination Market: Overview

The Water Desalination Market comprises a range of technologies and processes aimed at converting saline or brackish water into freshwater suitable for various applications, including drinking water supply, industrial processes, and agricultural irrigation.

Desalination technologies employ physical, chemical, or electrochemical processes to remove dissolved salts, minerals, and contaminants from seawater, brackish water, or wastewater streams, producing potable or non-potable water depending on the application requirements.

Key components of water desalination systems include pre-treatment units, membrane filtration modules, energy recovery devices, and post-treatment systems, which work together to achieve desired water quality standards, maximize water recovery, and minimize energy consumption.

Desalination plants vary in scale and capacity, ranging from small-scale decentralized systems to large-scale centralized facilities serving urban populations or industrial complexes. Reverse osmosis (RO) is the most widely adopted desalination technology, characterized by its high efficiency, modular design, and low energy consumption compared to thermal desalination processes such as multi-stage flash distillation (MSF) and multi-effect distillation (MED).

RO membranes selectively remove salts and contaminants from water under high pressure, producing freshwater permeate and concentrated brine reject.

Other desalination technologies, including electrodialysis (ED) and membrane distillation (MD), offer alternative approaches to desalination, utilizing electrical gradients or vapor pressure differentials to drive salt separation and water purification.

Desalination plants may integrate renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, or tidal energy to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and mitigate environmental impact. The Water Desalination Market serves diverse end-user sectors, including municipal water utilities, industrial facilities, agricultural enterprises, and commercial establishments, addressing water supply challenges and promoting water sustainability in regions facing water scarcity, droughts, or contamination issues.

Water Desalination Market: Growth Factors

• Water Scarcity: Rising water scarcity, population growth, and urbanization drive demand for desalinated water as a sustainable solution to meet freshwater needs in water-stressed regions facing limited water resources, droughts, or climate variability.

• Industrial Development: Rapid industrialization, economic growth, and expansion of water-intensive industries such as power generation, oil and gas, mining, and manufacturing drive demand for desalination solutions to support production processes, cooling systems, and operational sustainability.

• Urbanization: Increasing urbanization and population growth in coastal areas and arid regions create demand for desalinated water to meet municipal water supply needs, ensuring access to safe and reliable drinking water for urban populations and supporting urban development and livability.

• Technological Advancements: Continuous innovation in desalination technologies, membrane materials, and process optimization techniques enhances the efficiency, reliability, and cost-effectiveness of water desalination systems, driving market growth and adoption worldwide.

• Environmental Concerns: Growing awareness of environmental sustainability, climate change impacts, and water resource management drives investment in environmentally friendly desalination solutions, renewable energy integration, and brine management practices to minimize ecological footprint and enhance water sustainability.

• Government Initiatives: Government policies, regulations, and incentives promoting water conservation, water reuse, and desalination projects stimulate market growth and investment in desalination infrastructure, particularly in regions facing water scarcity or quality challenges.

• Infrastructure Investments: Public and private sector investments in desalination infrastructure, water treatment plants, and distribution networks support market expansion, infrastructure modernization, and capacity enhancement to meet growing water demand and ensure water security.

• Regional Water Stress: Regional water stress, droughts, and freshwater depletion in coastal areas, arid regions, and islands create opportunities for desalination projects to diversify water supplies, alleviate water shortages, and enhance resilience to climate change impacts.

• Techno-Economic Feasibility: Improvements in desalination cost-effectiveness, energy efficiency, and project financing options make desalination projects more economically viable and attractive investments for utilities, municipalities, and private developers seeking long-term water security solutions.

• International Collaboration: Collaborative efforts between governments, international organizations, and private sector stakeholders promote knowledge sharing, technology transfer, and capacity building in desalination research, development, and deployment, fostering global cooperation in addressing water challenges.

Water Desalination Market: Recent Developments

• Suez SA implemented a large-scale seawater desalination project utilizing reverse osmosis technology to provide potable water to coastal communities facing water scarcity, demonstrating the feasibility and scalability of desalination solutions for municipal water supply.

• Veolia Environnement SA partnered with local authorities to upgrade and expand existing desalination plants, incorporating energy-efficient membrane technologies and advanced process controls to optimize water production, quality, and cost-effectiveness.

• Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co., Ltd. introduced a next-generation multi-effect distillation (MED) desalination system featuring enhanced heat recovery and brine concentration capabilities, improving energy efficiency and reducing environmental footprint.

• ACCIONA S.A. collaborated with academic institutions and research centers to develop innovative forward osmosis (FO) desalination membranes with improved selectivity, fouling resistance, and durability, enabling more sustainable and cost-effective water treatment solutions.

• Xylem Inc. launched a range of energy recovery devices and pumping solutions tailored for desalination applications, maximizing energy efficiency, hydraulic performance, and operational reliability in desalination plants worldwide.

• Abengoa S.A. completed the construction of a solar-powered desalination plant utilizing concentrated solar power (CSP) technology to drive water production and thermal energy storage, reducing dependence on fossil fuels and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.

• Aquatech International LLC deployed advanced membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology for wastewater reuse and brackish water desalination, offering a sustainable solution for industrial water recycling, environmental compliance, and resource recovery.

• Evoqua Water Technologies LLC introduced a containerized desalination system equipped with modular membrane units and pre-engineered skid-mounted components, providing flexible and scalable water treatment solutions for remote or temporary applications.

• Koch Membrane Systems, Inc. developed high-performance nanofiltration (NF) membranes for brackish water desalination, offering superior salt rejection, fouling resistance, and permeate quality compared to conventional desalination membranes.

• Pentair plc launched a comprehensive water desalination solution integrating pre-treatment, membrane filtration, and post-treatment processes, optimized for energy efficiency, reliability, and lifecycle cost savings in municipal and industrial applications.

Water Desalination Market: Restraints and Challenges

• Energy Consumption: High energy consumption, operational costs, and carbon emissions associated with desalination processes pose challenges to the economic viability, environmental sustainability, and scalability of desalination projects, particularly in regions with limited access to affordable energy sources.

• Brine Disposal: Disposal of concentrated brine waste generated during desalination operations presents environmental challenges, including saline discharge impacts on marine ecosystems, coastal habitats, and water quality, necessitating brine management strategies and environmental monitoring to minimize the ecological footprint.

• Technological Limitations: Technological limitations such as membrane fouling, scaling, and degradation, as well as process inefficiencies, reliability issues, and system complexity, constrain the performance, reliability, and cost-effectiveness of desalination technologies, requiring continuous innovation and research to overcome technical barriers.

• Infrastructure Investment: Capital-intensive nature, long lead times, and regulatory hurdles associated with desalination infrastructure development, permitting, and financing pose barriers to market entry, project implementation, and investment in desalination projects, particularly in developing countries and emerging markets.

• Water Quality Concerns: Water quality challenges, including microbiological contamination, chemical pollutants, and emerging contaminants, may affect the suitability of desalinated water for drinking, irrigation, or industrial processes, necessitating rigorous water quality monitoring and treatment to ensure public health and environmental protection.

• Environmental Impacts: Environmental impacts of desalination operations, including habitat disruption, energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and marine ecosystem disturbances, raise concerns about ecological sustainability, climate change resilience, and social acceptance of desalination projects, requiring comprehensive environmental assessments and stakeholder engagement.

• Regulatory Compliance: Regulatory compliance requirements related to water quality standards, discharge limits, environmental permits, and land use regulations vary across jurisdictions, posing challenges for desalination project developers in navigating complex regulatory frameworks and obtaining necessary approvals for project implementation.

• Social Acceptance: Social acceptance of desalination projects, public perceptions of water scarcity, and community concerns about water security, environmental impacts, and public health risks may influence stakeholder engagement, project siting, and decision-making processes, requiring transparent communication, public participation, and community outreach efforts.

• Techno-Economic Risks: Techno-economic risks associated with desalination project planning, design, and operation, including cost overruns, performance uncertainties, and market fluctuations, impact project feasibility, financing options, and investor confidence, necessitating risk management strategies and financial safeguards to mitigate project risks.

• Climate Change Resilience: Climate change impacts, including sea level rise, extreme weather events, and hydrological variability, pose challenges to desalination infrastructure resilience, water supply reliability, and coastal zone management, requiring adaptive strategies, infrastructure upgrades, and risk mitigation measures to enhance climate resilience and water security.

Water Desalination Market: Segmentation Analysis

By Technology:

The membrane technology segment stands out as the dominant force in the global market, poised to exhibit a robust Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 9.46% throughout the forecast period. Membrane-based desalination stands out for its distinctive ability to separate salt without undergoing a phase transition, thus resulting in lower energy consumption.

Widely recognized for its efficiency and reduced energy requirements, membrane-based desalination is often hailed as a solution to water scarcity challenges. Membranes and filters play a pivotal role in selectively allowing or inhibiting the passage of certain ions, thereby forming the basis for various desalination technologies.

Moreover, membranes are indispensable in natural processes like osmosis and dialysis where salt separation occurs. Key membrane technologies include electrodialysis (ED), electrodialysis reversal (EDR), reverse osmosis (RO), and other variants.

On the other hand, thermal treatment involves subjecting the waste feedstock to high temperatures during processing. This category typically encompasses systems such as gasification, incineration, and pyrolysis. Gasification occupies a middle ground between combustion and pyrolysis, involving the partial oxidation of matter.

Incineration, on the other hand, entails the combustion of unprepared, raw, or residual Municipal Solid Waste (MSW). In contrast to combustion, pyrolysis involves thermal degradation in the absence of oxygen. Prominent thermal technologies include Multistage Flash (MSF), Multiple Effect Distillation (MSD), and Mechanical Vapor Compression.

By Application:

The municipal segment holds the largest market share and is anticipated to grow at a noteworthy Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 10.10% throughout the forecast period. Within the global market, the municipal sector is expected to maintain its prominence as the largest application segment.

The escalating global population has led to a heightened demand for treated water, driven by the scarcity of water resources. Consequently, there’s been a pressing need for expanded water recycling and treatment services. Moreover, municipal wastewater treatment is imperative to meet regulatory standards for discharging into environmental waters.

However, there’s a growing trend towards implementing wastewater reuse initiatives. Notably, the key contaminants requiring removal from municipal wastewater, typically ranked in order of significance, include suspended solids, organic matter, ammonia, nitrates, phosphate, pathogenic bacteria, and micropollutants.

Water desalination systems have found extensive applications in various industrial wastewater treatment processes. Desalination serves to mitigate water supply constraints and facilitates the treatment of challenging wastewater across diverse industries such as food and beverage, oil and gas, and pulp and paper, among others.

It emerges as a crucial process offering effective, cost-efficient, and compact solutions to address separation and water purification needs. In industrial settings, water treatment becomes indispensable when contaminated water is utilized in manufacturing processes, as the presence of unwanted materials can adversely affect product quality.

By Water Source:

The seawater segment emerges as the primary driver of market growth, poised to exhibit a notable Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 9.16% throughout the forecast period. Seawater desalination is a process designed to extract salt and other impurities, yielding pure water as the end product.

Among the widely utilized and commercially available technologies for seawater desalination, two main categories prevail membrane and thermal methods. Thermal desalination relies on heat to evaporate water, leaving behind dissolved constituents, with the resulting water vapor condensed and collected as product water.

On the other hand, membrane desalination processes leverage high pressure to propel water molecules across tiny pores while retaining salts and larger molecules. Among membrane desalination technologies, reverse osmosis (RO) stands out as the most commonly employed method. The advancement of desalination technologies has made seawater an increasingly attractive water source for mitigating freshwater shortages.

Brackish water, characterized by a salinity level lying between freshwater and seawater, arises from the blending of ground or surface water with seawater in deep fossil aquifers, or from the dissolution of salt from mineral deposits over time as precipitation infiltrates aquifers.

As water scarcity escalates, brackish water emerges as a critical resource for many regions. With total dissolved solids (TDS) ranging from 1,500 to 20,000 mg/L, desalination becomes necessary. Various membrane treatment technologies, including ultrafiltration (UF) and reverse osmosis (RO), are employed to reduce the total dissolved solids (TDS) or salinity of brackish water.

However, given that many brackish water sources are inland, careful consideration of brine management and minimization is essential for these plants.

Report Scope

Water Desalination Market: Regional Analysis

The Middle East and Africa emerge as pivotal players in the global water desalination market, holding the largest market share and poised to grow at a commendable Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 10.03% throughout the forecast period.

The region’s acute scarcity of freshwater resources serves as the primary impetus for market growth. Additionally, there’s a growing demand for energy-efficient and cost-effective water desalination systems, further propelling market expansion in the Middle East and Africa.

Moreover, heightened global consciousness regarding water pollution and rapid urbanization trends contribute to the escalating demand for water desalination systems in the region. Ongoing advancements in the water desalination sector are also expected to fuel market growth.

The Middle East and Africa witnessed a surge in per-capita water consumption, coupled with a burgeoning population resulting from increased immigration to the region. This demographic shift significantly elevates water demand in the region.

Furthermore, the rise in tourism, particularly in the Middle East, places added strain on water resources. Consequently, these factors collectively drive the demand for water desalination in the upcoming period.

The Asia-Pacific region is poised to demonstrate a robust Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 11.92% over the forecast period. Swift urbanization and industrialization in countries such as China, India, and Japan are the primary drivers propelling the growth of the water desalination market in the region.

These rapid urban and industrial expansions underscore the critical need for clean water and efficient wastewater treatment solutions.

Moreover, increased investments by the public sector to enhance existing water and wastewater treatment infrastructure further stimulate market growth. Environmental concerns and the limited availability of safe drinking water have heightened the adoption of water desalination systems across the Asia-Pacific region.

Governmental initiatives, including the establishment of environmental protection laws aimed at preserving natural water resources and ensuring proper sanitation, play a pivotal role in shaping market dynamics. As a result, the market is expected to sustain its robust growth trajectory throughout the forecast period.

The growth trajectory of the water desalination market in North America is underpinned by heightened investments in Research and Development (R&D) aimed at refining technologies, alongside a growing need for water treatment systems across the region.

Notably, robust economic growth in the United States and Canada, coupled with advancements in industrial sectors and expansions of companies, serve as key drivers propelling the water desalination market forward in North America.

Anticipating forthcoming industrial activities, the global market is expected to witness swift demand in the forecast period. However, the pace of planned industrial projects experienced a slowdown in 2020 due to economic downturns and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite these challenges, the industrial sector in North America is poised to recover and reclaim its position on the global stage. Consequently, with an uptick in product sales across the region, the demand for water desalination is forecasted to remain high throughout the projected period.

List of the prominent players in the Water Desalination Market:

• Suez SA
• Veolia Environnement SA
• Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co. Ltd.
• ACCIONA S.A.
• Xylem Inc.
• Abengoa S.A.
• Aquatech International LLC
• Evoqua Water Technologies LLC
• Koch Membrane Systems Inc.
• Pentair plc
• IDE Technologies Ltd.
• Desalitech Ltd.
• Seven Seas Water Corporation
• Synergy Water Solutions
• ACWA Power International
• Others

The Water Desalination Market is segmented as follows:

By Technology

• Membrane Technology
• Thermal Technology
• Other Renewable Technologies

By Applications

• Municipal
• Industrial
• Others

By Water Source

• Seawater
• Brackish Water
• Groundwater and Surface Water

Regional Coverage:

North America

• U.S.
• Canada
• Mexico
• Rest of North America

Europe

• Germany
• France
• U.K.
• Russia
• Italy
• Spain
• Netherlands
• Rest of Europe

Asia Pacific

• China
• Japan
• India
• New Zealand
• Australia
• South Korea
• Taiwan
• Rest of Asia Pacific

The Middle East & Africa

• Saudi Arabia
• UAE
• Egypt
• Kuwait
• South Africa
• Rest of the Middle East & Africa

Latin America

• Brazil
• Argentina
• Rest of Latin America