The AI will help to lower energy and reagent consumption at the plant, thereby cutting its carbon footprint.

Spanish infrastructure and renewable energy giant Acciona won the contract for the design, construction, and O&M of the Umm Al Houl SWRO desalination plant in Qatar in 2015. The plant will produce 564,000 m3 of desalinated water per day, enough to serve 1.1 million people, after the start-up of operations in April. Acciona will fund an AI project at the facility from its dedicated decarbonization fund. (Acciona)

Acciona and decarbonization

The Qatar desalination plant will use reverse osmosis, a technology in which Acciona is a world leader. The process emits 6.5 times fewer greenhouse gases compared to conventional thermal desalination technology.

In line with the Paris Climate Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to no more than 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels, Acciona has established a decarbonization fund to fund projects that can significantly cut emissions.

It has chosen the Qatar plant as one of 14 projects across the world that are associated with its activities and have the potential to reduce carbon emissions.

Maestro AI

The decarbonization fund will support the deployment of a state-of-the-art AI platform called Maestro, to optimize operations and, in particular, achieve energy saving at the Qatar plant.

“The Maestro AI platform processes operational data in real-time to allow predictive, autonomous, and continuous optimization at scale,” the Spanish company said in a statement. “This is expected to deliver lower operational costs while maximizing output, plant reliability, and water quality.”

The plant will consume less energy and reagents because of the AI. As a result, carbon emissions will fall by 12,000 tons of CO2 annually.

“ACCIONA places the fight against climate change and its impacts at the top of its business goals,” said Jesús Sancho, ACCIONA ME Managing Director. “Our Business as Unusual approach means that we are constantly seeking to improve our water infrastructure solutions to meet the particular challenges of water scarcity and sustainability in the Middle East.”

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Image credit: Acciona’s Umm Al Houl Desalination Project, Qatar