RIYADH – Hitachi, a leading global electronics company, has signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia's King Abdulaziz University (KAU) for conducting a joint research on water quality monitoring technology to be used in seawater desalination facilities, the Japanese group said recently. The joint research will focus on the demonstration and validation, evaluation, and improvement of water quality monitoring technology developed at Hitachi's Yokohama Research Laboratory that will be used in Hitachi Plant Technologies' seawater desalination plant, said Prof. Osama S. Tayek of the KAU who signed the agreement. The work will be conducted over a nearly two-year period in cooperation with KAU's Center of Excellence in Desalination Technology (CEDT), one of the most experienced organizations in this field in Saudi Arabia, one of the world's most important markets for seawater desalination plants. Seawater reverse osmosis plants based on reverse osmosis (RO) membranes are widely used to obtain potable water and industrial water in regions such as the Middle East, which have a serious shortage of water resource. An important task in operating the seawater reverse osmosis plants is preventing membrane fouling caused by the foulants included in the seawater. An accurate assessment of seawater properties based on its monitoring is essential for controlling fouling and ensuring stable operation of the plants because the operating parameters must be set in view of these properties. – SG/Agencies
