Japan’s Toray Industries has said that it has been awarded orders to supply reverse osmosis (RO) membranes for the Al Dur 2 Desalination Plant in the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Umm Al Quwain Desalination Plant in UAE.

The combined water production capacity of the two plants will accumulate to 911,000 cu. m per day, while the Umm Al Quwain Desalination Plant alone will hold one of the world’s largest capacities with 681,000 cu. m per day freshwater production.

The company stated that its local subsidiary Toray Membrane Middle East LLC (TMME) located in Dammam, Saudi Arabia will provide the RO membranes and technical services required for the plants.

Toray added that with further reinforcement of localisation in its strategy, its long-term focus will be to contribute to solve water shortage issues in the Middle East through TMME, which will ultimately lead to a stable energy resource supply.

Additionally, Toray’s RO element was used at Al Dur 1 Plant, and was highly recognised and acclaimed, and its ability to achieve stable operations led to the Umm Al Quwain award. Toray further stated that the demand to build RO desalination plants which consume less energy to operate as compared to thermal desalination plants is also on the rise, with the increasing awareness to reduce greenhouse gas emission.