Reverse osmosis plant

A reverse osmosis plant is a manufacturing plant where the process of reverse osmosis takes place. An average modern reverse osmosis plant needs six kilowatt-hours of electricity to desalinate one cubic metre of water. The process also results in an amount of salty briny waste. The challenge for these plants is to find ways to reduce energy consumption, use sustainable energy sources, improve the process of desalination and to innovate in the area of waste management to deal with the waste.

Examples of reverse osmosis plants
In operation
 * In Israel at Ashkelon on the Mediterranean coast, the world's largest reverse osmosis plant is producing 320,000 cubic metres of water a day at around possibly 50 US$ cents per cubic metre.

Under construction
 * In China a desalination plant will be built for Tianjin, to produce 100,000 cubic metres of desalinated seawater a day.
 * In Spain 20 reverse osmosis plants will be built along the Costas, expecting to meet slightly over 1 per cent of Spain's total water needs.