{"id":388509,"date":"2026-01-04T23:08:27","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T23:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/388509\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T23:08:27","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T23:08:27","slug":"worlds-first-subsea-desalination-facility-will-start-making-clean-water-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/388509\/","title":{"rendered":"World’s first subsea desalination facility will start making clean water in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Flocean\u2019s subsea desalination pod<\/p>\n

Flocean<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Turning seawater into drinking water is so costly and energy-intensive that it\u2019s untenable in most parts of the world, but a Norwegian company is trialling a new approach that could change that. Flocean<\/a> will launch the world\u2019s first commercial-scale subsea desalination plant in 2026, and says its system will cut the cost and energy consumption of the process dramatically.<\/p>\n

Global demand for water<\/a> is going up, driven by population growth, climate change and industrial uses like data centres and manufacturing. Meanwhile, fresh water is becoming less abundant<\/a> due to droughts, deforestation and over-irrigation.<\/p>\n

Land-based desalination currently produces about 1 per cent<\/a> of the world\u2019s fresh water supply, with over 300 million people relying on this source for their daily water needs. The biggest plants are in the Middle East<\/a>, where cheap energy makes the technology more feasible and water scarcity makes it more necessary.<\/p>\n

The leading technology for desalination today is reverse osmosis. The method pumps seawater through a membrane with microscopic holes that only allow water molecules to pass through, while salt and other impurities get filtered out. The water has to be pressurised to push it through the filters, a process that requires vast amounts of energy.<\/p>\n

Flocean\u2019s approach is to plunge water-filtering pods deep into the ocean, separate seawater from salt at depth, then pump the fresh water back up to land. By putting reverse osmosis pods deep underwater, the technology leverages hydrostatic pressure \u2013 the weight of all the water pressing down from above \u2013 to push the seawater through filtering membranes.<\/p>\n

Less pumping means less energy consumption, around a 40 to 50 per cent reduction compared with conventional desalination plants, according to the company. Plus, seawater is cleaner once you get below the sunlight zone<\/a> (which extends to 200 metres below the water\u2019s surface), which means the water doesn\u2019t require as much pre-treatment before it reaches membranes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fundamentally quite boring down there from a process and engineering perspective,\u201d says Alexander Fuglesang<\/a>, Flocean\u2019s founder and CEO. \u201cIt\u2019s the same salinity, temperature, pressure. It\u2019s dark. There\u2019s not a lot of bacteria that can cause biofouling.\u201d The same hydrostatic pressure that pushes water through the membranes also helps disperse the salty brine by-product, which Flocean says is free of chemicals that might harm marine life.<\/p>\n

For the past year, Flocean has been desalinating water at a depth of 524 metres at its test site at Norway\u2019s largest offshore supply base, Mongstad Industrial Park. Its commercial facility, called Flocean One, is being built at the same location, and will initially produce 1000 cubic metres of fresh water daily when it launches next year. The operation can then be scaled up modularly by adding more desalination pods.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur philosophy is to keep the subsea units the same and scale by multiplication rather than by building ever bigger machines,\u201d says Fuglesang. Scaling up will involve engineering trade-offs at the system level, however. Since more modules will share the same power supply and controls, Flocean\u2019s engineers need to organise power distribution and the permeate manifold \u2013 the mechanism that directs purified water from multiple membranes to a single output line \u2013 so that scaling up is as straightforward as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis solution could become viable in suitable locations, providing affordable water if costs decline, but it has yet to be proven at large scale,\u201d says Nidal Hilal<\/a> at New York University Abu Dhabi. \u201cBroad municipal deployment likely depends on overcoming technical and economic challenges over several years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cost reductions will be crucial to scale up the technology further, says Hilal, as it is still much more expensive than obtaining fresh water through conventional methods like pulling from lakes or aquifers.<\/p>\n

Cleaning and maintaining the membranes will be one of Flocean\u2019s biggest costs. Advances in membrane technology will help; Hilal\u2019s research group is working on electrically conductive membranes that use electricity to repel salt ions and foulants, keeping themselves clean and boosting throughput. The researchers are also exploring ways to recycle single-use plastics into membrane materials, increasing sustainability while further reducing costs. \u201cMore durable membranes and high-efficiency pumps can further lower operational expenses, while renewable energy integration reduces power costs,\u201d says Hilal.<\/p>\n

Flocean One should start producing fresh water in the second quarter of 2026. If the technology works as planned, it could help Flocean get the backing to build bigger plants elsewhere. \u201cThe biggest challenge for us is having perfect alignment,\u201d says Fuglesang. \u201cWe need the client, we need government permissions and we need strong financial partners.\u201d<\/p>\n

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