Jeddha-based Chemsbro, a consultant and trouble shooter for membrane-based desalination plants, will receive stocks from US-headquartered PWT which specialises in membrane filtration speciality chemicals following a distribution agreement the two companies signed recently.

Chemsbro is a member of SBCC Water Group that includes Sawaco-Water Desalination and Suido Kiko Middle East. Chemsbro’s main customers are the Water and Electricity Ministry of Saudi Arabia, National Water Company, the Saudi Industrial Property Authority (Modon) and many industrial companies in the kingdom. Among these customers, Chemsbro has started to provide the SpectraGuard antiscalant to two sea water desalination plants owned by Sawaco.

Chemsbro has been awarded a three-year contract with the city of Riyadh to supply services and specialty chemicals for seven water treatment plants, which represent about 30 per cent of the water in the city. This contract represents a great opportunity for PWT to get its products used in major water treatment plants of Saudi Arabia.

“This partnership will allow PWT to enter the Saudi market and benefit from the competitive edge that Chemsbro enjoys in the public and private sectors. For its part, Chemsbro will benefit from the experience and R&D capabilities of PWT in the membrane-based desalination industry,” said Nizar Kammourie, CEO of Chemsbro.

Gregory Madden, vice president, specialty products and services, with responsibility for the Piedmont and PWT business units, remarked: “We are positioning ourselves to establish a presence in Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest desalination market. Many initiatives and huge investments are done worldwide to promote water efficiency and Saudi Arabia differentiates itself by its wastewater reuse market, which is the third largest in the world. “Through our unique specialty products for both desalination and wastewater reuse, we are confident we will capitalise on those opportunities. We see a lot of potential to repeat our global success story in Saudi Arabia with the support of our partner Chemsbro.

PWT, a subsidiary of   Canada-based H2O Innovation Inc, boasts environmentally friendly phosphate-free super-concentrated antiscalants which are said to be 11 times more concentrated than standard antiscalants, reducing shipping and handling costs by 90 per cent and reducing drum disposal requirements.