MOL eyes new business opportunity with Floating Desalination Vessels

The Japanese shipowner has inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with EnviroNor with an aim to fast-track the bringing of FDVs to market to meet the challenge of growing water scarcity.

With the MoU the companies aim to combine MOL’s experience in building and operating vessels with EnviroNor’s expertise in desalination.

“We aim to build FDVs and capture business opportunities as a means of providing new fast-track solutions all over the world where water shortages are a current and rapid growing challenge,” the companies said in a joint statement.

As with floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) for LNG the aim is to provide a lower cost, and faster time to market than building a land-based desalination plant.

The FDV would be equipped with seawater desalination equipment using reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, which removes impurities other than water, to produce fresh drinking water and supply it to shore.

“Compared to a seawater desalination plant on land, FDVs do not require the acquisition of land and is built by converting a used ship, so it offers advantages such as the ability to start water supply in a short time,” the statement said.

The idea to commercialise FDVs comes MOL Group Employee Proposal System "MOL Incubation Bridge" and this has resulted in the MoU with EnviroNor.

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