[Saudi Arabia] Jeddah First Industrial City Wastewater Treatment Plant Expanded by 60%: 25→40 MLD, with 24 MLD of Advanced Treated Water Annually Reused via Reverse Osmosis

Key Highlights: Bluewater Bio has been awarded a contract to upgrade and expand the MODON Jeddah First Industrial City Industrial Wastewater Treatment Plant (IWWTP) in Saudi Arabia, increasing treatment capacity from 25 MLD to 40 MLD (an increase of 60%). Upon commissioning, 6 FilterClear advanced filtration systems will produce 24 MLD of advanced treated water, which will then be further treated by Reverse Osmosis (RO) units for reuse. The project is part of the 20年 ROT concession awarded by MODON to Miahona, with SUECO serving as the EPC contractor. Completion is expected in 2027年 Q3, and the plant will remain in continuous operation throughout construction.

I. Industrial Expansion Pressure: 1100 Factories Have Overwhelmed the Original Design Capacity

Jeddah First Industrial City is a high-density stronghold in Saudi Arabia's industrial landscape. The wastewater treatment plant serves more than 1100 factories, and as the industrial park continues to expand, wastewater flow and pollutant loads have exceeded the original design capacity.

This is a phased dilemma commonly faced by industrial parks worldwide: wastewater treatment plants are built in one go according to planned capacity, but the park's investment pace, industrial structure, and water use intensity often exceed expectations. When actual loads approach or exceed design limits, owners typically have only two options—build a new plant, or "squeeze" more treatment capacity out of the existing site.

The Jeddah project chose the latter, and opted for the most difficult variant: expanding capacity by 60% without shutting down operations.

II. Technical Approach: A Capacity Expansion Solution Without Major New Civil Construction

The technology package provided by Bluewater Bio consists of two components:

• 14 SMART units—driving Bluewater Bio's HYBACS biological treatment process, responsible for enhancing biological treatment capacity
• 6 FilterClear advanced filtration systems—providing qualified feed water for downstream Reverse Osmosis, producing 24 MLD of advanced treated water

The core selling point of this combination is summarized as "significantly enhancing biological treatment capacity without major new civil construction structures."

For an industrial wastewater plant already operating at full capacity with limited site space, this point almost determines the feasibility of the solution. Traditional capacity expansion often means building new biological tanks and sedimentation tanks, which occupies land and requires coordination with shutdown and switchover of existing systems. The modular nature of HYBACS allows treatment capacity to increase linearly by "adding units," minimizing civil engineering work.

FilterClear undertakes the water quality leap from "compliant discharge" to "reusable." Reverse Osmosis membranes are extremely sensitive to feed water quality; if pretreatment is unstable, membrane fouling and cleaning costs will rapidly erode the project's economics. Stably producing 24 MLD of RO feed water through the advanced filtration system is essentially insuring the reuse water quality.

Fergus Rooksby, Commercial Director of Bluewater Bio, stated that HYBACS was selected because it can significantly increase biological treatment capacity without the need for major new civil construction; combined with FilterClear producing RO feed water, it constitutes a low-cost, low-footprint, easy-to-operate solution with minimal O&M costs. He specifically noted that the ability to continue adding modules in the future provides Miahona with a flexible pathway to increase RO reuse water volume—giving the solution a "future-proof" attribute.

III. Commercial Structure: 20年 ROT Concession

The project's governance structure merits separate analysis.

The upgrade works are part of the 20年 ROT (Rehabilitate-Operate-Transfer) concession awarded by MODON to Miahona, with SUECO serving as the EPC contractor and Bluewater Bio as the technology supplier providing biological treatment and advanced treatment processes.

The difference between the ROT model and the common BOT (Build—Operate—Transfer) model is that it targets existing assets—the private party takes over, first rehabilitates and upgrades them, then operates them over the long term, and transfers them upon expiry. For owners with large stockpiles of water assets that are generally aging, ROT can convert a one-time fiscal expenditure into cross-year service procurement, while transferring responsibility for operational efficiency to a professional party.

The term of 20年 also provides a clear incentive compatibility: the technology choices invested by the private party during the rehabilitation period will directly affect its O&M costs over the following two decades. This explains why Miahona chose a technical solution emphasizing "low O&M cost" and "future modular expansion capability," rather than simply the lowest-priced option.

IV. Construction Constraints: Retrofitting Without Shutdown

The project has another underestimated difficulty—the plant must remain in operation during the upgrade, and industrial users must not be interrupted.

For a wastewater treatment plant serving more than 1100 factories, a shutdown would mean the entire industrial park's discharge has nowhere to go, an unacceptable consequence. Therefore, construction must be deeply interlocked with the operating system: the switchover between old and new units, the connection of pipe networks, and the load distribution during the commissioning period all require precise scheduling.

This in fact imposes additional requirements on the technical solution—the advantages of modular, step-by-step commissioning processes (such as SMART units that can be added one by one) in retrofit-without-shutdown scenarios are far more obvious than in new-build projects.

The project is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2027年.

V. Three Insights for the Industry

First, "capacity expansion of existing assets" is becoming the main battlefield of global industrial water treatment. Against the backdrop of limited space for new construction and simultaneously rising environmental standards, how to enhance the treatment capacity and effluent quality of existing facilities at minimal civil construction cost is a more universal proposition than new construction. The combination of modular biological treatment + advanced filtration provides a replicable answer.

Second, reuse is reshaping the process endpoint of industrial wastewater plants. A RO feed production capacity of 24 MLD means that the plant's main output is no longer "effluent meeting discharge standards," but "high-quality water suitable for industrial reuse." The objective function of process design has changed, and the weight of advanced treatment and membrane systems will inevitably rise.

Third, long-term concession operation has changed the evaluation dimensions of technology selection. Under the 20年 ROT framework, initial investment, O&M cost, and expansion flexibility are calculated on the same sheet. Modular, low-chemical, low-energy, and easy-to-operate solutions often have better whole-life-cycle costs even if their initial quotation is not advantageous.

For Chinese water treatment enterprises, the Saudi market is simultaneously offering two types of opportunities: one is technology supply—entering existing capacity expansion with modular processes; the other is asset operation—such as the Saudi-Chinese consortium formed by Armada and Zhangzhou United Water, which obtained a contract worth 13亿 Saudi Riyals (approximately 3.48亿 USD) from the National Water Company (NWC) of Saudi Arabia to undertake the rehabilitation, operation, and maintenance of 9 wastewater treatment plants. The two paths running in parallel show that the Middle East market is offering a higher premium for the combined capability of "technology + operation."

About TIANYI TECH

Hong Kong TIANYI Technology Limited (TIANYI LIMITED) focuses on industrial water treatment and water resource reuse. Centered on three core products—Industrial Wastewater Treatment AI Agent, Industrial Water Reuse Optimization System, and Industrial Water System Digital Twin—it provides enterprises with full-chain services from water quality diagnosis and process optimization to intelligent operation, helping customers improve water reuse rates and reduce operating costs.

Contact us: +852 66162262 | info@tianyitech.hk