[Saudi Arabia] Jeddah First Industrial City Industrial Wastewater Treatment Plant Expanded by 60%: from 25 to 40 million liters per day, with 24 million liters per day of tertiary-treated effluent for Reverse Osmosis (RO) reuse

The UK water treatment technology company Bluewater Bio has been awarded a contract to provide capacity expansion and upgrade technology for the MODON Industrial Wastewater Treatment Plant in Jeddah First Industrial City, Saudi Arabia, increasing treatment capacity from 25 million liters/day to 40 million liters/day (an increase of 60%). The project falls under the 20年 ROT concession awarded by MODON to Miahona, and includes 6 FilterClear tertiary filtration systems producing 24 million liters/day of Reverse Osmosis feed water. Completion is expected in 2027年 Q3.

I. Contract Structure: A Three-Party ROT Model

According to reports from multiple industry media outlets from late 2026年9月 to 10月, the contract structure of this expansion project shows a clear division of functions: the Saudi Industrial Cities and Technology Zones Authority (MODON) awarded the Industrial Wastewater Treatment Plant (IWWTP) in Jeddah First Industrial City to the water company Miahona under a 20年 ROT (Rehabilitate—Operate—Transfer) concession; SUECO serves as the EPC general contractor; and Bluewater Bio supplies the core biological treatment and tertiary treatment technologies.

This layered "owner—general contractor—technology supplier" structure is typical of the Middle East industrial water market: the concessionaire is responsible for long-term asset operation, the EPC party is responsible for project delivery, and the technology provider enters with proprietary process packages. For technology suppliers, the value of such contracts lies in long-term repeat purchases of equipment and processes—modular technology units can be added in batches as capacity demand grows.

II. Drivers of Expansion: Load at 1100 Factories Exceeds Original Design

Jeddah First Industrial City is one of Saudi Arabia's important manufacturing hubs, with more than 1100 factories in the park covering multiple industrial categories. As industry continues to expand, wastewater flow and pollution loads have exceeded the plant's original design capacity, affecting both treatment reliability and environmental compliance, and constraining the supply of high-quality Reclaimed Water.

This is precisely the main contradiction in the Middle East industrial water market today: industrial capacity is expanding far faster than supporting water infrastructure is being built. In the water-scarce Gulf region, Industrial Wastewater is no longer regarded as "waste requiring disposal" but as a second water source that must be recovered—this shift in positioning directly determines that expansion projects must simultaneously enhance reuse capacity, not merely increase treatment volume.

III. Technology Configuration: 14 SMART Units + 6 FilterClear Systems

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

• 14 SMART units—driving its proprietary HYBACS biological treatment process, responsible for substantially increasing biological treatment capacity within the constraints of existing structures.
• 6 FilterClear tertiary filtration systems—producing 24 million liters/day of tertiary treated water as feed for the downstream Reverse Osmosis (RO) units, producing high-quality industrial Reclaimed Water.

Bluewater Bio's Commercial Director Fergus Rooksby explained the logic behind the technology selection: HYBACS was chosen because it can significantly increase biological treatment capacity without building large new civil structures; combined with FilterClear to provide RO feed water, it forms a solution that is cost-controllable, small-footprint, easy to operate, and low in O&M cost; more importantly, the modular design allows additional units to be added in the future, preserving a flexible path for Miahona to increase RO Reclaimed Water output.

IV. Engineering Constraint: Construction Without Shutdown

A hard requirement of this upgrade is that the plant must remain in continuous operation during construction, avoiding interruption of service to industrial users in the park. This imposes an additional constraint on process selection: conventional expansion usually means building large new structures such as biochemical tanks and secondary clarifiers, with long construction periods and the need to switch off water supply; whereas attached, modular biological treatment units such as SMART can be deployed in parallel alongside existing facilities and gradually connected to the system.

From an industry perspective, "expansion without shutdown" is becoming a standard requirement for Industrial Wastewater treatment plants. Once a park-type wastewater plant is shut down, upstream factories will directly be forced to halt production, with losses far exceeding the construction cost itself. This constraint also explains why technologies that are small-footprint, modularly stackable, and rapidly deployable are increasingly popular in the brownfield retrofit market.

V. Alignment with Saudi Arabia's "2030 Vision"

The strategic positioning of this project clearly targets the goals of sustainable water management and industrial resource circulation in Saudi Arabia's "2030 Vision". In recent years, Saudi Arabia has continued to promote unconventional water use in the industrial sector, and industrial wastewater reuse has been incorporated as an important component of the national water resources strategy. The project is expected to be completed in 2027年 Q3.

For Bluewater Bio, this contract further expands its business footprint in the Middle East—the company has previously completed multiple project implementations in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. CEO Richard Haddon stated that this award reflects the strength of its technical capabilities in addressing complex industrial wastewater treatment needs and consolidates its position in the region's water market. SUECO General Manager Daniyar Seipoldin, from an EPC perspective, emphasized that its solution focuses on energy efficiency improvement, sustainable operations, effective utilization of existing infrastructure, and minimizing new civil construction.

VI. Three Reference Values for Chinese Peers

First, the "footprint constraint" of the brownfield retrofit market is a global proposition. Whether in the Middle East or China's eastern coastal areas, tight industrial land availability creates universal demand for technologies that "increase capacity without adding new structures." Compact processes such as attached-growth biological treatment, high-efficiency sedimentation, and modular membrane systems are common technical directions under this demand.

Second, the three-stage progressive configuration of "treatment—tertiary filtration—Reverse Osmosis / RO" is becoming the standard route for industrial reuse. All 24 million liters/day of tertiary effluent enters Reverse Osmosis / RO, indicating that the industrial park's requirements for reuse water quality have already pointed toward industrial process water or even higher grades, rather than merely meeting discharge or miscellaneous use standards.

Third, modularity and scalability are being written into procurement decisions. In this contract, "future additional modules can be added" is explicitly presented as a technical advantage. For the owner, this means phased investment and on-demand capacity expansion; for technology suppliers, it means a business model shift from one-time equipment delivery to long-term technical services.

TIANYI TECH Co., Ltd. (TIANYI LIMITED) has long been deeply engaged in the fields of wastewater treatment and Reclaimed Water Reuse, focusing on three major directions—low-carbon processes, resource recovery, and smart operations—to provide full-chain services from solution design, equipment manufacturing, engineering construction to operation management for municipal wastewater treatment plants, industrial parks, and various water-using entities. With the goals of "stable compliance, energy saving and consumption reduction, and resource circulation," the company continues to help customers reduce operating costs and enhance system resilience in the green and low-carbon transition.

Source: Compiled from industry media reports including Zawya/Reuters (2026年9月29日), Filtration+Separation, and Africa Middle East Mining and Energy News on Bluewater Bio winning the contract for the expansion of the MODON Industrial Wastewater Treatment Plant in Jeddah First Industrial City.