Along with the University of Bahrain strategy to collaborate with different national institutes, an agreement has been signed with the Sustainable Energy Authority (SEA) in the country in July 2019. This one-year agreement focuses on research collaboration in seawater desalination applying renewable energy technologies.

The collaboration investigates the feasibility of installing a small scale (15 m3/day = 3300 gallons/day) solar operated desalination unit. In the first phase of the project, a comprehensive study on the membrane desalination technologies that are coupled with solar energy, both in the Arabian Gulf Region and worldwide were provided the SEA. The study proposed three scenarios, Grid Connected Solar PV-RO Desalination, Standalone Solar PV-RO Desalination and Gravity driven RO-Solar Desalination, and these are investigated with the aim of reducing Carbon emissions to atmosphere in line with Bahrain’s national initiatives in this field. Such collaboration enhances innovative research solutions for regional environmental obstacles as well as global environmental challenges.