In September 2016, Water. Desalination + reuse (Faversham House) reported interim results from the Masdar Clean Energy desalination pilots. All four initial pilots matched or beat the target of 3.6 kWh per cubic metre, and two ran nine months without downtime. Suez cited 97 per cent availability; Abengoa paired reverse osmosis with membrane distillation for brine (budget 7.9 million US dollars). In September 2016, a battery-free solar unit by Mascara with 40 m³/day was added at Ghantoot. An optimisation phase followed until spring 2017.
The report showed that reverse osmosis could run efficiently and reliably in hot, highly saline Gulf seawater, with Masdar treating a later link to renewable power as the next step.