JUBAIL – The Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture and the US Energy Department have discussed co-signing of a draft memorandum of understanding (MoU) in the field of developing desalination techniques. This figured in the discussions held between Victoria Coates, senior advisor to the US Secretary of Energy, and Dr. Ahmed Al-Amoudi, director general of the Desalination Technologies Research Institute at Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC), during her visit to the institute headquarters in Jubail. The MoU is aimed at further consolidating bilateral technical and technological cooperation prospects between the two sides. During the visit, Coates was briefed on the institute’s capabilities and capacities, and its existing partnerships with local, regional and international companies, universities and research centers, especially with the US, as well as its future and expansionary directions to support and strengthen such partnerships. The senior US official watched a presentation on the capabilities of the institute’s laboratory and experimental stations, in addition to the approved researches. The presentation included some of the institute’s achievements that contributed to strengthening the desalination industry worldwide. The institute’s latest innovations in the zero return salt technology, investment opportunities and the economic benefits that will accrue to the desalination industry from them were also reviewed.