The desalination plant at the Sarroch refinery helps preserve the island’s water reserves.

Freshwater represents only 3% of the total volume of water on Earth. Most (70%) is trapped in glaciers and polar ice caps, while a significant portion is underground. Only a small fraction (about 0.3%) is found in rivers and lakes and is available for human use.
Aware of the preciousness of this resource in general, but even more so in the Mediterranean context, where droughts and desertification risks are increasingly frequent, Saras adopts responsible water management.
The Sarroch industrial site minimizes water withdrawals from the industrial consortium, benefiting local communities for a variety of agricultural and civil uses.
Indeed, Saras meets its needs by maximizing internal recycling and seawater desalination processes using reverse osmosis plants, the most energy-efficient technology for producing desalinated seawater, significantly surpassing traditional evaporation technologies. This technology involves forcing seawater at high pressure through a system of membranes that trap salts and allow only the desalinated water to filter through, ready for industrial use.
The desalination plant installed at the Sarroch refinery is the largest in Italy, and among the largest in Europe, with a production capacity of 12 million liters of desalinated water per day, equivalent to the annual consumption of approximately 100,000 people.