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Osmoflo: Addressing Desalination Needs Worldwide Osmoflo’s latest facility, commissioned in June 2019, is a 20-MLD brackish water RO treatment facility for Roy Hill Mine in Western Australia, and includes an operating contract for up to 20 years.
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ounded in 1991, the Australian desalination company Osmoflo is active all around the world, serving clients in a dizzying variety of municipal, energy, industrial, mining, and food and drink applications. With its flexible, technology-independent approach to solving problems and its rapid-deployment emergency facilities, Osmoflo can solve all sorts of problems wherever on the globe they occur. In this interview, Carmine Ciccocioppo, the chief operating officer (COO) of Osmoflo, speaks with Municipal Water Leader Managing Editor Joshua Dill about how his company’s technology is deployed around the world. Joshua Dill: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.
Joshua Dill: Please tell us about the history of the company.
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Joshua Dill: What are Osmoflo’s main services? Carmine Ciccocioppo: Osmoflo’s main services include the delivery of both customized and preengineered water treatment solutions. We offer flexibility through a range of financing and commercial delivery options, including build-own-operate/transfer, design-build-operate, shortterm rental, engineering and procurement, full turnkey contracting (EPC), or EPC plus O&M. We also provide O&M service agreements to suit the individual needs of
PHOTOS COURTESY OF OSMOFLO.
Carmine Ciccocioppo: I have been involved in the water industry in various project delivery, operational, commercial and leadership roles for around 25 years. It is an industry that really interests me, and one that I am passionate about. Previously, I was director of the Australian Water Association, the peak body for water professionals in Australia, for around 8 years. I joined Osmoflo in 2010 as general manager for operations to look after Osmoflo’s operations and maintenance (O&M) and after-sale-service functions. Since that time, the O&M division of Osmoflo has continued to expand and grow in capacity and capability. I was appointed to the role of COO of Osmoflo’s global business in early 2019, and as part of that role I am responsible for all of the business’s end-to-end operational functions from sales and marketing to engineering and project delivery, as well as our rentals and operations divisions.
Carmine Ciccocioppo: Osmoflo was founded by Marc and Annie Fabig in 1991. From relatively humble beginnings with only two employees, Osmoflo has continued to grow steadily and is now the largest Australian-headquartered designer, builder, and operator of desalination projects. It has offices in the Middle East, South America, and India. From 2011 to 2018, Marubeni Corporation of Japan was a minority shareholder, and in 2016, Hitachi Zosen Corporation of Japan (HITZ) became a majority shareholder. Today, Osmoflo is a wholly owned subsidiary of HITZ, which supports Osmoflo’s pursuit of desalination and advanced water reuse projects across the globe. Since its establishment, Osmoflo has specialized in the design and delivery of almost 500 membrane-based water treatment plants (including microfiltration, ultrafiltration [UF], brackish water reverse osmosis [RO], seawater RO, and electrodeionization plants) ranging in capacity up to 56 million liters per day (MLD), or 14.8 million gallons per day (MGD). In addition, Osmoflo operates and maintains over 80 of those plants and facilities around the world. The company’s employee numbers vary depending on the level of project activity at any particular point in time, but typically range between 220 and 270.
