Water. Desalination + reuse
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/1085636
10 Interview March 2019 Water. desalination + reuse customers. We have to do this today in order to do business," he adds. "In the Middle East, desalination remains very strong with a number of big desalination projects. As a technology provider our job is to sell our value. We bring product quality and peace-of-mind from technical support on the ground. The Middle East is a classic case where we have technical and sales and mar - keting teams," Nanda says. Bigger, better, bolder The business' ambition is encapsulated in Nanda's three Bs strategy: "Bigger, better, bolder." Bigger is, perhaps, the most self- explanatory. "Getting bigger is going to be crit - ical. There are still hundreds of customers and many new countries that we are yet to reach," Nanda says. In other words, if Water Solutions can capture a healthy share of the new growth markets it can then use that initial foothold to deepen market penetration. The second B, "better", represents a so…er form of competition that centres on partnering with third parties. "We are ready to reach out to end-users, systems integrators, distributors and others to grow that mindset of collabora - tion," says Nanda. The idea here is to develop and grow business opportunities by develop- ing mutually-beneficial relationships with other organisations. Finally, "bolder" refers to developing solu- tions for the most challenging problems which exist within these growing markets. "The big challenge we really have to solve is minimal liquid discharge (MLD). It's very rarely the case that one technology can work. We have to bring in multiple technologies. This chal- lenges the existing paradigms and tests us to create new solutions," says Nanda. The demand for MLD technologies in China is strong. The Chinese market is a "big focus area," Nanda says. The business has set its sights on the household market in tier one, two and three cities. The model is to sell mem - branes to manufacturers of household water purification units. "There are hundreds of brand owners in the market," he adds. Tradewinds The demand for MLD solutions is high among industrial end-users in China particularly, after new regulations on wastewater dis- charge were introduced. The semi-conductor manufacturing industry is seeking solutions. DuPont Water Solutions has designed and executed a project for the largest paper manu - facturing company in China. The project is one of the largest installa- tions in the world comprising 10,000 Dow Filmtec Fortilife CR100 RO elements and 3,000 Dow UF modules. Nanda describes the CR100 as "the best from the new innovative portfolio." The Water Solutions team worked closely with the client to design the system. The project needed to be sympathetic to exist - ing processes and handle the complexities of the wastewater streams. The new MLD system has increased the proportion of water reused at the site from 40 to 90 per cent. The volume of wastewater discharge was cut to five million m3/y, down from 50 million m3/y. The project completed within 18 months. Notwithstanding the opportunity, the busi - ness outlook has its challenges. Water Solu- tions has raised the price of its RO membranes and ion exchange resins this year by varying amounts according to region and application. The price rise for RO membranes was five to 10 per cent, and for ion exchange resins five to 20 per cent. (The move may reflect the cost of new tariffs introduced by jurisdictions such as China in response to US import tariffs.) Still, given the strength of the mega-trends blowing across the East, Nanda says: "We are develop - ing our business and growing it nicely. My expectation is very favourable because theses mega-trends support the need for solutions." As a technology provider our job is to sell our value. We bring product quality and peace of mind from technical support on the ground. The new DuPont company will include Water Solutions Dow DuPont's three business divisions will be spun off into separate companies during 2019. DuPont Water Solutions is a business division of Safety & Construction within DuPont. The water business will form part of the new DuPont company from 1 June. CORTEVA AGRISCIENCE $14.3BN DOW $48.8BN DUPONT $22.6BN Seeds Crop Protection Packaging & Specialty Plastics Performance Materials & Coatings Industrial Intermediates & Infrastructure Electronics & Imaging Safety & Construction Nutrition & Biosciences Transportation & Advanced Polymers * The Water Solutions business forms part of Safety & Construction. It combines parts of the DuPont and Dow portfolios. The product range includes Filmtec Fortilife reverse osmosis elements and Fortilife XCN ion-separation membranes, and ultrafiltration membranes, particle filters and electro-deionisation products.