Water. Desalination + reuse
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/133796
BUSINESS coRpoRate changes PUrEtEc acqUIrES LayNE chrIStENSEN'S DI aSSEtS California-based Puretec Industrial Water announced at the end of March 2013 that it had acquired the assets of Layne Christensen's Arizona-based deionization water purification and water system maintenance services as from 1 April 2013. Layne Christensen focuses on providing drilling services and related products and services in water resources, mineral exploration, geo-construction services and energy services and production. Puretec is currently building a state-of-the-art ion-exchange regeneration and equipment fabrication facility in Gilbert, Arizona, and this acquisition will help build upon Puretec's existing service offering in Arizona and the Southwest, providing deionization, reverse-osmosis systems and service for a host of industrial and commercial water treatment needs. BaSF watEr BUSINESS comBINED wIth othEr SEctorS German chemical giant BASF has combined its water business with its oilfield and mining businesses as from 1 April 2013 to increase efficiency and support growth. BASF's water business will in future fully concentrate on providing innovative chemical solutions to the water market. To this end the company is planning to divest its service-oriented industrial water management business, located in Lyon, France, to a strategic partner capable of expanding the business further. The company expects to reduce its workforce by about 215 positions worldwide, mostly at the Bradford and Grimsby, UK sites. BASF offers a wide range of products for key processes of industrial and municipal water treatment, products for the drilling and completion of oil wells and mineral processing reagents for the mining industry. All three businesses include parts of the polyacrylamide (PAM) value chain. With the combination of these businesses BASF is taking various steps to increase efficiency and operational excellence in its PAM operations. Significant investments are planned to upgrade the performance of existing production plants, create additional capacity, strengthen R&D efforts and establish a new bio-acrylamide process for further cost optimization. "By combining the strengths of these businesses, sharpening our focused market approach and at the same time increasing operational and innovation excellence, we are in a good position to advance innovative solutions to the water, oilfield and mining industries," said Hans W Reiners, president of BASF's Performance Chemicals division. chINESE LIcENSEE joINS Dow rESIDENtIaL FILmtEc Program Haier Group of China, a leading multinational home appliances and consumer electronics company, has become the latest official licensee to partner with Dow Water & Process Solutions (DW&PS) in its newly launched Filmtec™ reverse osmosis (RO) ingredient branding program. The program is designed to help improve residential water treatment through collaboration with well-known local brands. | 12 | Desalination & Water Reuse | May-June 2013 Haier Group will use DW&PS's advanced RO technology inside its residential water purification system and filtration products. In addition, Haier is authorized to use the Filmtec™ RO Inside logo on its water filtration products and its water filtration marketing materials. Other companies that have partnered with Dow include Midea Water Appliances (China), Angel (China), Rusfilter LLC (Russia), KAROFi (Vietnam) and Kent RO Systems Ltd. (India). SUEz ENvIroNNEmENt ShakE-UP LEavES DEBoN ovEr DEgrémoNt French desalination and water/wastewater contractor Degrémont is part of a reshuffle within parent company Suez Environnement that divides all operating activities under four deputy CEOs Degrémont is under the authority of Marie-Ange Debon, deputy CEO in charge of international activities, who will additionally look after the USA, Africa-Middle East and Asia-Pacific. A new Department of Innovation & Business Performance has also been created, under thesupervision of Thierry Mallet. Suez says this new department will make the group better equipped to respond to the expectations of its customers – both public and industrial – and will be more focused on technology and innovation, value-added services and operational efficiency. LIqtEch tIES UP oIL&gaS agrEEmENt wIth Fmc Denmark's LiqTech International Inc announced on 25 March 2013 that it had entered into an agreement with US oilfield equipment and services company FMC Technologies Inc for the use of LiqTech's silicon-carbide membrane technology for oil/gas applications. The exclusive agreement will bring LiqTech International's membrane technology into the highly attractive unconventional shale oil & gas sector and will allow for the development of new water treatment systems. The agreement includes a multi-year, multimillion dollar commitment towards LiqTech technology in order for FMC Technologies to maintain exclusivity. The hydraulic fracturing process involves injecting large amounts of water and sand into a well to increase the cracks in dense formations, thereby enhancing flow characteristics. Following the process, a significant amount of water returns to the surface and must be treated or injected into deep underground disposal wells. LiqTech's silicon carbide membrane, and its greatly enhanced filtration capabilities, is a potential enabling technology for the treatment and reuse of this produced water. Lasse Andreassen, LiqTech's CEO, stated, "This agreement is a major breakthrough for LiqTech and is the validation of our technology that we have been working on for the last six years. We have more than one hundred customers that use our membranes, but FMC Technologies will bring LiqTech a very important platform in the attractive unconventional shale oil/gas area." "FMC Technologies has studied and tested LiqTech's Silicon Carbide Membrane Technology and found it well suited for the further development of our product and service offerings in unconventional shale oil/gas," said Johan Pfeiffer, FMC Technologies' vice president, surface technologies. "We chose LiqTech as our partner because its product has great promise and its organization can meet the high quality standards that FMC Technologies requires."