Water. desalination + reuse

BUSINESS coRpoRate chaNges Toray TakEovEr of korEa'S WooNgjIN agrEEd Japan's Toray Industries Inc announced on 6 November 2013 that Toray Advanced Materials Korea Inc (TAK), its Korean subsidiary, had agreed the same day with Woongjin Holdings Co Ltd and others to purchase a 56.2% stake in Woongjin Chemical Co Ltd for 430 billion won (US$ 406 million). TAK had been given the preferential negotiation right regarding the acquisition of the shares in Woongjin Chemical on 27 September 2013. The acquisition provides the Toray Group control of Woongjin Chemical´s main business of fibers and textiles as well as its water treatment filter business, which has grown in recent years and has been improving profitability. Woongjin is the largest manufacturer in Korea of reverse-osmosis membranes. As it used to be the same company (Saehan) as TAK prior to 1999, both companies have plants in the same premises and have a close relationship even now, with Woongjin Chemical providing utility and welfare service to TAK. CommErCIalIzaTIoN movES NEarEr for mEmSyS md SySTEm In what memsys CEO, Götz Lange, calls "a clear step towards commercialization of the company's membrane distillation (MD) technology", the Germany/Singapore based company has announced the formation of a Business Development Unit. Dr Hendrik Müller-Holst has joined memsys as head of business development with responsibility for leading the company's new market activities and establishing new customer groups. Wilson Tan joins the team as regional sales director – Asia Pacific. The announcement follows the joint release with GE of successful results of a field test of a new vapor compressor-driven MD system used to concentrate produced water from the hydraulic fracturing process. Müller-Holst has a PhD in process engineering and brings to his new position extensive experience in desalination and solar thermal technologies. Prior to joining memsys, he was head of technical sales at Fischer Eco Solutions GmbH, where he led the development and marketing of absorption cooling systems and thermal desalination units. Edmund Wong, who will lead the sales team as general manager, has an MSc degree in chemical engineering and extensive experience in liquid/solid separation, membrane process technology, thermal evaporation and mechanical vapor compression distillation. Prior to joining memsys, he has held senior positions at Baker Hughes, Zenon, Hyflux, GE and Meco. Tan is also a chemical engineer. He brings to the team more than 20 years experience as sales manager at Lurgi Bamag, US Filter, Glegg Water, GE, Zenon, Envipure and Meco. XylEm aNd mEkoroT SIgN TEChNology EvalUaTIoN aCCord Xylem Inc has signed an agreement with WaTech®, the technological development center of Mekorot, Israel's national water company, to evaluate new water technologies and accelerate commercialization of innovative products and services. The organizations will jointly assess emerging technologies related | 10 | Desalination & Water Reuse | November-December 2013 to water quality and security, optimization of water supply and sustainable water and wastewater treatment and reuse. In addition to facilitating the joint evaluation of new technologies by the two companies, the cooperation agreement will enable Xylem to test new products at Mekorot facilities to demonstrate product viability, providing the opportunity to accelerate development. TEXaS TrEaTmENT CompaNy SpINS off fraC WaTEr fIrm A company called Green Hydro LLC has been spun off by Texasbased Advanced Hydro Inc to use desalination to address increasing demand for water use in hydraulic fracturing. Advanced Hydro announced on 29 October 2013 that it has completed financing and partnership agreements with an Israeli investment firm to spin off Green Hydro to develop and desalinate environmentally sustainable brackish water resources in Texas, New Mexico, and North and South Dakota. Green Hydro is licensing and using a desalination technology developed by Advanced Hydro, which claims significantly reduced operation and maintenance costs, an integrated turnkey system with open architecture (patent pending), high efficiency, remote operations, mobile platform and antifouling membrane coatings technology. Advanced Hydro plans to develop and deploy a fleet of advanced Caption brackish water desalination systems in Texas and New Mexico over the next couple of years. In addition, the company has signed an agreement for water rights for its first site in West Texas and expects to begin water production in early 2014 for fracking activities. In 2009, Advanced Hydro was set up to commercialize a novel antifouling membrane coatings technology developed at the University of Texas at Austin. This hydrophilic polymeric coating applied to post-production filtration and desalination membranes makes them resistant to oil and organic fouling. The company now provides turnkey systems for desalination of brackish groundwater or seawater and for purification and reclamation of oil & gas related wastewater such as produced water and flow-back. US ENErgy CompaNy gET rIghTS To ChINESE oSmoSIS mEmBraNES L & L Energy Inc, a US-based company with coal operations in China, announced on 31 October 2013 that it has secured rights to advanced membrane-osmosis technologies from the R&D Center for Membrane Technology (CMT) at Chung Yuan Christian University (CYCU) to support its clean energy initiatives in China. With the technology transfer agreement signed, L & L intends to apply this membrane technology to projects with the China LowCarbon Industry Investment Center. In particular, the company sees immediate applications with its recently announced partner in environmental remediation water, Wan Yuan. CMT is a world leader in advanced membrane technologies, which are used for filtering CO2, nitrogen, and metals from solvents. The center has worked with Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs and European water utility company Veolia Water to separate industrial solvents used for semiconductor manufacturing. L&L chairman Dickson V Lee commented, "We are excited to partner with my alma mater, CYCU, to bring to market their

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