Water. desalination + reuse

BUSINESS | 14 | Desalination & Water Reuse | May-June 2014 coRpoRate changes DESalItEch aND VEolIa tIE Up MExIcaN MoU Desalitech Inc has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies to bring advanced cost-effective high-recovery water solutions to Mexico and additional countries worldwide. Both companies agree to negotiate a partnership agreement following their collaboration in Mexico and the US, and are moving forward with their cooperation. The intended partnership joins the commercial, technical and execution strengths of Veolia, with the leadership in high efficiency reverse-osmosis (RO) water treatment and wastewater reuse of Desalitech. "Our high efficiency solutions represent a new future for industrial and agricultural water and wastewater treatment. The alliance we are announcing today with the world's largest and foremost engineering company of water treatment facilities, Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies, is a remarkable landmark and a great privilege for Desalitech," stated Desalitech CEO Nadav Efraty. Desalitech's executive vice president, Rick Stover, told D&WR that Desalitech is also contributing to the fight against drought in California with two projects. "One is an agricultural customer using one of our systems to treat brackish groundwater for irrigation. It's affordable because of the high recovery rate and therefore low concentrate production rate that Desalitech systems achieve," said Stover. "The site is near Bakersfield, far enough from the coast so that concentrate disposal is a major cost driver." The other project is a pilot with LA Sanitation in Los Angeles operating on chlorides in effluent from a conventional RO plant. "Again the advantage our system is giving them is high recovery which reduces the amount of waste - it's running at 93% recovery with a single-stage unit, resisting fouling and scaling brilliantly," said Stover. SaUDI DEal gIVES toray foUrth MEMBraNE BaSE A new joint venture to sell desalination and water treatment membranes in the Middle East has been set up between Toray Industries of Japan and Abunayyan Holding, headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The new company, Toray Membrane Middle East LLC (TMME), established with projected investment of over SR 300 million (US$ 80 million) from Toray's subsidiary Toray Membrane Europe AG, will manufacture and sell water treatment membranes in addition to providing technical services. Abunayyan Holding is a group of national strategic business units that provide power and water desalination technologies. It has set strategic goals to become the leading corporation in providing scientific and strategic power and water solutions to its customers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and expanding into the Middle East/ North Africa region as well. TMME plans to newly construct a world scale production factory in Dammam by applying Toray's production technology and Toray's global quality control standards. The factory will begin production of reverse osmosis (RO) membrane elements in 2015. By adding Saudi Arabia (TMME) to its current operational manufacturing bases in Japan (Toray Ehime Plant), California Caption (Toray Membrane USA) and Beijing (Toray Blue Star Membrane), Toray will have four manufacturing bases for its RO membrane elements. Uf pact agrEED By INgE aND aqUaSoUrcE Germany's inge GmbH and France's Aquasource have agreed to enter into a strategic cooperation effective from April 2014, with each company focusing on their respective competences. Aquasource, a technology division of Degrémont, will choose BASF-subsidiary inge's patented Multibore® membranes for all types of water where an ultrafiltration (UF) in-to-out technology is suitable. Within this cooperation, inge will concentrate on the development and production of UF membranes while Aquasource becomes a center of excellence for membrane systems. Both partners are targeting a combination of technologies to provide customers with even better solutions. Aquasource provides engineering, processes and applications and selects the best membrane technology for the customers' needs. In the last two years BASF and inge have jointly defined several R&D projects in order to drive forward innovation in UF membranes. haUgE aND ISoBarIx clEarED of coNtEMpt The US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia* on 20 March 2014 cleared Leif Hauge and his energy-recovery device company Isobarix of contempt of court in a case brought by Energy Recovery Inc (ERI). An injunction against Hauge enjoining him and Isobarix "from manufacturing and selling pressure exchangers and replacement parts for ERI's pressure exchangers" was also lifted. The decision reversed a court finding of contempt in June 2013, after ERI had complained that Hauge and Isobarix had ignored a 2001 court order relating to the transfer of all intellectual property and other rights relating to pressure-exchanger technology. The new hearing found that "while it (Hauge's conduct) might constitute trade secret misappropriation, that would not justify a finding of contempt in this case." *Case: 13-1515 Document: 38-2 h2o INNoVatIoN UpDatES pIEDMoNt pacIfIc acqUISItIoN Its recent acquisition of Piedmont Pacific means that Canada's H2O Innovation Inc is now supplying flexible pipe couplings to some of the largest desalination plants under construction in the world. Projects such as Sorek (Israel), Carlsbad (USA), Fujairah 1 IWPP SWRO Extension (UAE) and Sadara (Saudi Arabia) are now on the company's sales list. On 25 February 2013, H2O Innovation issued an update on the activities and integration of Piedmont Pacific Corporation, the Oakland-based company founded by the late Jim Medanich, which it acquired in December 2013. It is one of the leading manufacturers of flexible pipe couplings for corrosive environments. Piedmont's office has now been moved to H2O Innovation's US base in Vista, California.

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