Water. desalination + reuse

BUSINESS | 12 | Desalination & Water Reuse | November-December 2014 coRpoRate chaNges LG ChEm hUNtS GLoBaL SLot IN rEvErSE oSmoSIS mEmBraNE markEt South Korean petrochemicals company, LG Chem, has unveiled plans to become a global player in the market for reverse osmosis membranes for desalination. The company announced its plan as part of a two-track strategy for the business. It said it wanted to pursue substantial growth in its water treatment filter business through newly acquired subsidiary, LG NanoH2O. LG Chem acquired the California-based, reverse osmosis membranes company, NanoH2O, in March 2014, for US$ 200 million. The second strand of the company's strategy was to boost sales of engineering plastics: "We are planning to overcome the slump in the petrochemical business, which is challenged by low growth in the global economy, the rise of China's self-sufficiency and the shale gas boom," the company said in a press release. Petrochemicals account for more than 75% of LG Chem's earnings. Last year its second quarter operating profit fell 5.6% year-on-year to KRW 290.9 billion (US$ 283 million) although full-year revenue increased 2.3% to KRW 4.51 trillion (US$ 4.4 billion). BayEr IN watEr rEUSE dEaL wIth ShaNGhaI ChLor-aLkaLI Bayer Material Science (BMS) and Shanghai Chlor-Alkali Chemical (SCAC) have entered into a preliminary agreement for the reuse of wastewater from Bayer's polycarbonate production in Shanghai. The two companies plan jointly to execute a technical installation and trial production programme. The trial will process salt water from Bayer's polycarbonate production into high-quality brine, which SCAC will use to generate chlorine and sodium hydroxide by electrolysis. "The project will not only offer environmental benefits through efficient use of natural resources and avoiding unnecessary impact, but it will also generate commercial advantages for both parties," said general manager of Bayer Shanghai, Roland Stegmueller. Bayer said it will make significant funds available to develop technology to ensure a constant, specified quality of brine supplied to SCAC. SCAC chairman Li Jun, pledged "massive investment" to make necessary modifications to the company's electrolysis plant to push the project forward. The two companies have been strengthening their cooperation around the supply of chlorine and sodium hydroxide, as well as the re-utilization of hydrochloric acid, during the past 15 years. They will continue to implement strategic cooperation they said. GLoBaL mEmBraNE markEt to top US$ 39 BILLIoN By 2019 The global membrane separation market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.8% from 2013 to 2019, to reach US$ 39.2 billion in 2019 according to a recent report. Research company, Persistence Market Research, has predicted membrane separation market growth in the water and wastewater sector at a CAGR of 11.1% during 2013-19. Persistence's figures suggest a membrane market value in the water and wastewater sector of about US$ 14 billion in 2019. The water and wastewater sector was the largest end user of membrane separation technologies in 2012 at 36% of the market according to the Persistence report, Global market study on membrane separation: water and wastewater segment to witness highest growth by 2019. Persistence said the European membrane market – the world's largest in 2012 – was expected to reach US$ 13.8 billion in 2019, growing at a CAGR of 9.6%. According to Persistence, the global membrane separation market grew from US$ 19.0 billion in 2010 to US$ 21.2 billion in 2013. It concluded that regulation and increasing demand for drinking water was driving membrane market growth. Persistence named the major global players that were each manufacturing all membrane product types as Evoqua Water Technologies, Pall Corporation, Koch Membrane Systems, Merck Millipore, Degremont, Dow Chemical Company, GEA Filtration, 3M Company, Nitto Denko Corporation and Veolia Environnement. Separately, a report, Global and China Separating Membrane Industry Report, 2013 – 2016 by researcher, MarketResearchReports.Biz, has forecast growth in China's membrane separation market at "around 20%" to some RMB 25 billion (US$ 4 billion) in 2016. The Chinese market stood at RMB 12 billion (US$ 1.95 billion) in 2012 having grown at 20-30% for the previous ten years according to the researcher. It calculated the 2012 Chinese market figure to be 16.3% of the then global market. dESaLINatIoN LaCkS pUrE-pLay INvEStmENt optIoNS Investors seeking desalination openings are largely denied pure-play opportunities and have to include exposure to other business areas according to a report by technologies market analyst, Nanalyze. From a study of the top ten engineering procurement and construction contractors in desalination the analyst found that only about 50% of their revenues come from water treatment and, of that, an even smaller amount came from desalination. Only Singapore's Hyflux came close to a pure play option said Nanalyze. "With the exception of maybe Hyflux, most of these companies are not pure-play opportunities to invest in desalination. Most are involved in various other business activities such that an investor would have far too little exposure in desalination to justify investing solely for that purpose," it said. The whole idea of a pure-play investment is to avoid taking unintended bets, on Italian infrastructure projects for example." The companies studied, in order of desalination asset output volumes, were: • France's Veolia, • Korea's Doosan Group, • General Electric of the US, • Italy's Fisia Italimpianti, • Degremont of France, • IDE of the US, • Spain's Acciona, • Singapore's Hyflux, • Befesa of Spain, and • Sadyt/Valoriza, also of Spain.

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