Water. Desalination + reuse
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/640467
BUSINESS | 14 | Desalination & Water Reuse | February-March 2016 CORPORATEPEOPLE President and chief executive of Duperon Corporation, Tammy Bernier, has been elected as chairman of the Water and Wastewater Equipment Manufacturers Association for 2016. Bernier has more than thirty years of experience in the manufacturing and water and wastewater industry. Voltea has appointed Scott O'Connor as senior technical leader for its CapDI capacitive deionization systems. O'Connor was previously a technical sales manager with NanoH2O and the operations manger for Seven Seas Water. Nanostone Water has made two senior appointments. The firm has appointed Tim Scott as chief operating officer, responsible for the company's ceramic and polymeric manufacturing operations. Scott was formerly finance office for Inova Labs. Earlier he was general manager of Donaldson's gas turbine systems and a plant manager for GE's aircraft engine facility. Nanostone has announced also the appointment of Dan Jensen as chief financial officer. The Orange County Water District has appointed Dr Megan Plumlee as director of research and development. Plumlee was previously manager of the applied research group at Kennedy/Jenks Consultants. MICRODyN AND OvIvO TARgET US MEMBRANE BIOREACTOR MARkET German filtration firm, Microdyn-Nadir, has struck a partnership with water treatment systems specialist, Ovivo USA, to service the US membrane bioreactor market with a combination of the German company's membrane technology and Ovivo's membrane bioreactor system (MBR) integration range. Austin, Texas-based Ovivo USA will be the exclusive representative for Microdyn's MBR products in the US. The "multi year" agreement includes collaboration to build private label (OV ) membrane equipment. As part of the partnership, Microdyn has agreed to build a second production line for its Bio-Cel membranes. The new line will "most likely" be located in Austin, Texas with production scheduled to start in January 2017. According to Microdyn, it and Ovivo share a belief in the superior benefits of flat-sheet membrane technology for submerged membrane applications in MBR systems. "Improved packaging density and more efficient aeration designs have enabled MBRs to compete with traditional technologies both technically and economically. These two innovations have led to lower overall project costs," said Mycrodyn. Ovivo MBR director, Dennis Livingston, said the uptake of the OV system deploying BioCel has been particularly rapid: "Out of the seven different membrane technologies we've introduced to the US market, the trajectory of acceptance is incredibly steep for the OV using Bio-Cel," he said. "In less than 24 months, we already have 14 plants under construction or in operation using the OV and have been pre- selected for three large projects with rated capacities of approximately 16,000 m³/d, 20,000 m³/d and 40,000 m³/d." Ovivo said it has supplied MBR solutions to over 250 projects and is now commissioning one of the largest MBR systems in the world at Canton in Ohio. gULf NATIONS POISED fOR 40% BOOST TO DESALINATION OUTPUT By 2020 The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region is poised to up its seawater desalination capacity by nearly 40% by 2020 to meet the growing demand for drinking water, according to a recent report. The GCC current capacity of around 4,000 million imperial gallons a day (20 Gl/d) will grow to 27.5 Gl/d reported MEED Projects in a joint announcement with the International Water Summit and renewable energy company, Masdar. Current demand in the region is some 15 Gl/d and is expected to grow to 27 Gl/d by 2020, the report said. But it warned that ageing plants fail to operate at full capacity making current estimates inaccurate. It highlighted Saudi Arabia, Oman and Kuwait as countries that have struggled to meet demand, particularly during summer. Abu Dhabi last year imposed water tariffs on UAE nationals for the first time, and increased prices for expatriate users, following a similar move by Dubai in 2010 which slowed growth in consumption from 10% to 4%. Director at MEED Projects, Ed James, said: "Our data shows that over the last 10 years, the region has invested US$ 76 billion in standalone water projects. If we add the power investment of these desalination facilities, that figure exceeds well over US$ 100 billion." He said energy intensive thermal distillation technologies that have long been the dominant desalination methods in the region have become less attractive. This, he said, emerges as GCC states burn increasing amounts of hydrocarbons that could be conserved, exported or exploited to develop heavy industry. Much of the future investment will, he forecasted, go to developing less energy-intensive methods of desalination, such as reverse osmosis membrane technology. Masdar in 2013 launched a pilot programme in the UAE to test and develop energy-efficient seawater desalination technologies powered by renewable energy. EBRD IN TALkS wITh EgyPT ON DESALINATION fINANCE The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is negotiating with the public private partnership (PPP) unit of Egypt's ministry of finance over possible private sector involvement in the unit's infrastructure projects including a desalination facility. Country director for the EBRD in Egypt, Philip Ter Woort, told Egypt media that these infrastructure projects included water and wastewater plants. Ter Woort said the bank is working closely with the PPP unit and its head, Ater Hanoura, on a wide range of projects, including supporting the PPP Unit through a strategy study to develop the use of the Nile for cargo shipment. For the seawater desalination projects in Safaga, El-Alamein, and Al-Tor, the PPP unit agreed with the EBRD to finance the appointment of advisors to offer a seawater desalination plant. The Safaga Sea Water Desalination project's tendering procedures started in November. The project funding amounted to EGP 450 million (US$ 55 million). The El-Tor Sea Desalination Plant's funding amounted to EGP 250 million (US$ 30 million) and the EBRD financed the advisory company Atkins to tender the desalination projects, according to the PPP unit's data. The current portfolio of the EBRD's projects in Egypt is some €740 million (about US$ 800 million).