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Basin Water launches Envirogen products at WEFTEC 2008
NEWS permeate de-gasification, multiple feed and bypass options and product stream blending. This latest version can be downloaded directly from the KMS Web-site at the address given below. Contact: Koch Membrane Systems, 850 Main Street, Wilmington, MA 01887-3388, USA. Tel: +1 978 694 7000, www.kochmembrane.com
Millipore continues to generate strong earnings
M
illipore Corporation’s financial results for its third quarter ended 27 September 2008 show that the US company continues to generate strong earnings. According to the life science company, which provides technologies, tools and services for bioscience research and biopharmaceutical manufacturing, revenues for the third quarter grew by 6% to reach US$395.0 million. Excluding a 4% benefit from changes in foreign currency, revenues in the quarter grew by 2%. On a divisional basis, excluding changes in foreign currency, Millipore’s Bioscience Division revenues grew 4%, while the Bioprocess Division’s revenues were unchanged, compared with the previous year. The Bioscience Division’s revenue growth dropped by 1% through the elimination a minor product line. The firm’s third-quarter net income totalled US$39.7 million, or US$0.71 per share, compared with US$36.3 million, or US$0.66 per share, recorded for the equivalent quarter of 2007. Commenting on the results, Martin Madaus, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Millipore, said: ‘During the third quarter, we saw slightly improved business dynamics, which enabled us to generate organic revenue growth, while continuing to expand our profitability and increase our cash flow.’ ‘Our improved top-line performance was led by our Bioprocess Division, which delivered growth in North America after four quarters of steep declines. Although the division is making steady progress and we are seeing some improvement in our markets, we still reported flat revenues overall in Bioprocess because of a modest decline in Europe. Our Bioscience Division continued its steady performance with our Laboratory Water and Drug Discovery business units reporting growth in every geographic region,’ continued Madaus. Through the first nine months of 2008, Millipore’s revenues grew 7%, totalling 4
Membrane Technology
US$1.2 billion. Excluding a 7% benefit from changes in foreign currency, revenues in the first nine months were roughly the same as the previous year. On a divisional basis, excluding changes in foreign currency, Millipore’s Bioscience Division revenues grew 6%, offsetting a 4% decline in revenues from the company’s Bioprocess Division. The company reported net income of US$112.5 million, or US$2.02 per share, for the first nine months of 2008, compared with US$91.3 million, or US$1.66 per share, reported for the equivalent period a year earlier. ‘Since the beginning of the year, we generated US$136 million of free cash flow, which we used to reduce our debt by approximately US$127 million and strengthen the financial position of the company,’ added Charles Wagner, Chief Financial Officer of Millipore. ‘Our ability to generate strong levels of free cash flow, even during periods of modest revenue growth, provides us with the flexibility to both pay down our debt and deploy capital towards longer-term strategic initiatives that will drive our financial performance in the future.’ Contact: Millipore Corporation, 290 Concord Road, Billerica, MA 01821, USA. Tel: +1 978 715 4321, www.millipore.com
Basin Water launches Envirogen products at WEFTEC 2008
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asin Water Incorporated unveiled its newly acquired line of Envirogen environmental treatment products at the 81st Annual Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference (WEFTEC), which was held recently in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Envirogen products that are used for water treatment include membrane bioreactors, fluidised-bed bioreactors and suspended carrier reactor systems, while those designed to control odours and volatile organic compounds (VOC) include modular and built-in-place systems for a wide range of air flow rates, and BioTower bio-scrubber technology. Mike Stark, President and Chief Executive Officer of Basin Water, said: ‘By their very nature, biological treatment systems have the potential to offer the lowest-cost treatment alternatives in the applications they serve. What is unique about the Envirogen line is its ability to handle small to very large volumes of either water or air, and to target high-concentration,
contaminants that are difficult to remove – leading to high-quality effluent.’ ‘At Basin Water, we feel that combined with our technology-plus-services approach to product development, these systems provide a new opportunity for industry, municipalities and the consulting engineer to improve environmental performance at the lowest cost possible.’ Envirogen membrane bioreactor systems combine the benefits of a suspended growth reactor with the solids separating capability of a membrane-based ultrafiltration or microfiltration unit. The membrane bioreactor systems are particularly well suited to wastewater or groundwater streams containing organics that are difficult to treat, high contaminant concentrations, highly variable influent compositions or for use on sites where system footprint is a concern. Envirogen membrane bioreactors can be used to treat batch chemical plant effluents and landfill leachate, and to remove chlorinated solvents from manufacturing wastewater. They also find application in publicly owned treatment works with space restrictions, in the food and beverage industry, and are used to process wastewater generated during the manufacture of pharmaceutical intermediates. All of these applications take advantage of the fast system start-up, limited operator requirements and low life-cycle costs of the membrane bioreactor technology, says the company. According to Dave Enegess, Basin Water’s Vice President for Envirogen Products, the time has come for the Envirogen line of environmental treatment products to step into the limelight. ‘These biological systems deliver outstanding treatment performance in a cost-effective manner by harnessing a natural process. Our systems have a proven track record of performance in a number of very difficult installations,’ commented Enegess. ‘We think these are the types of systems and products that municipalities and manufacturing facilities are looking for right now. We are looking forward to taking this technology to market in combination with the strong management team and the element of service provided by Basin Water.’ Basin Water designs, builds and implements systems for the treatment of contaminated groundwater, industrial process water and air streams from municipal and industrial sources. It provides reliable sources of drinking water for many communities, and enables organisations to comply with environmental standards and recover valuable resources from process and wastewater streams. The firm says that it has developed proprietary, scalable ion-exchange, biological and
December 2008
NEWS other treatment systems that effectively process contaminated water and air in an efficient, flexible and cost-effective manner. Contact: Basin Water Incorporated, 8731 Prestige Court, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730, USA. Tel: +1 909 481 6800, www.basinwater.com
Report examines China’s drinking-water market
R
esearch and Markets Limited of Dublin, Ireland, has added the report entitled ‘China Drinking Water Market Report, 2008–2009’ to its product range. Healthy drinking water is becoming a scarce resource worldwide, and this is a particularly serious problem in China. With the improvement in people’s living standards, sales of drinking water in China have increased sharply, rising to over 18.0 million tonnes in 2007, from just under 3.5 million tonnes in 1999. It is forecast that sales will exceed 30 million tonnes in 2010, and this market will continue to grow at a rate of over 10% annually over the following 5–10 ten years. Drinking water can be divided into several categories, including bottled, barrelled, mineral, purified and distilled water. Barrelled water has developed rapidly because of the advantages – purity, hygiene and convenience – that it offers. In addition, when combined with water dispensers, barrelled water will see rapid growth in the future, says the company. According to the report, beverage companies MasterKong, Nongfu Spring, Wahaha and Robust are the leaders in the drinkingwater sector in China. However, in recent years medium-sized companies, such as Runtian, Maling and C’estbon, have experienced rapid growth. The report makes a thorough study of the drinking-water market in some key regions in China. Drinking water is often influenced by specific geographical features, says the report. Factors such as the quality of water sources give drinking water in different regions its own characteristics. The report provides a detailed analysis of consumer activity, marketing strategies and key companies operating in the drinking-water sector, as well as industries associated with this market place. It also offers a full picture of the current situation in the country’s drinkingwater sector and development trends.
December 2008
Contact: Research and Markets Limited, Guinness Centre, Taylors Lane, Dublin 8, Ireland. Fax: +353 1 481 1716, www.researchandmarkets.com
Veolia, Mubadala form joint-venture to target MENA region
M
ubadala Development Company of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and France’s Veolia Water are creating a joint-venture company that will focus on the areas of water production and wastewater collection and treatment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This announcement follows a decision by Abu Dhabi investment and business development company Mubadala, and Veolia Water, a water and wastewater services firm and subsidiary of Veolia Environnement, to work together on municipal concessions and public–private partnerships in the MENA region. Veolia Water will own 51% of the joint-venture company. This activity could later lead to further joint ventures for other business sectors of the Veolia Environnement Group. This partnership brings together the expertise of a world leader in environmental services with the experience of the leading investment and development company in the region. It marks the first step for a long-term collaboration in future projects for the two companies. Speaking on behalf of Mubadala, Chief Operating Officer Waleed Al Mokarrab Al Muhairi said: ‘As the region’s economy continues to expand and diversify, high-quality infrastructure will underpin this development. As part of this process, Mubadala is creating a diverse and sustainable range of businesses in the utilities sector by bringing new technologies, efficiencies and best practices to the region. Establishing partnerships with best-in-class international companies such as Veolia, which has over a century of experience in this field, will allow us to do just this.’ Antoine Frérot, Chief Executive Officer of Veolia Water, outlined the significance of this partnership, when he said: ‘This jointventure is strategically important for Veolia Water as the MENA region is undergoing full economic, industrial and tourist growth which requires world-leading expertise in quality water services and technologies. Working with a leading investment fund will provide further capacity to expand and offer vital infrastructure to satisfy local needs.’
In Brief Millipore extends license agreement with University of Dundee Millipore Corporation of Billerica, Massachusetts, USA, and the University of Dundee in Scotland, UK, have announced that they have extended their long-standing license agreement to commercialise cell signalling materials for research applications for a further five years. The ongoing collaboration, established during 1995 between the university and US-based Upstate Biotechnology (now part of Millipore), will enable Millipore to make such tools available to life science researchers worldwide. Micronics receives patents for micro-fluidic technologies Micronics Incorporated of Redmond, Washington, USA, has been issued two patents by the US Patent and Trademark Office for novel micro-fluidic devices and methods. These patents relate to the development of rapid and easy-to-use clinical diagnostic products. The first (US 7416892) has broad applicability for molecular diagnostics. It identifies an integrated micro-fluidic system for isolating, amplifying and detecting deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or ribonucleic acid (RNA) from biological fluids. All processing steps are done within the micro-fluidic ‘lab-on-a-card’ format. The second one – detailed by US 7419638 – relates mainly to micro-fluidic systems for detecting a person’s blood type and Rhesus (Rh) status in a sanitary, disposable device the size of a credit card. American Water receives NCPPP award In the US, American Water has received the 2008 ‘Public–Private Partnership Award’ from the National Council for Public–Private Partnerships (NCPPP). The water and wastewater utility company received the award in the ‘Innovation’ category for its approach to the public–private partnership (PPP) with Tampa Bay Water. Don Correll, President and Chief Executive Officer of American Water, commented: ‘The success of the Tampa Bay Seawater Desalination Plant illustrates how PPPs provide water services and technologies to meet water resource challenges. This project means Tampa Bay will have a reliable new supply of drinking water for decades to come.’ Investment expands Novasep’s chiral separation capabilities France’s Novasep has extended its custom chiral separation capabilities, enabling it to offer its life science customers optimised and efficient purification services. ‘With this investment we are filling a gap in the services we offer. We are now extremely competitive for producing clinical batches of chiral compounds – quality-wise, time-wise and cost-wise,’ said René de Vaumas, Vice-President of Exclusive Synthesis at Novasep. ‘This addition follows our recent investments in three CGMP multi-step synthesis kilo-labs.’
Membrane Technology
5
Millipore continues to generate strong earnings
M
illipore Corporation’s financial results for its third quarter ended 27 September 2008 show that the US company continues to generate strong earnings. According to the life science company, which provides technologies, tools and services for bioscience research and biopharmaceutical manufacturing, revenues for the third quarter grew by 6% to reach US$395.0 million. Excluding a 4% benefit from changes in foreign currency, revenues in the quarter grew by 2%. On a divisional basis, excluding changes in foreign currency, Millipore’s Bioscience Division revenues grew 4%, while the Bioprocess Division’s revenues were unchanged, compared with the previous year. The Bioscience Division’s revenue growth dropped by 1% through the elimination a minor product line. The firm’s third-quarter net income totalled US$39.7 million, or US$0.71 per share, compared with US$36.3 million, or US$0.66 per share, recorded for the equivalent quarter of 2007. Commenting on the results, Martin Madaus, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Millipore, said: ‘During the third quarter, we saw slightly improved business dynamics, which enabled us to generate organic revenue growth, while continuing to expand our profitability and increase our cash flow.’ ‘Our improved top-line performance was led by our Bioprocess Division, which delivered growth in North America after four quarters of steep declines. Although the division is making steady progress and we are seeing some improvement in our markets, we still reported flat revenues overall in Bioprocess because of a modest decline in Europe. Our Bioscience Division continued its steady performance with our Laboratory Water and Drug Discovery business units reporting growth in every geographic region,’ continued Madaus. Through the first nine months of 2008, Millipore’s revenues grew 7%, totalling 4
Membrane Technology
US$1.2 billion. Excluding a 7% benefit from changes in foreign currency, revenues in the first nine months were roughly the same as the previous year. On a divisional basis, excluding changes in foreign currency, Millipore’s Bioscience Division revenues grew 6%, offsetting a 4% decline in revenues from the company’s Bioprocess Division. The company reported net income of US$112.5 million, or US$2.02 per share, for the first nine months of 2008, compared with US$91.3 million, or US$1.66 per share, reported for the equivalent period a year earlier. ‘Since the beginning of the year, we generated US$136 million of free cash flow, which we used to reduce our debt by approximately US$127 million and strengthen the financial position of the company,’ added Charles Wagner, Chief Financial Officer of Millipore. ‘Our ability to generate strong levels of free cash flow, even during periods of modest revenue growth, provides us with the flexibility to both pay down our debt and deploy capital towards longer-term strategic initiatives that will drive our financial performance in the future.’ Contact: Millipore Corporation, 290 Concord Road, Billerica, MA 01821, USA. Tel: +1 978 715 4321, www.millipore.com
Basin Water launches Envirogen products at WEFTEC 2008
B
asin Water Incorporated unveiled its newly acquired line of Envirogen environmental treatment products at the 81st Annual Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference (WEFTEC), which was held recently in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Envirogen products that are used for water treatment include membrane bioreactors, fluidised-bed bioreactors and suspended carrier reactor systems, while those designed to control odours and volatile organic compounds (VOC) include modular and built-in-place systems for a wide range of air flow rates, and BioTower bio-scrubber technology. Mike Stark, President and Chief Executive Officer of Basin Water, said: ‘By their very nature, biological treatment systems have the potential to offer the lowest-cost treatment alternatives in the applications they serve. What is unique about the Envirogen line is its ability to handle small to very large volumes of either water or air, and to target high-concentration,
contaminants that are difficult to remove – leading to high-quality effluent.’ ‘At Basin Water, we feel that combined with our technology-plus-services approach to product development, these systems provide a new opportunity for industry, municipalities and the consulting engineer to improve environmental performance at the lowest cost possible.’ Envirogen membrane bioreactor systems combine the benefits of a suspended growth reactor with the solids separating capability of a membrane-based ultrafiltration or microfiltration unit. The membrane bioreactor systems are particularly well suited to wastewater or groundwater streams containing organics that are difficult to treat, high contaminant concentrations, highly variable influent compositions or for use on sites where system footprint is a concern. Envirogen membrane bioreactors can be used to treat batch chemical plant effluents and landfill leachate, and to remove chlorinated solvents from manufacturing wastewater. They also find application in publicly owned treatment works with space restrictions, in the food and beverage industry, and are used to process wastewater generated during the manufacture of pharmaceutical intermediates. All of these applications take advantage of the fast system start-up, limited operator requirements and low life-cycle costs of the membrane bioreactor technology, says the company. According to Dave Enegess, Basin Water’s Vice President for Envirogen Products, the time has come for the Envirogen line of environmental treatment products to step into the limelight. ‘These biological systems deliver outstanding treatment performance in a cost-effective manner by harnessing a natural process. Our systems have a proven track record of performance in a number of very difficult installations,’ commented Enegess. ‘We think these are the types of systems and products that municipalities and manufacturing facilities are looking for right now. We are looking forward to taking this technology to market in combination with the strong management team and the element of service provided by Basin Water.’ Basin Water designs, builds and implements systems for the treatment of contaminated groundwater, industrial process water and air streams from municipal and industrial sources. It provides reliable sources of drinking water for many communities, and enables organisations to comply with environmental standards and recover valuable resources from process and wastewater streams. The firm says that it has developed proprietary, scalable ion-exchange, biological and
December 2008
NEWS other treatment systems that effectively process contaminated water and air in an efficient, flexible and cost-effective manner. Contact: Basin Water Incorporated, 8731 Prestige Court, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730, USA. Tel: +1 909 481 6800, www.basinwater.com
Report examines China’s drinking-water market
R
esearch and Markets Limited of Dublin, Ireland, has added the report entitled ‘China Drinking Water Market Report, 2008–2009’ to its product range. Healthy drinking water is becoming a scarce resource worldwide, and this is a particularly serious problem in China. With the improvement in people’s living standards, sales of drinking water in China have increased sharply, rising to over 18.0 million tonnes in 2007, from just under 3.5 million tonnes in 1999. It is forecast that sales will exceed 30 million tonnes in 2010, and this market will continue to grow at a rate of over 10% annually over the following 5–10 ten years. Drinking water can be divided into several categories, including bottled, barrelled, mineral, purified and distilled water. Barrelled water has developed rapidly because of the advantages – purity, hygiene and convenience – that it offers. In addition, when combined with water dispensers, barrelled water will see rapid growth in the future, says the company. According to the report, beverage companies MasterKong, Nongfu Spring, Wahaha and Robust are the leaders in the drinkingwater sector in China. However, in recent years medium-sized companies, such as Runtian, Maling and C’estbon, have experienced rapid growth. The report makes a thorough study of the drinking-water market in some key regions in China. Drinking water is often influenced by specific geographical features, says the report. Factors such as the quality of water sources give drinking water in different regions its own characteristics. The report provides a detailed analysis of consumer activity, marketing strategies and key companies operating in the drinking-water sector, as well as industries associated with this market place. It also offers a full picture of the current situation in the country’s drinkingwater sector and development trends.
December 2008
Contact: Research and Markets Limited, Guinness Centre, Taylors Lane, Dublin 8, Ireland. Fax: +353 1 481 1716, www.researchandmarkets.com
Veolia, Mubadala form joint-venture to target MENA region
M
ubadala Development Company of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and France’s Veolia Water are creating a joint-venture company that will focus on the areas of water production and wastewater collection and treatment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This announcement follows a decision by Abu Dhabi investment and business development company Mubadala, and Veolia Water, a water and wastewater services firm and subsidiary of Veolia Environnement, to work together on municipal concessions and public–private partnerships in the MENA region. Veolia Water will own 51% of the joint-venture company. This activity could later lead to further joint ventures for other business sectors of the Veolia Environnement Group. This partnership brings together the expertise of a world leader in environmental services with the experience of the leading investment and development company in the region. It marks the first step for a long-term collaboration in future projects for the two companies. Speaking on behalf of Mubadala, Chief Operating Officer Waleed Al Mokarrab Al Muhairi said: ‘As the region’s economy continues to expand and diversify, high-quality infrastructure will underpin this development. As part of this process, Mubadala is creating a diverse and sustainable range of businesses in the utilities sector by bringing new technologies, efficiencies and best practices to the region. Establishing partnerships with best-in-class international companies such as Veolia, which has over a century of experience in this field, will allow us to do just this.’ Antoine Frérot, Chief Executive Officer of Veolia Water, outlined the significance of this partnership, when he said: ‘This jointventure is strategically important for Veolia Water as the MENA region is undergoing full economic, industrial and tourist growth which requires world-leading expertise in quality water services and technologies. Working with a leading investment fund will provide further capacity to expand and offer vital infrastructure to satisfy local needs.’
In Brief Millipore extends license agreement with University of Dundee Millipore Corporation of Billerica, Massachusetts, USA, and the University of Dundee in Scotland, UK, have announced that they have extended their long-standing license agreement to commercialise cell signalling materials for research applications for a further five years. The ongoing collaboration, established during 1995 between the university and US-based Upstate Biotechnology (now part of Millipore), will enable Millipore to make such tools available to life science researchers worldwide. Micronics receives patents for micro-fluidic technologies Micronics Incorporated of Redmond, Washington, USA, has been issued two patents by the US Patent and Trademark Office for novel micro-fluidic devices and methods. These patents relate to the development of rapid and easy-to-use clinical diagnostic products. The first (US 7416892) has broad applicability for molecular diagnostics. It identifies an integrated micro-fluidic system for isolating, amplifying and detecting deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or ribonucleic acid (RNA) from biological fluids. All processing steps are done within the micro-fluidic ‘lab-on-a-card’ format. The second one – detailed by US 7419638 – relates mainly to micro-fluidic systems for detecting a person’s blood type and Rhesus (Rh) status in a sanitary, disposable device the size of a credit card. American Water receives NCPPP award In the US, American Water has received the 2008 ‘Public–Private Partnership Award’ from the National Council for Public–Private Partnerships (NCPPP). The water and wastewater utility company received the award in the ‘Innovation’ category for its approach to the public–private partnership (PPP) with Tampa Bay Water. Don Correll, President and Chief Executive Officer of American Water, commented: ‘The success of the Tampa Bay Seawater Desalination Plant illustrates how PPPs provide water services and technologies to meet water resource challenges. This project means Tampa Bay will have a reliable new supply of drinking water for decades to come.’ Investment expands Novasep’s chiral separation capabilities France’s Novasep has extended its custom chiral separation capabilities, enabling it to offer its life science customers optimised and efficient purification services. ‘With this investment we are filling a gap in the services we offer. We are now extremely competitive for producing clinical batches of chiral compounds – quality-wise, time-wise and cost-wise,’ said René de Vaumas, Vice-President of Exclusive Synthesis at Novasep. ‘This addition follows our recent investments in three CGMP multi-step synthesis kilo-labs.’
Membrane Technology
5