- Email: [email protected]
H2O Innovation awarded contracts amounting to C$4.7 million
NEWS
Porvair continues to make progress towards its objectives
R
esults for the six-month period ended 31 May 2013 show that UK-based Porvair Plc is continuing to make progress towards its objectives for the year. According to the specialist filtration and environmental technology group, revenue grew 8% to £38.6 million, compared with the corresponding period a year earlier, and profit before tax grew 27% to £3.1 million, compared with £2.4 million. The firm says that the second half of 2013 has started with order books at record levels – helped by large contracts announced earlier in the year. Demand across the group is generally good, with weakness in some US markets more than offset by strength elsewhere. The fundamentals of the markets in which the group operates – aviation, energy and industrial process, environmental laboratory supplies and molten metals – look satisfactory. Revenue from microfiltration grew by 15% from £21.3 million in 2012 to £24.5 million. Operating profits grew 43% to £3.5 million. Substantial progress was made in this division during the first six months and several large contracts are now under way. Under the $10-million contract with multinational steel-maker POSCO, announced in 2011, the division is scheduled to make its second delivery later this year. This project is to design and build a char filtration system for a substitute natural gas installation based in Gwangyang, South Korea. A larger contract for a similar project was signed in February 2013 with Reliance Industries for its installation at Jamnagar, India. The scope of this work was extended in April. Finally, an £11-million contract with the UK Government was announced in January 2013, with deliveries starting in 2014. All three projects will have an impact on the financial results of the group over several years, initially in reported working capital, but also in reported sales and margins, as the projects are managed through to completion. In addition to these contracts, orders in the energy and industrial sectors have been robust and are well ahead of the previous year, both in Europe and the USA. The acquisition of the trade and assets of Chand Eisenmann Metallurgical (CEM) for $5.5 million was completed on 4 June 2013 (see Membrane Technology July, page 1). CEM makes a broad range of powdered metal indus-
August 2013
trial filters – selling largely in the USA and Canada. There is a good fit between the two businesses and Porvair sees a host of crossselling and new product development opportunities. It says that it will be investing in the CEM plant in Maine over the next 12 months to allow room for expansion. Bioscience filtration remains a small, but interesting part of the group. A business unit has been set up in the UK in collaboration with the University of Swansea to develop Chromatrap, a filtration product for epigenetic research. This remains in its research and development phase. Consideration is being given to licensing other aspects of the firm’s bioscience technology. Commenting on the outlook, Ben Stocks, Chief Executive, Porvair, said: ‘Porvair’s strategic direction and operating objectives remain consistent and continue to produce good results. We focus on niche markets which have structural growth drivers. 2013 has started satisfactorily and order books are healthy across the group. Whilst some of our US markets have been quieter in the year to date, this has been balanced by strength elsewhere.’ ‘The board remains cautious about the general economic outlook, but the second half has started well and we currently expect to see growth across the business in the rest of 2013. There remains plenty of opportunity in the Porvair businesses. We continue to invest in: new product development; US expansion for microfiltration; and enlarged Chinese facilities for metals filtration. The board’s outlook remains positive and management’s expectations for the year have increased.’ Contacts: Porvair Filtration Group Ltd, 1 Concorde Close, Segensworth, Fareham, Hampshire PO15 5RT, UK. Tel: +44 1489 864330, www.porvairfiltration.com Porvair Plc, 7 Regis Place, Bergen Way, King’s Lynn, Norfolk PE30 2JN, UK. Tel: +44 1553 765500, www.porvair.com
H2O Innovation awarded contracts amounting to C$4.7 million
C
anada’s H2O Innovation Inc, which designs and supplies custom-built and integrated water treatment systems, has been awarded new contracts totalling C$4.7 million for municipal and industrial water treatment projects in the USA and Canada.
In Brief Tri-Tech makes management changes China’s Tri-Tech Holding Inc, which provides turn-key water resources management, and water and wastewater treatment systems, has appointed Brian McClellan as General Manager, Tri-Tech Infrastructure Llc in the USA, following the retirement of James Schwartz. The company has also appointed Satish Kumar Chopra and Rongguo Shi as the chief executive officer, and senior vice president, of its of operation in India, respectively. Weidong Bi has taken over as President, Tranhold Environmental (Beijing) Tech Co Ltd. Xylem acquires dewatering business Water technology company Xylem Inc of White Plains, New York, USA has acquired Pollmann Pumpen Ltd, a privately owned German dewatering technology and services company, for approximately $3 million. ‘This acquisition is part of the strategic expansion of our dewatering business, designed to capitalise on the growing demand for pump rental within the construction, municipal, mining and industrial sectors across Europe,’ explained Andrew Jones, who is the vice president and director of Xylem’s dewatering business unit. ‘Bringing Pollmann Pumpen into the Xylem family will enable us to further strengthen our rental and services business in an important market.’ Degrémont launches latest guide Degrémont, a water treatment specialist that serves local authorities and industrial customers, has launched the third edition of its ‘Innovations Guide’. Fully interactive, the 2013 edition employs an educational approach by illustrating innovative water treatment processes through diagrams, three-dimensional animation and videos, says the company. It is available on-line in both French and English. More information: www.degremont.com/innovations-guide Aquaporin appoints new vice president Steen Ulrik Madsen has been appointed Vice President, Business Development, Aquaporin A/s. He heads the cleantech firm’s newly established Business Development Department, based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Aquaporin says that Madsen will play an important role in the process of transforming the company from an entrepreneurial business into an international, commercial product organisation. He holds an MBA, INSEAD from Fontainebleau, France, a MSc in economics and has more than 30 years of experience in sales, business development and management in various industries. According to company, he will be responsible for bringing its first product to the market in 2014.
Membrane Technology
5
NEWS The company says these new contracts bring its order backlog for water treatment projects to C$17.4 million as of 5 June 2013. An important institutional end-user in California, USA, has selected the company to design, fabricate, assemble and deliver an integrated membrane filtration system, combining ultrafiltration (UF) and reverse osmosis (RO) units. The proposed system will comprise a 1893-m3 (0.5-million gallon) per day UF unit and a 2650-m3 (0.7-million gallon) per day RO unit, which will treat concentrate from an electrodialysis reversal system to minimise waste volume for this zero-liquid-discharge facility. Another system will be delivered to Everglades City in Florida, USA. This nanofiltration (NF) system will treat brackish water to produce 2080 m3 (0.55 million gallons) of drinking water a day. In addition, the company is supplying a two-train RO system for an industrial water reclamation project in Iowa, USA. This has an overall capacity of 1325 m3 (0.35 million gallons) a day. Among the projects announced, one of them will see the firm designing, assembling, delivering and commissioning a membrane filtration system – combining the use of UF and ultraviolet (UV) – for a community in British Columbia. Once installed later this year, the system will produce 4200 m3 (1.1 million gallons) of drinking water per day from a surfacewater source. H2O Innovation says that it is hiring a sales manager for its North American systems sales force. Based in British Columbia and reporting to the firm’s sales hub in Calgary, Alberta, this manager will support the company in developing its sales network and promoting its products and services in Western Canada. Frédéric Dugré, President and Chief Executive Officer, H2O Innovation, commented: ‘In British Columbia notably there are many small and medium-sized municipalities that still need to improve their drinking-water and wastewater plants. The territory also abounds with multiple projects that relate to natural resources.’ ‘The signature of this new contract in British Columbia and the addition of a new sales expert to our Western Canadian team are two major milestones that will definitely increase and improve our presence in this high-growth market.’ The company says that it is also set to deliver a two-train NF system for the production of drinking water in Québec. Contacts: H2O Innovation Inc, 420 Boulevard Charest Est, Suite 240, Québec City, Québec, Canada G1K 8M4. Tel: +1 418 688 0170, www.h2oinnovation.com
6
Membrane Technology
GE helps plant in Texas reduce its use of watertreatment agents
Chemists work to desalt oceans for drinking water, one nanolitre at a time
T
B
enaska Gateway Generating Station, a combined-cycle power station based in Texas, USA, is reaping the benefits of using General Electric Co’s (GE) water-treatment technology. GE says that it has helped it to significantly reduce the volume of water treatment agents that it uses and has saved the facility more than $3.2 million in operational expenses over the past three years. The power station, located near the city of Mount Enterprise in Rusk County, recently incorporated facility enhancements that earned it a GE ‘Return on Environment Award’. This recognises the achievements of industrial users that significantly surpass environmental and industrial operational goals whilst balancing industrial demands. Tenaska was recognised for its noteworthy reductions in rinse water and water-treatment agents. ‘Tenaska Gateway Generating Station had a long-term working relationship with GE before the plant was commissioned – first by employing GE’s gas turbine and steam generator technology, but more recently by upgrading its water purification technology. GE’s new watertreatment equipment enables us to use water more efficiently,’ explained the plant’s manager, Steve Pearson. In 2010, the existing ion-exchange units – the primary water purification systems at the station – were enhanced with the addition of equipment based on reverse osmosis (RO) membrane technology. Using the firm’s technologies, the plant uses fewer water-treatment agents, which helps prevent water-quality degradation and the need for additional treatment stages. It also reduces the frequency with which the demineralisers are regenerated which, in turn, saves money and minimises the amount of treated wastewater returned to the environment. Contacts: GE Water & Process Technologies, 4636 Somerton Road, Trevose, PA 19053-6783, USA. Tel: +1 215 355 3300, www.gewater.com GE Power & Water, 1 River Road, Building 2-135D, Schenectady, NY 12345, USA. Tel: +1 518 385 2211, www.gepower.com
y creating a small electrical field that removes salts from sea water, chemists at The University of Texas at Austin, in the USA, and the University of Marburg, in Germany, have developed a new method of sea-water desalination. The researchers say it consumes less energy and is simpler than conventional techniques. Furthermore, the new method requires so little energy that it can be powered by a shop-bought battery. They claim that this process evades the problems confronting current desalination methods by eliminating the need for a membrane and by separating salt from water at a micro-scale. The technique, called electrochemically mediated sea-water desalination, is described in the journal Angewandte Chemie (Volume 52, Issue 31, pages 8107–8110, 29 July 2013). The research team was led by Richard Crooks of The University of Texas at Austin and Ulrich Tallarek of the University of Marburg. It is patent-pending and is in commercial development by start-up company Okeanos Technologies Llc. To achieve desalination the researchers apply a small voltage (3.0 V) to a plastic chip filled with sea water. The chip contains a microchannel with two branches. At the junction of this channel an embedded electrode neutralises some of the chloride ions in the sea water to create an “ion depletion zone”, which increases the local electric field compared with the rest of the channel. This change in the electric field is sufficient to redirect salts into one branch, allowing desalinated water to pass through the other branch. Thus far Professor Crooks and his colleagues have achieved 25% desalination. Although drinking water requires 99% desalination, they are confident that goal can be achieved.
Contact: Professor Richard Crooks, The University of Texas at Austin, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, College of Natural Sciences, 1 University Station A5300, Austin, TX 78712, USA. Tel: +1 512 475 8674, Email: [email protected] Dr Tony Frudakis, Okeanos Technologies Llc, 2012 Callie Way, Suite 201, Union, KY 41091, USA. Tel: +1 866 991 1446, Email: [email protected], www.okeanostech.com
August 2013
Porvair continues to make progress towards its objectives
R
esults for the six-month period ended 31 May 2013 show that UK-based Porvair Plc is continuing to make progress towards its objectives for the year. According to the specialist filtration and environmental technology group, revenue grew 8% to £38.6 million, compared with the corresponding period a year earlier, and profit before tax grew 27% to £3.1 million, compared with £2.4 million. The firm says that the second half of 2013 has started with order books at record levels – helped by large contracts announced earlier in the year. Demand across the group is generally good, with weakness in some US markets more than offset by strength elsewhere. The fundamentals of the markets in which the group operates – aviation, energy and industrial process, environmental laboratory supplies and molten metals – look satisfactory. Revenue from microfiltration grew by 15% from £21.3 million in 2012 to £24.5 million. Operating profits grew 43% to £3.5 million. Substantial progress was made in this division during the first six months and several large contracts are now under way. Under the $10-million contract with multinational steel-maker POSCO, announced in 2011, the division is scheduled to make its second delivery later this year. This project is to design and build a char filtration system for a substitute natural gas installation based in Gwangyang, South Korea. A larger contract for a similar project was signed in February 2013 with Reliance Industries for its installation at Jamnagar, India. The scope of this work was extended in April. Finally, an £11-million contract with the UK Government was announced in January 2013, with deliveries starting in 2014. All three projects will have an impact on the financial results of the group over several years, initially in reported working capital, but also in reported sales and margins, as the projects are managed through to completion. In addition to these contracts, orders in the energy and industrial sectors have been robust and are well ahead of the previous year, both in Europe and the USA. The acquisition of the trade and assets of Chand Eisenmann Metallurgical (CEM) for $5.5 million was completed on 4 June 2013 (see Membrane Technology July, page 1). CEM makes a broad range of powdered metal indus-
August 2013
trial filters – selling largely in the USA and Canada. There is a good fit between the two businesses and Porvair sees a host of crossselling and new product development opportunities. It says that it will be investing in the CEM plant in Maine over the next 12 months to allow room for expansion. Bioscience filtration remains a small, but interesting part of the group. A business unit has been set up in the UK in collaboration with the University of Swansea to develop Chromatrap, a filtration product for epigenetic research. This remains in its research and development phase. Consideration is being given to licensing other aspects of the firm’s bioscience technology. Commenting on the outlook, Ben Stocks, Chief Executive, Porvair, said: ‘Porvair’s strategic direction and operating objectives remain consistent and continue to produce good results. We focus on niche markets which have structural growth drivers. 2013 has started satisfactorily and order books are healthy across the group. Whilst some of our US markets have been quieter in the year to date, this has been balanced by strength elsewhere.’ ‘The board remains cautious about the general economic outlook, but the second half has started well and we currently expect to see growth across the business in the rest of 2013. There remains plenty of opportunity in the Porvair businesses. We continue to invest in: new product development; US expansion for microfiltration; and enlarged Chinese facilities for metals filtration. The board’s outlook remains positive and management’s expectations for the year have increased.’ Contacts: Porvair Filtration Group Ltd, 1 Concorde Close, Segensworth, Fareham, Hampshire PO15 5RT, UK. Tel: +44 1489 864330, www.porvairfiltration.com Porvair Plc, 7 Regis Place, Bergen Way, King’s Lynn, Norfolk PE30 2JN, UK. Tel: +44 1553 765500, www.porvair.com
H2O Innovation awarded contracts amounting to C$4.7 million
C
anada’s H2O Innovation Inc, which designs and supplies custom-built and integrated water treatment systems, has been awarded new contracts totalling C$4.7 million for municipal and industrial water treatment projects in the USA and Canada.
In Brief Tri-Tech makes management changes China’s Tri-Tech Holding Inc, which provides turn-key water resources management, and water and wastewater treatment systems, has appointed Brian McClellan as General Manager, Tri-Tech Infrastructure Llc in the USA, following the retirement of James Schwartz. The company has also appointed Satish Kumar Chopra and Rongguo Shi as the chief executive officer, and senior vice president, of its of operation in India, respectively. Weidong Bi has taken over as President, Tranhold Environmental (Beijing) Tech Co Ltd. Xylem acquires dewatering business Water technology company Xylem Inc of White Plains, New York, USA has acquired Pollmann Pumpen Ltd, a privately owned German dewatering technology and services company, for approximately $3 million. ‘This acquisition is part of the strategic expansion of our dewatering business, designed to capitalise on the growing demand for pump rental within the construction, municipal, mining and industrial sectors across Europe,’ explained Andrew Jones, who is the vice president and director of Xylem’s dewatering business unit. ‘Bringing Pollmann Pumpen into the Xylem family will enable us to further strengthen our rental and services business in an important market.’ Degrémont launches latest guide Degrémont, a water treatment specialist that serves local authorities and industrial customers, has launched the third edition of its ‘Innovations Guide’. Fully interactive, the 2013 edition employs an educational approach by illustrating innovative water treatment processes through diagrams, three-dimensional animation and videos, says the company. It is available on-line in both French and English. More information: www.degremont.com/innovations-guide Aquaporin appoints new vice president Steen Ulrik Madsen has been appointed Vice President, Business Development, Aquaporin A/s. He heads the cleantech firm’s newly established Business Development Department, based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Aquaporin says that Madsen will play an important role in the process of transforming the company from an entrepreneurial business into an international, commercial product organisation. He holds an MBA, INSEAD from Fontainebleau, France, a MSc in economics and has more than 30 years of experience in sales, business development and management in various industries. According to company, he will be responsible for bringing its first product to the market in 2014.
Membrane Technology
5
NEWS The company says these new contracts bring its order backlog for water treatment projects to C$17.4 million as of 5 June 2013. An important institutional end-user in California, USA, has selected the company to design, fabricate, assemble and deliver an integrated membrane filtration system, combining ultrafiltration (UF) and reverse osmosis (RO) units. The proposed system will comprise a 1893-m3 (0.5-million gallon) per day UF unit and a 2650-m3 (0.7-million gallon) per day RO unit, which will treat concentrate from an electrodialysis reversal system to minimise waste volume for this zero-liquid-discharge facility. Another system will be delivered to Everglades City in Florida, USA. This nanofiltration (NF) system will treat brackish water to produce 2080 m3 (0.55 million gallons) of drinking water a day. In addition, the company is supplying a two-train RO system for an industrial water reclamation project in Iowa, USA. This has an overall capacity of 1325 m3 (0.35 million gallons) a day. Among the projects announced, one of them will see the firm designing, assembling, delivering and commissioning a membrane filtration system – combining the use of UF and ultraviolet (UV) – for a community in British Columbia. Once installed later this year, the system will produce 4200 m3 (1.1 million gallons) of drinking water per day from a surfacewater source. H2O Innovation says that it is hiring a sales manager for its North American systems sales force. Based in British Columbia and reporting to the firm’s sales hub in Calgary, Alberta, this manager will support the company in developing its sales network and promoting its products and services in Western Canada. Frédéric Dugré, President and Chief Executive Officer, H2O Innovation, commented: ‘In British Columbia notably there are many small and medium-sized municipalities that still need to improve their drinking-water and wastewater plants. The territory also abounds with multiple projects that relate to natural resources.’ ‘The signature of this new contract in British Columbia and the addition of a new sales expert to our Western Canadian team are two major milestones that will definitely increase and improve our presence in this high-growth market.’ The company says that it is also set to deliver a two-train NF system for the production of drinking water in Québec. Contacts: H2O Innovation Inc, 420 Boulevard Charest Est, Suite 240, Québec City, Québec, Canada G1K 8M4. Tel: +1 418 688 0170, www.h2oinnovation.com
6
Membrane Technology
GE helps plant in Texas reduce its use of watertreatment agents
Chemists work to desalt oceans for drinking water, one nanolitre at a time
T
B
enaska Gateway Generating Station, a combined-cycle power station based in Texas, USA, is reaping the benefits of using General Electric Co’s (GE) water-treatment technology. GE says that it has helped it to significantly reduce the volume of water treatment agents that it uses and has saved the facility more than $3.2 million in operational expenses over the past three years. The power station, located near the city of Mount Enterprise in Rusk County, recently incorporated facility enhancements that earned it a GE ‘Return on Environment Award’. This recognises the achievements of industrial users that significantly surpass environmental and industrial operational goals whilst balancing industrial demands. Tenaska was recognised for its noteworthy reductions in rinse water and water-treatment agents. ‘Tenaska Gateway Generating Station had a long-term working relationship with GE before the plant was commissioned – first by employing GE’s gas turbine and steam generator technology, but more recently by upgrading its water purification technology. GE’s new watertreatment equipment enables us to use water more efficiently,’ explained the plant’s manager, Steve Pearson. In 2010, the existing ion-exchange units – the primary water purification systems at the station – were enhanced with the addition of equipment based on reverse osmosis (RO) membrane technology. Using the firm’s technologies, the plant uses fewer water-treatment agents, which helps prevent water-quality degradation and the need for additional treatment stages. It also reduces the frequency with which the demineralisers are regenerated which, in turn, saves money and minimises the amount of treated wastewater returned to the environment. Contacts: GE Water & Process Technologies, 4636 Somerton Road, Trevose, PA 19053-6783, USA. Tel: +1 215 355 3300, www.gewater.com GE Power & Water, 1 River Road, Building 2-135D, Schenectady, NY 12345, USA. Tel: +1 518 385 2211, www.gepower.com
y creating a small electrical field that removes salts from sea water, chemists at The University of Texas at Austin, in the USA, and the University of Marburg, in Germany, have developed a new method of sea-water desalination. The researchers say it consumes less energy and is simpler than conventional techniques. Furthermore, the new method requires so little energy that it can be powered by a shop-bought battery. They claim that this process evades the problems confronting current desalination methods by eliminating the need for a membrane and by separating salt from water at a micro-scale. The technique, called electrochemically mediated sea-water desalination, is described in the journal Angewandte Chemie (Volume 52, Issue 31, pages 8107–8110, 29 July 2013). The research team was led by Richard Crooks of The University of Texas at Austin and Ulrich Tallarek of the University of Marburg. It is patent-pending and is in commercial development by start-up company Okeanos Technologies Llc. To achieve desalination the researchers apply a small voltage (3.0 V) to a plastic chip filled with sea water. The chip contains a microchannel with two branches. At the junction of this channel an embedded electrode neutralises some of the chloride ions in the sea water to create an “ion depletion zone”, which increases the local electric field compared with the rest of the channel. This change in the electric field is sufficient to redirect salts into one branch, allowing desalinated water to pass through the other branch. Thus far Professor Crooks and his colleagues have achieved 25% desalination. Although drinking water requires 99% desalination, they are confident that goal can be achieved.
Contact: Professor Richard Crooks, The University of Texas at Austin, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, College of Natural Sciences, 1 University Station A5300, Austin, TX 78712, USA. Tel: +1 512 475 8674, Email: [email protected] Dr Tony Frudakis, Okeanos Technologies Llc, 2012 Callie Way, Suite 201, Union, KY 41091, USA. Tel: +1 866 991 1446, Email: [email protected], www.okeanostech.com
August 2013