Field Notes
UK: A new Global Water Intelligence forecast notes global desalination capacity is expected to increase from 52 million m3/d in 2008 to 107 million m3/d in 2016. Over that period, advanced wastewater reuse will see capacity triple from 20 million m3/d to 60 million m3/d. Likewise, $64 billion will be spent building desalination plants and £25.6 billion on advanced water reuse projects worldwide. Among those expected to gain from this growth are: GE, Veolia Environment, Suez, Siemens, Acciona, Abengoa, Christ Water Technologies and Hyflux.
POLAND/FRANCE: In a consortium including Polish civil engineering firm Warbud and German water company WTE, Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies won a contract to upgrade the Czajka wastewater treatment plant in Warsaw, Poland, to treat up to 515,000 m3/d in peak periods. The contract is worth about €500 million, of which €148 million is for VWS. France’s Nantes Metropole awarded another consortium including OTV France Ouest, a VWS company, a contract to upgrade a wastewater treatment plant south of the city, in an area known as the Petite Californie. The contract – which includes Multiflo® Duo lamellar settling, biofiltration using Biostyr® and OdoWatch odor monitoring – is estimated at €29 million, of which €13.7 million is for VWS. Biogas recovery and solar panel systems will help to make the facility nearly carbon neutral.
ALGERIA: A persistent shortage of potable water in the city of Algiers was eased in February as the US$250 million Hamma Seawater Desalination Plant (SWDP) was opened by Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and Jeff Garwood, GE Water & Process Technologies president and CEO. Completed on budget in 24 months, the Hamma SWDP uses GE’s advanced RO membranes to purify up to 200,000 m3/d of seawater – providing as many as two million residents of Algiers with a reliable and drought-proof supply of fresh water.
IRELAND: Two ClorTec on-site sodium hypochlorite generating systems from Severn Trent Services were picked by Response Engineering Ltd. for installation at Dublin Corp.’s Saggart Wastewater Treatment Works on the outskirts of Dublin, Ireland. Each ClorTec CT-300s is capable of generating 135 kg/d of chlorine equivalent. STS has installed over 3,000 on-site sodium hypochlorite generation systems worldwide since 1988. In other news, C2C, a joint venture of Severn Trent and Costain, successfully registered to BS OHSAS 18001:2007, an international standard for Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems.
UK: Canada’s Eco-Tec won a biogas purification contract to supply its BgPur technology to McCain Foods (Great Britain) Ltd. to implement energy efficiency projects at its processing plants around the world and help limit its global climate change impact. This includes capturing biogas from anaerobic digester lagoons and purifying the gas to produce electricity. McCain Foods hired Black & Veatch to conduct an evaluation of available technology and manage the integration into the planned process.
IBM tackles coastal water issues via Dutch center
IBM has announced it will establish an IBM Global Center of Excellence for Water Management in the Netherlands. The Amsterdam center will play a key role in delivery of the Dutch Government’s Flood Control 2015 water innovation program.
Drawing on IBM consulting, technology and research expertise, it will help IBM’s public sector clients worldwide to develop enhanced prediction and protection systems for low-lying coastal areas and river deltas.
Over 60% of the world’s population live in these areas, considered under greater risk of flooding due to rising sea levels and extreme weather episodes related to the onset of climate change.
IBM’s water management involvement is part of its ‘Big Green Innovations’ initiative, announced in October 2006 as part of a two-year, $100 million investment in 10 new business ventures generated by InnovationJam, an ongoing open ideas forum launched by IBM early that year.
Concentrated on water management, alternative energy and carbon management, the effort is one of several IBM initiatives dedicated to energy and environmental issues.
Norit oversees Russian ‘greenfield’ brewery project, donates 10 Perfector-E purifiers to Red Cross
Norit Process Technology is involved in the set-up of a Greenfield brewery for SABMiller in Ulyanovsk, Russia, a city on the Volga River about 900km east of Moscow. The new brewery’s annual 3 million hectoliters capacity is major extension of SABMiller’s brewing capacity in the Russian market.
In this project, Norit is acting as a system integrator for everything between wort handling and the Bright Beer Tank section. Cooperation of all Norit subsidiaries ensures a short delivery time. Fermenting, lagering, and filtration up to the fillers is all designed, automated and installed by Norit.
A lot of its latest technology will be implemented, such as Norit Südmo valve-technology and Norit Haffmans’ CO2-O2 management, CO2 recovery systems and water deaeration technology utilizing membranes.
In other news, Norit donated 10 Perfector-E water purification systems for use in global relief efforts, and €441,676 to the Red Cross as part of Radio 3FM’s Serious Request 2007 effort the week prior to Christmas Eve. The 3FM DJs have promised to play music at a celebration held in 2008 to honor Norit’s 90th anniversary.
Koch lands first ever MBR orders in Spain, Poland
Koch Membrane Systems has announced its first municipal order for its Puron® submerged membrane modules in Spain. Sited at Ontígola in the province of Toledo in central Spain, the membrane bioreactor (MBR) plant is being built by Aqualia Infraestructuras to process wastewater from the local business park for use in both agricultural irrigation, the nearby Mar de Ontígola nature reserve and its 635 hectares of wetlands.
The system will process 1,200 m3/d of wastewater after it’s commissioned in May. KMS also supplied Puron modules to Poland for use in a new industrial wastewater treatment system which is the first installation of the technology in Eastern Europe.
Sokpol Koncentraty, based in Zagloba, Poland, is one of the country’s largest producers of fruit juice. The new MBR plant, operational since last summer, replaces an undersized moving bed reactor that lacked space for expansion.
It was installed and commissioned by Polish engineering company PP-EKO, an existing OEM for KMS, which also installed SuperCor modules from KMS for chemical industry applications.
Krohne spotlights three flow measurement efforts
Three recent projects of Krohne highlight three flow meters in three industries and three countries:
A Swiss salt mine in the Rhine valley installed the German company’s Optiflux 4300 electromagnetic flowmeter because it’s wear-resistant and extremely robust and durable, even in corrosive environments such as brine preparation.
These are being used to measure a flow rate of between 0-500 m3/h in the mother liquor reservoir and to monitor the clarifying agent at a flow of between 0-7 m3/h. The company has been using Krohne instrumentation for 13 years.
UK wax manufacturer Kerax has installed a Krohne Optimass 7300 Coriolis mass flowmeter to improve accuracy of production processes at its Chorley, Lancashire plant.
Kerax produces a variety of waxes used in castings and as ingredients in products such as adhesives. Each formulation requires blending of two or three types of wax and various additives.
To maintain consistent product temperature, the meter is fitted with a heating jacket that can be fed with hot water or steam.
For efficiency improvement of Japanese nuclear power plants the National Metrology Institute of Japan (NMIJ) has put the world’s most accurate research and test facility into operation for the measurement of ultra-large flows. The heart of this facility includes four Altosonic V ultrasonic flowmeters from Krohne arranged in series each with one electromagnetic Optiflux flowmeter for technology-independent plausibility checking.
