NEWS

6Membrane Technology April 2007

2007. The ultrapure water, supplied to local industry, undergoes microfil-tration, RO and UV treatment.

The municipal authority of Limerick in south-west Ireland award-ed Veolia Water, in partnership with Ascon, a civil engineering subsidiary of the Netherlands’ Royal BAM Group, a design, build and operate (DBO) contract to upgrade the Clareville water production plant. The facility supplies water to 90 000 people in Limerick and the surrounding area.

The operation part of the contract is for a period of 20 years and will represent total revenue of about �60million for Veolia Water. The design and construction components will be carried out by Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies and Ascon for a total amount of �23.7 million.

Veolia Water has also signed a con-tract to manage the Island of Guam’s wastewater service. In partnership with Guam Waterworks Authority, the company will set up a system of sustainable development for the island, which is both a major US naval base and a popular destination for Japanese vacationers. The contract represents consolidated revenue of �6.1m over three years, and includes an option for a further three-year extension. It covers the management of seven wastewater treatment plants with a total capacity of 45 000 m3 a day for a population of 120 000.

Antoine Frérot, Chief Executive Officer of Veolia Water, said: ‘Through these three new contracts in Europe and Asia-Pacific, Veolia is once again confirming its ability to provide systems and services that are tailored to local conditions in terms of infrastructure and network management, as well as the design and implementation of drinking or recycled water production.’

Contact:Veolia Water, 52 rue d’Anjou, F-75384 Paris Cedex 8, France. Tel: +33 1 4924 4924, www.veoliawater.com

Membrane market set to reach $1 billionThe Northern European mem-brane separation systems market is passing through a high growth phase, catalyzed by steadily increasing demand from both the

municipal and the industrial sec-tors, claims a study available from market research company Frost & Sullivan.

According to the report, enti-tled Northern European Membrane Separation Systems Market, this area earned revenues of $680 million in 2005, and it estimates that this is set to reach $1 billion by 2012.

The need to ensure a safe and secure supply of drinking water is encouraging municipalities to deploy membrane systems to tackle persistent contaminants such as pesticides and bacteria. At the same time the demand for high-purity process water in key industrial sectors such as pharmaceuticals, together with increasing use of membrane-based wastewater treat-ment systems to meet stringent European Union (EU) Directives is promoting overall market expan-sion, says the company.

‘The Northern European mem-brane separation systems market provides growth opportunities in almost all countries across both municipal and industrial sectors,’ said Fredrick Harry Royan, a sen-ior industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan.

‘This is largely because mem-brane systems have proved their importance in adding value in appli-cations for process separation and also fulfilling critical needs in terms of high-purity water and wastewa-ter treatment across industrial and municipal segments, thereby meet-ing stringent legislative standards mandated by EU Directives.’

The process separation appli-cation in the industrial segment, which currently dominates the over-all market, is constantly expanding in size. It is building on innovative membrane systems that are helping suppliers consolidate their present market position and expand into new market applications.

The legislative-driven market applications of membrane systems, comprising industrial wastewater treatment and municipal drinking water and wastewater treatment, are being realized with the steady implementation of these standards. Both end-user segments are now progressively falling in line with compliance requirements, thereby providing relevant opportunities for membrane systems.

According to the company, one of the key challenges for membrane

separation systems remains the need for such technologies to meet the highly specific and critical opera-tional needs of end-user segments.

‘This is highlighted by the fact that even industrial end-user seg-ments such as food and beverage, and pharmaceuticals have varying process water quality requirements,’ explained Royan.

‘In the municipal sector, the use of membranes is largely to counter specific problem elements, such as heavy metals, pesticides or even bacterial contamination, while process separation has a wide range of operating conditions that mem-brane systems are required to sus-tain for functions such as clarifying and concentration.’

This means that it is imperative for membrane separation system suppliers to understand the spe-cific needs of key end-user seg-ments such as food and beverage, and pharmaceuticals, and aim to customize their membrane systems, products and services. By doing so, they would effectively address the specific requirements and capitalize on the constantly expanding oppor-tunities in the European membrane separation systems marketplace.

Contact:Frost & Sullivan, 4 Grosvenor Gardens, London SW1W 0DH, UK. Tel: +44 20 7343 8314, www.frost.com

BIOGAZ system captures methane gasMethane gas that is naturally released from landfill sites can now be captured and recycled into a usable source of energy, using a technology called BIOGAZ, developed by MEDAL, the mem-brane division of Air Liquide Advanced Technologies US Llc.

Organic waste buried in land-fills degrades into biogases, which include methane – the major constituent of natural gas. When released in the atmosphere, meth-ane also contributes to the green-house effect.

During the summer of 2006, a BIOGAZ system was installed at a new landfill methane recov-ery project near Johnstown, Pennsylvania, USA.

Harry Crouse, Chairman of Keystone Renewable Energy LLC, said: ‘We are so pleased with the performance of the BIOGAZ sys-tem that we have already ordered two more units for projects in Western Pennsylvania. MEDAL’s BIOGAZ technology has given us a way to capture and recycle energy in an economical and environment- friendly way that would have oth-erwise gone to waste or have been burned in the landfill’s flare.’ The additional Keystone installations are scheduled for completion late in the summer of 2007.

Each BIOGAZ system is capa-ble of removing and reprocessing 40 000–160 000 m3 of landfill gas per day. According to Air Liquide, the ultimate benefit of the system is that it captures a previously wasted energy stream and recycles it into high-quality energy while helping to reduce harmful greenhouse gases that are generated by landfills. The recycled methane can be then deliv-ered directly into the pipeline grid.

Contacts:Air Liquide, 75 Quai d’Orsay, F-75007 Paris, France. Tel: +33 1 4062 5555, www.airliquide.frAir Liquide America, 2700 Post Oak Boulevard, Suite 1800, Houston, TX 77056, USA. Tel: +1 713 624 8000, www.us.airliquide.com

Technique has potential to remove toxinsIn the USA, experiments designed to test discrepancies in theoreti-cal computational chemistry may have helped scientists discover a new way of locating and remov-ing dangerous toxins, such as per-chlorate and nitrates, from water supplies and the environment.

The research targets toxic groundwater contaminants that contain negatively charged ions (anions), which are historically difficult to remove. Perchlorate, a rocket fuel additive that has been linked to thyroid deficiency in women, has contaminated more than 450 wells in California alone. Nitrate contamination, which results mainly from the use of nitrogen fertilizer, is a major rea-son why authorities in the US