North America
Follett product award announced
Follett’s 7 Series ice and water dispenser was selected as a 2013 Kitchen Innovations award recipient by the National Restaurant Association (NRA). It was designed to solve the problems of height, drain availability and aesthetic design in employee refreshment and related venues. To solve the drain availability issue that limits the placement of many dispensers, melted ice in the enclosed bin returns to the icemaker to be refrozen rather than drain out of the dispenser. In addition to eliminating the need for a drain, this design reduces installation costs and allows the unit to be installed in places where other icemakers/ dispensers cannot. It also minimizes water consumption, contributing to energy and water efficiency.
Everpure anniversary celebrated at KBIS
Pentair celebrated the 80-year anniversary of its Everpure® line of products by showcasing its innovations in water treatment at the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show in New Orleans, LA. The company announced it is renewing its commitment to developing products that improve ease-of-use for consumers and reduces the products’ environmental footprints. Following in the Everpure tradition of global leadership in quality, reliability and innovation for commercial applications, Pentair established the Everpure residential line of products, which cater to the high-end residential market segment.
Calgon Carbon plant opened in Arizona
In April, Calgon Carbon Corporation celebrated the dedication of a state-of-theart activated carbon custom reactivation facility in Gila Bend, AZ. As owner/ operator, the company will be reactivating (recycling) carbon used by water treatment facilities to purify drinking water distributed to surrounding communities, including Phoenix. The new facility is estimated to bring 25 high-quality jobs to the state, with a potential to increase to 62 jobs over a three-year period. In additional news, the company announced results for the first quarter ended March 31. Net sales for the first quarter of 2013 were $135.0 million (USD), essentially flat versus the comparable period in 2012. Activated carbon and service-segment sales increased 1.4 percent, due to higher demand for activated carbon products and services in the municipal and industrial process markets. These increases were largely offset by lower demand for granular activated carbon in the food market, as well as lower demand and pricing for powdered activated carbon for mercury removal from electric generating units.
Argonide technology embraced by Dow
Argonide Corporation acknowledged the recent announcement of a collaborative effort between Dow Water & Process Solutions and Ahlstrom Advanced Filtration relative to Ahlstrom’s Disruptor filter media, which is under license from Argonide. In 2006, Argonide licensed Ahlstrom to manufacture non-woven filter media using Argonide’s patented NanoCeram® electropositive filtration technology. Ahlstrom’s brand name for NanoCeram technology is Disruptor, aptly named as a disruptive force in water filtration. Designed with Disruptor filter media technology, Dow will develop a line of filtration devices to address drinking water needs in the POU markets.
Bentley’s Water For People donation announced
Bentley Systems, Incorporated, has contributed $100,000 (USD) to Water For People in support of the organization’s work improving water systems in emerging economies around the world. Bentley has also donated a selection of eight software products from its portfolio, including MicroStation, WaterGEMS, SewerGEMS, FlowMaster and Bentley Map. The software will be used by Water For People team members to design, engineer and construct water systems, as well as to map the functionality of water points in every district. Water For People teaches local communities in Africa, Central and South America and India how to build, manage and maintain water and sanitation systems, and to build capacity that ensures the systems can be operated and maintained at levels appropriate for each community. Bentley is a global sponsor of Water For People, with many of its colleagues (including Bentley COO Malcolm Walter, who serves on the organization’s board) volunteering their time to the organization.
IPS controllers certified
IPS Controllers has achieved NSF certification under NSF/ANSI 50 on all models it produces. The NSF certification requirements are making their way into building codes; most recently, Title 24 of California Building Standards Code requires chemical feeders to meet the applicable requirements established by the NSF/ ANSI 50 2010 performance standard.
Pool/spa partnership announced
After a mutually successful five-year partnership, the International Pool | Spa | Patio Expo [PSP] has renewed its endorsement partnership with Genesis 3, Inc., extending the current contract from 2014 until 2018. Under the terms of the extended four-year agreement, Genesis 3, Inc. will continue to receive billing as one of the Expo’s official show endorsers, while providing world-renowned education and networking opportunities to the industry through the show conference.
Wilo facilty expansion announced
Wilo USA LLC opened a new 61,625- sq.-ft. factory service and distribution center in Thomasville, GA in May. That will be the hub for Wilo’s box-product distribution in the US, as well as offering distribution support to Wilo Canada and Wilo Mexico operations. Wilo USA LLC is a subsidiary of Wilo SE, one of the leading manufacturers of pump systems for heating, cooling and air-conditioning technology, as well as water supply, sewage and drainage. Wilo SE is represented in more than 60 countries and employs over 6,700 people worldwide. Wilo USA, headquartered in Rosemont, IL, also has a production plant in Thomasville, a few miles from the new service/distribution center.
Mar Cor product license announced
Mar Cor Purification has been awarded a Class 3 Device License from Health Canada for its BioPure HX2 heat disinfectable centralized (RO) water system for dialysis. The double-pass RO system features automatic hot-water disinfection with four different modes and is designed to produce high-quality water and distribution for large-capacity applications up to 50 stations and/or 1,000-foot loop lengths. The system will be manufactured in the Mar Cor ISO 13485/CMDCAS-registered factory in Burlington, Ontario and conforms to various standards including but not limited to: CAN/CSA C22.2#61010‐1 Standard for Electrical Safety and IEC 61326‐1 Electrical Emissions–General Requirements.
Dow filter technology honored
Dow Water & Process Solutions’ (DW&PS) TEQUATIC™ PLUS F-50 fine-particle filter has won the Infinite Possibility for Market Growth Award by the Awards for Composites Excellence (ACE) program. The award was presented to Ershigs Inc., a key supplier that worked closely with Clean Filtration Technologies LLC, a Dow subsidiary, to produce the housing for the filter. It is a breakthrough, patented technology that combines the power of continuous cleaning, cross-flow filtration with centrifugal separation and solids collection into one device. The filter is designed to handle a wide range of difficult-to-treat feed waters cost-effectively and consistently, in part due to its housing.
Asia
Severn Trent contract for China plant
Severn Trent Services recently signed a contract to provide its Capital Controls® turnkey chlorination system for the first construction phase of the Chengdu Seventh Tap Water Plant in Chengdu, China. With accelerating urbanization, the demand for water in the southwest China city has reached the upper limit of current water supply capacity. For the past 20 years, Severn Trent Services has provided chlorination solutions for approximately 95 percent of all potable water treatment plants in Chengdu, including the city’s Second Plant, Fifth Plant and Sixth Plant. The chlorination system will provide the new water plant with a cost-effective, end-to-end system. The designed capacity of the plant’s first-phase of construction is 500,000 tons/day. In order to address growing water consumption, the plant’s long-term capacity will reach up to one million tons/day. Delivery of the project took place in April.
Clean Tech winner announced
Following 28 weeks of vigorous prototyping and innovative research and design, Hwa Chong Institution emerged as the grand-prize winner in the Applied Materials Clean Tech Competition (CTC) in Singapore. Their student team’s innovative project on utilizing calcium carbonate found in clam shells to remove toxic metal ions from wastewater showcased their talents to solve critical global water problems through clean energy. As the main sponsor for the competition, Applied Materials awarded a total of $15,000 (USD) in cash prizes to ten winning teams. The competition is a philanthropic research and design challenge program for 15- to 18-year-old students held annually in California’s San Francisco Bay Area, Xi’an, China and Singapore. Launched for the first time in Singapore this year, the competition received participation from 330 students, forming 91 teams across 23 schools. For more information about the competition, visit www.cleantechcompetition.org.
Europe
GE Spain project announced
GE announced the commissioning of its high-performance LEAPmbr membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology at a wastewater treatment plant owned by the Spanish poultry processing firm, Procavi S.L. The technology will help Procavi improve water quality and double its water treatment capacity without expanding the existing facility. The previous wastewater treatment plant was producing 600 m3/ day, while today it can process 1,200 m3/ day. GE provided the technology to Agua, Energia y Medio Ambiente, Servicios Integrales, S.L. (AEMA), the Spanish engineering, procurement and construction company that was operating the newly expanded wastewater treatment plant for Procavi.
Watersolutions honored for distillation technology
Watersolutions AG has received the 2013 Water Technology Idol ‘Distinction’ Award from Global Water Intelligence for its Low Temperature Distillation (LTD) system. Presented at the 2013 Global Water Summit in Seville, Spain by Vicente Fox, former President of Mexico and CEO of Coca Cola Latin America, the award was conferred following interviews by a judging panel composed of four experts from different sectors of the water industry and audience votes for the technology deemed to be most likely to live up to the presenting company’s expectations. Watersolutions was one of only four companies selected to participate in the Technology Idol program, which took place before a standing-room-only crowd at the summit.