Industrial Water Technologies - answering the call for Water Treatment
Published on by Edyta Bednorz, Global Water Intelligence - Brand Marketing Executive in Technology
GWI's new market report explains how to capitalise on the increasingly pressing need to treat and manage water in industry in the face of tightening environmental regulations and a squeeze on global water resources .
The market for industrial water treatment technologies is set to expand by more than 50% over the next five years, from an estimated $7 billion in 2015 to more than $11 billion in 2020. The industrial sector is seen as a more dynamic arena than the conservative municipal utility market, and there is a wealth of opportunities for technology suppliers who can solve the specific problems faced by industrial end-users.
The need for more advanced treatment
As industrial end-users have traditionally been focused on the efficiency and quality of their output or product, and often lack in-house expertise in water treatment, they tend to be concerned with treating water only if it is essential in order to reduce risks in the production process, such as in microelectronics and pharmaceuticals, where water of a very high quality is vital. In addition, wastewater streams generated from industrial applications have often been regarded as an inconvenient by-product, and are especially complex in terms of their composition, often requiring a water specialist to treat the effluent effectively. In the last decade, however, the treatment and management of water in industry has become more seriously recognised as a prominent issue, due to several key factors:
- Increased pressure on water resources: industrial end-users are increasingly exploring ways to reduce their reliance on fresh water sources;
- Lower quality feedwater: as a result of turning to alternative water sources, such as seawater or wastewater, more advanced treatment is required to reach the desired quality;
- Tougher discharge regulations: this is a global phenomenon, especially affecting the oil & gas and mining sectors as they deal with heavy metals and oil in water.
The upstream oil & gas and food & beverage industries will lead the way in capital spending on water and wastewater treatment technologies in 2015 while three major industrial areas account for more than half of total spending: oil & gas, food & beverage, and mining.
Oil & gas: looking beyond the price drop
The upstream oil & gas industry has historically been one of the largest markets for water treatment technologies, and is expected to see the highest growth until 2020. In the wake of the recent rout in oil prices, which has seen many E&P companies rein in their capital expenditure budgets, the market for water treatment technologies in 2015 is estimated at $2.27 billion (a 37% fall versus 2014). The market is, however, set to double to $4.5 billion in 2020, depending on the recovery of oil prices. Although oil-water separation technologies represent by far the largest chunk of this market, there are good opportunities for desalination technologies because of the need for enhanced oil recovery methods (EOR), and also to deal with challenging wastewater streams for zero liquid discharge (e.g. brine concentration). Another key factor in the upstream oil & gas industry that is leading to the development of new technologies is the need to recover as much oil as possible for economic benefit, as well as to reduce oil-inwater levels to meet stringent wastewater discharge regulations.
Food & beverage: hungry for treatment
Biological treatment is predominantly used in the food & beverage industry, where annual spending on this type of technology is expected to hit $630 million by 2020. The wastewater from food and beverage production is typically loaded with organic contaminants and nutrients, and there is a growing market here for anaerobic systems, as they have enhanced abilities to handle wastewater streams with high amounts of organic matter. Spending on anaerobic processes is expected to grow slightly faster than the rest of the market. There are some interesting solutions emerging, with technology suppliers developing anaerobic treatment technologies that are more efficient and easier to operate, and which industrial facility operators can use to take advantage of biogas production to reduce their energy costs.
Mining: finding the gold standard
Miners are not just facing intensifying competition for water resources; they must also deal with higher volumes of wastewater. Compounding this is the nature of the wastewater, which can be brimming with sulphates - as mining operations move to the extraction of minerals and metals from sulphide rock (rather than oxide) - and other contaminants such as selenium, which has recently become a big deal in the industry because of new regulations, particularly in Latin America. There are several methods that can be applied to treating wastewater from tailing ponds, but as discharge standards become firmer, some technologies are seeing increasing uptake. Membranes have begun to gather steam as a solution for treating tailings water, while there is room for improvement in removing cyanides from wastewater following the processing of gold ore. There are also a number of technologies emerging in the nascent market for metals recovery from wastewater, based on ion exchange and chemical precipitation.
Technologies: the crucible of innovation
Much of the innovation in treatment technologies is occurring in the area of dissolved solids removal, in an attempt to improve the efficiency of the reverse osmosis process (by reducing energy usage) or to deal with the high TDS waters of RO reject and produced water from unconventional oil & gas wells. Dissolved solids removal will be one of the fastest growing segments of the industrial water technologies market over the next five years, averaging 9.2% per year. The bulk of spending in this area will be driven by the demand for high-purity process water in power generation, refining, pharmaceuticals and microelectronics. There will also be strong growth in technologies that allow industrial users to make use of marginal sources of water, such as reused wastewater, and which benefit companies facing tough discharge regulations, such as miners. Total spending will top $1.7 billion in 2020. The fastest growing segment of this market is expected to be for brine concentrators and crystallisers for reducing wastewater volumes. This segment will be dependent on local conditions that affect whether facility operators are driven to adopt zero liquid discharge practices, although wastewater treatment in the power industry is a particularly vibrant market for thermal brine concentrators and crystallisers. The need to remove heavy metals from flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) wastewater in North America and coal-to-chemical plant effluent in China are key growth drivers in this market. The growth in dissolved solids removal will also drag the suspended solids market up with it, as the removal of fine particles is required in order to protect downstream treatment processes such as reverse osmosis and ion exchange. The fastest growing segment for suspended solids will be MF/ UF membranes, at 7% per year, as their uptake for process water treatment and tertiary treatment increases. The adoption of membrane bioreactor systems for the treatment of process wastewater will also drive substantial growth in membrane filtration, while there is an increasing buzz surrounding the adoption of ceramic membranes in the oil & gas sector. Historically, free biofilm systems, where the bacteria are not attached to a carrier, have represented the largest share of the biological treatment market, due to their relative simplicity and ease of operation. However, fixed biofilm systems are expected to be increasingly adopted by industrial users over the forecast period, owing to their smaller system footprint, increased ability to cope with variable loads, and upgrade/retrofit potential. Although the food & beverage industry accounts for most of the projected capital spending in the market for innovative biological treatment systems which incorporate activated carbon or ozone are gaining traction in the refining sector because they can enhance the breakdown of dissolved hydrocarbons and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Meanwhile, increasing investment is expected in biological processes for the removal of non-organic substances - such as selenium compounds - from FGD wastewater in the power and mining industries. The market for disinfection technologies is the smallest, worth $485 million in 2015, but with a typical CAGR of 6.3% until 2020. UV radiation and ozonation will see strong growth, while advanced oxidation processes will occupy a niche market, particular applications being supercritical water oxidation in refining and pharmaceuticals, and catalytic oxidation in upstream oil & gas.
Getting involved: the route to market
Due to its highly fragmented nature, it can be difficult for new technologies to gain momentum in the industrial water market, and it can often take a long time for a technology to achieve widespread adoption. As end-users' main focus is on maintaining and improving their production outputs, they often preferentially select tried and tested technologies that have been applied in the industry for many years. However, given the diversity not only in water treatment needs, but in the suite of products and processing steps which are prevalent in the industry, there are opportunities for new technologies to reach the market, with many industries recognising the need to look beyond the norm. Although one cannot expect a sea change any time soon in terms of the speed at which new technologies are adopted in industrial markets, suppliers are increasingly looking to differentiate themselves by positioning their product to address a certain need or challenge within an industry.