Weekly Business News Round Up - June 8

Suez initiates five contracts in Chile, Mexico & Brazil
These contracts contribute to the development of the group’s new activities in Latin America and the Caribbean, a region where Suez is celebrating its 80th anniversary. Today, 6% of the group’s global revenue comes from this region, where it has more than 6,600 employees in nine main countries, which include Chile, Mexico and Brazil. As an expert in water management that contributes to meeting the region’s essential needs for access to water and sanitation, the Group also is expanding into new markets, such as smart cities, agriculture and industry. Latin America represents 24% of worldwide arable land and accounts for 11% of global agricultural production. Suez has technological solutions that enable farmers to optimize water consumption and to supply sufficient quantities of quality water through remote metering, leak detection, adaptation of consumption to the weather conditions, reuse of domestic wastewater or desalination for agricultural irrigation.

American Water awards scholarship to University of California, Riverside Doctoral Student
American Water, the largest publicly traded U.S. water and wastewater utility company, announced that Michael Bentel, a doctoral student at the University of California, Riverside, has been chosen as the recipient of the American Water Works Association 2018 American Water Scholarship. The scholarship is an annual award of $5,000 presented to a graduate level student to assist with the development of professionals interested in service to the water industry. “American Water is pleased to present this prestigious award to Michael, who was selected among 65 outstanding applicants,” said Dr. Ben Stanford, senior director of water research and development. “Not only is Michael an exceptional scholar, he has the credibility to take on a future leadership role in in developing advanced water treatment technologies. We are honored to help advance his drinking water research studies.”

Seeq pushes software update
Seeq Corp. announces the release of its second update to its Seeq software application in 2018, staying on plan to provide four new releases each year. Seeq is an advanced analytics solution for engineers and scientists in process manufacturing organizations to investigate and share insights on manufacturing data. Target markets include oil & gas, pharmaceutical, chemical, energy, mining, food and beverage, and other process industries.

Fracta Inc receives strategic investment from Kurita Water Ind. Ltd.
Fracta Inc., a technology innovator bringing artificial intelligence (AI) to infrastructure, announced a strategic investment from Kurita Water Ind. Ltd. The investment allows Fracta and Kurita to extend their leadership in the U.S. water industry, particularly to municipal and investor-owned water utilities. Kurita’s investment totals approximately $37 million. Kurita will acquire the majority of the shares of Fracta Inc. through the acquisition of issued shares and the subscription for new shares. Under the investment, the Fracta name and management will remain intact.

Watson Marlow wins Queen’s Award for Enterprise: Innovation 2018
Qdos, a chemical metering pump, won the Queen's Award for Enterprise: Innovation 2018. The award recognizes the company’s development of its Qdos pump technology the world’s first self-contained, chemical metering pump. This category rewards world class innovation coupled with proof of five years of sustained sales. Qdos pumps provide accurate, linear and repeatable metering and feature a single, no-tools component change with integral leak detection, reducing process downtime and lowering the overall cost of ownership.

QED Environmental Systems announces in-house machining
Q.E.D. Environmental Systems Inc., a manufacturer of environmental products and subsidiary of Graco Inc., announced its new in-house machining capabilities. QED will now machine parts for approximately 90% of its finished goods. By machining in-house, QED is able to monitor every step of the manufacturing process from incoming material to the final product, leading to efficient manufacturing and ultimately, better quality products. QED will use a Citizen Cincom L32 Swiss CNC lathe, a Behringer automatic band saw and a Mazak Multiplex 6300YR turning center to machine parts and components, and is now also manufacturing all applicable parts out of 316 stainless steel—upgrading from 304 stainless steel—to improve resistance to corrosion and chemicals. Products impacted by this change range from autopumps and wellheads to groundwater and soil sampling solutions.

Networking News

• Seeq names Mike Purcell managing director for Europe, Middle East and Africa.
• H2M appoints James J. Roberts, P.E., to vice president and water/wastewater director; James neri, P.E., to division director of water resources; Christopher Weiss, P.E., to vice president and director of wastewater; Joseph Manzella, P.E., to vice president; Jay Pisco, P.E., to vice president; and William Rockensies, P.E., to vice president.

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