Water Recycling & Recovery

Business News Round Up - Feb. 1

Trinidad & Tobago engaged new leak survey; Lanxess expands range of membranes

Feb. 1, 2019
5 min read

Editor's Note: Each week, Water & Wastes Digest will post an aggregate of business news briefs and networking news items to keep you informed on facility openings, business mergers and purchases, changes in personnel and award notifications, among others in the water and wastewater treatment industries. If you have business news briefs you would like included in this weekly round up, please email the press release, photo and a link to the post on your website to [email protected] with the subject line "Business News Round Up." One news item per company per week will be posted.

Trinidad & Tobago Engage New Leak Survey Method by Utilis

Utilis and their leak survey method was welcomed by the Ministry of Public Utilities in Trinidad and Tobago in January. The island nations are moving into their dry season and the Ministry has contracted with Utilis to provide its patented technology to identify sub-surface leaks in the municipal water distribution system. This project is being supported by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Utilis and IDB are assisting the Ministry to reduce the high levels of water loss currently being experienced.

“The islands of Trinidad and Tobago have had some difficult times in the past few years when it comes to their water supply and distribution systems,” said Elly Perets, Utilis CEO. “Our goal is to reduce the water lost by non-revenue leaks in their potable systems.”

Lanxess Expands Range of Membranes

Lanxess is expanding its range of membrane elements for reverse osmosis (RO). The new Lewabrane HP (high performance) series comprises elements that consist of an enhanced brackish water membrane to serve applications in which high rejection and energy efficiency are important. Using the new types in combination with monodisperse Lewatit ion exchange resins provides high quality produced water at lower operational cost.

With an average salt rejection of 99.7% and high permeability, the new product types are a further development of the high cross-linked polyamide membrane which Lanxess launched in 2012. Controlling the degree of polyamide cross-linking during production process provides a small effective “pore size” that results in high rejection of solutes, regardless their charge.

Xylem Rental Solutions Makes Its Debut

Xylem is presenting a new approach and look to its dedicated rental solutions business. Xylem’s application knowledge and family of pump and ancillary equipment brands deliver unparalleled value to virtually all industries and utilities. Xylem Rental Solutions has a range of sizes and configurations, also renting specialty products and systems that are not available from other companies.

“An ever-increasing number of industries are considering renting pumps and related equipment to efficiently and cost effectively run their operations,” said Gregg Leslie, Director Rental Market Development, Americas. “Whether our customers require fast-track temporary emergency response, or reliable, long-term operation, the depth of our expertise and breadth of our fleet will help them solve every water challenge, from the basic to the most complex.”

Rockwell Automation Acquires Emulate3D

Rockwell Automation Inc. has acquired Emulate3D. By using accurate simulation models to improve systems planning and decision-making, followed by emulation trials that test the control system before installation, Emulate3D’s software enables customers to virtually test machine and system designs before incurring manufacturing and automation costs and committing to a final design.

“We are excited about the opportunities that Emulate3D’s software offers our customers,” said Fran Wlodarczyk, Rockwell Automation senior vice president for its architecture and software segment. “They will have the ability to improve their time to market and operational productivity through digital machine prototyping and virtual commissioning. It also marks another investment by Rockwell Automation to bring the Connected Enterprise to life.”

Danfoss Accepting Entries for EnVisioneer of Year Award Competition

Danfoss is accepting entries for its tenth annual EnVisioneer of the Year award competition.

Launched in 2010, the competition recognizes North American original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), building owners, municipalities, contractors and end users that have introduced a new product, opened a new facility, or invested in a building or system upgrade in the past 18 months using Danfoss products or solutions to realize significant energy and environmental savings.

Lystek International to Continue to Manage North Battleford’s Biosolids

The mutually beneficial agreement is meaningful because the forward-looking City was the first community in western Canada to recognize the many advantages of diverting its biosolids from landfill in favor of converting the valuable resource into LysteGro, a Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) registered biofertilizer product via its market leading, low temperature, low cost Thermal Hydrolysis Process.

The contract renewal is a testament of the City’s satisfaction with having Lystek provide year-round management of their annual biosolids program, including marketing and distribution of the City’s LysteGro product.

The Water Council Board of Directors Names New Co-Chairs

The Water Council have announced the appointment of two new co-chairs to its board of directors beginning January 2019. The new co-chairs hold executive positions with industry-leading, global water technology companies headquartered in Milwaukee.

Todd Adams, president and CEO for Rexnord Corporation, and Jim Stern, executive vice president for A. O. Smith Corporation, will replace Rich Meeusen, who recently retired from Badger Meter and Paul Jones, former chairman and CEO of A. O. Smith. Continuing to serve as board members, Meeusen and Jones, co-founded and co-chaired The Water Council ten years ago and were instrumental in the early creation and development of the global water technology cluster organization.

Networking News

  • Stephanie Holloman has joined Stantec as Water/Wastewater practice leader in North Carolina.

  • Dan Elias, attorney, founder and managing partner of Elias Group LLP, was appointed to IDE Americas’ board of directors.

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