NEWS

6Membrane Technology December 2008

Mubadala is a public joint stock company. Its focus is on developing and managing an exten-sive and economically diverse portfolio of com-mercial initiatives. It does this either independ-ently or in partnership with leading international organisations. Mubadala’s commercial strategy is fundamentally built on long-term capital intensive investments that deliver strong financial returns. The company manages a multi-billion dollar portfolio of local, regional and interna-tional investments, projects and initiatives.

Veolia Water, the water division of Veolia Environnement, specialises in water and wastewater services. Outsourcing services for municipal authorities, as well as industrial and service companies, it is also a major developer of technology and builder of facilities needed in water and wastewater services. With 82 800 employees worldwide, Veolia Water provides water services to 78 million people and waste-water services to 53 million. Its revenues in 2007 amounted to EUR10.9 billion.

Contacts:

Veolia Water, 52 rue d’Anjou, F-75384 Paris Cedex

8, France. Tel: +33 1 4924 4924, www.veoliawater.com

Mubadala Development Company, PO Box

45005, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Tel: +971 2 413 0000, www.mubadala.ae

WEFTEC 08 – largest-ever event, says federation

The US-based Water Environment Federation (WEF) reports that its

most recent technical exhibition and conference was the largest event in its 81-year history.

The 81st Annual Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference (WEFTEC), which was held in Chicago, Illinois on the 18–22 October 2008, covered 26 942 m2 (290 000 net ft2) of exhibition space and hosted 21 950 of the world’s leading water-quality experts and 1111 companies featuring the latest in water-qual-ity technology. The previous records of 19 929 attendees, 1017 companies and 24 936 m2 (268 405 net ft2) of floor space were set last year at WEFTEC 07 in San Diego.

This educational and training event included 31 workshops, 115 technical sessions and 10 facility tours that addressed the timeliest issues in water, wastewater treatment, stormwater management, energy, green initiatives, science, research, and legislative and political issues.

The event also attracted 2378 international registrants, says WEF. These included 245 trade delegation attendees from 71 countries.

WEF also facilitated meetings between exhibi-tors and trade delegates representing water and wastewater buyers’ interests from countries such as China, the Philippines, Israel, Bulgaria, Iraq and South Africa, to name a few.

Professor John Anthony Allan, who heads the Water Research Group, School of Oriental and African Studies, King’s College London, in the UK, anchored a well-balanced opening general session programme with a keynote address featuring the concept of ‘virtual water’, which measures how water is embedded in the pro-duction and trade of food and consumer prod-ucts. This concept has a major effect on global trade policy and research, especially in water-scarce regions, and has redefined discourse in water policy and management.

President of WEF Adam Zabinski officially launched Phase I of the federation’s new Web-site – establishing the organisation as a leading resource for the world’s best science, engineer-ing and technical practices in water quality. The new homepage includes WEF’s first water blog which will alternate with ‘Water Heroes’ features and WEF news. A new gateway – ‘Access Water Knowledge’ – offers entry to WEF periodicals and e-proceedings as well as new knowledge centres.

The Honourable Richard Daley, Mayor of Chicago, received a standing ovation from the 800 attendees for his speech ‘Making Chicago a Global Leader in Water and Sustainability’, given in a session on water infrastructure and sustainable innovations. Mayor Daley shared the recently unveiled ‘Chicago Climate Action Plan’ and also insisted that the nation’s cities must reinvest in infrastructure and will need help in financing.

‘The next president of the USA needs to address what has been an inadequate level of federal investment in our infrastructure, including water systems, roads, bridges, high-ways, public transportation and school con-struction,’ said Daley.

Of particular interest at WEFTEC 08 were workshops on the ‘Challenges posed by Emerging Contaminants’ by Professor David Sedlak, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California at Berkeley, and ‘Evolving Urban Water and Residuals Management Paradigms: Water Reclamation and Reuse, Decentralization, Energy Production, Resource Recovery’, presented by Dr Glen Daigger, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for CH2M Hill.

Contact:

Water Environment Federation, 601 Wythe Street,

Alexandria, VA 22314-1994, USA.

Tel: +1 703 684 2452, www.wef.org

ERI PX technology helps produce affordable water in Algeria

Energy Recovery Incorporated (ERI), a US company that specialises in

high-efficiency energy recovery prod-ucts and technology for desalination, has won another large-scale energy-recovery contract for sea-water reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination in Algeria.

The Mostaganem SWRO Desalination Plant, located approximately 60 km (38 miles) east of Oran in the western coastal region of the coun-try, will have a total capacity of 200 000 m3 (52.8 million gallons) per day – enough to sup-ply drinking water to a population of over one million people. The plant is expected to begin operating during the second half of 2009.

The Mostaganem plant is being built on a 25-year build, own, operate and transfer basis by UTE Mostaganem, a consortium consist-ing of Inima (Grupo OHL) and Aqualia (Grupo FCC) of Spain. Inima previously selected ERI to provide its energy-saving PX technology for a desalination plant based in Los Cabos, Mexico, rated at 16 000 m3

(4.2 million gallons) per day, and another in Alicante, Spain, with a capacity of 65 000 m3 (17.2 million gallons) a day.

The Mostaganem project is one of many for ERI in the region, including the Hamma plant built by GE Water, rated at 200 000 m3 (52.8 million gallons) a day, and the Beni Saf facility, with a capacity of 200 000 m3 (52.8 million gallons) per day and the Skikda plant, rated at 100 000 m3 (26.4 million gallons) a day, both of which are currently being built by the con-struction consortium Geida.

The process for the Mostaganem plant will include 240 ERI PX-220 pressure exchanger devices arranged in 16 trains of 15 units each. The use of PX technology will help to sig-nificantly reduce the power consumed by the plant’s high-pressure pumps, says ERI. Each device will save approximately 80 kW – giving total plant energy savings of over 19 MW.

Rick Stover, ERI’s Chief Technical Officer and Vice President of Sales, commented: ‘With this contract, ERI increases its project wins in Algeria to a permeate capacity of in excess of 1.2 million m3 (over 320 million gallons) per day.’

Contact:

Energy Recovery Incorporated, 1908 Doolittle Drive,

San Leandro, CA 94577, USA. Tel: +1 510 483 7370,

www.energyrecovery.com