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OPEN FOR ONE EXTRA DAY TO DO BUSINESS
DAILY NEWS 22nd January 2015
IWS 2015 driving innovation for another year COMING TO a close today, the International Water Summit (IWS) has successfully brought together world leaders, industry experts, and business innovators in showcasing world-class water and wastewater technologies and promoting water sustainability in arid regions. Shining a light on innovative and sustainable technologies has been at the forefront of the summit over the last four days, particularly with the addition of Innovate@IWS this year. The new initiative, co-organised by Isle Utilities, was launched at IWS 2015 to offer clean technology developers an opportunity in which to pitch their solutions to an expert judging panel as well as a platform to connect with potential investors and end users. Christina de Poitiers, senior environmental consultant at Isle Utilities, said, “This has created a fantastic opportunity both for our utilities to understand how the municipal market works here in the Middle East, but also to give our emerging technologies to opportunity to attend an event they would otherwise may not be able to.” Organised into three categories, with the judging process spread across the first three days of the show, winners of the 2015 Innovate@IWS are Trevi Systems (Municipal Water) with its Forward
#IWS15
Two of the winners at Innovate@IWS – Pascal Le Melinaire, founder of BGH (middle) and Pál Kiss, managing director of Thermowatt Ltd. (second from right) – with panel members Dr. Piers Clark (second from left) and Dr. Bruce Ferguson (far right), and IWS international business development director Andrew Walker (far left)
Osmosis System; BGH (Industrial Water) with its ZLD technology; and Thermowatt (Water for RealEstate) and its solution for utilising communal wastewater for cooling large buildings. “It's been competitive and there have been very different technologies presented to the panel so it's been challenging for the judging panel to make a decision,” de Poitiers added. As part of the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW), which is expected to attract more than 32,000 attendees in total, IWS ran for an extra day this year as did its co-located exhibitions: the World Future Energy Summit (WFES) and EcoWASTE. Leon Awerbuch, director and past president of the International Desalination Association (IDA), dean of the IDA Desalination Academy, and president of Leading Edge Technologies, commented, “IWS is an important event to all of us who are involved in the water-energy nexus.” He added, “Gatherings like IWS provide an opportunity to show the reality of desalination power and businesses − a reality which proves that desalination is environmentally-friendly, is designed to have minimum impact on the environment and, more importantly, has significant improvements in energy costs.”
www.internationalwatersummit.com
22nd January 2015
WHAT’S INSIDE... 2
NEWS: Adionics looks to build on business in the GCC
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FEATURE: The MENA region is taking the lead in developing renewable energy-powered desalination technologies
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NEWS: Researchers have uncovered a way of using pine needles as an environmental asset
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NEWS: ACWA Power awarded 12.5mn bpd Omani RO plant expansion project
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NEWS: The Abu Dhabi Ports Company launches new Maqta Gateway project in the emirate
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DAY 4
NEWS
Adionics looks to build business in the GCC following Masdar's Abu Dhabi-based desalination plant tender Stand no: 4415 - France Pavilion FRANCE-BASED technology provider Adionics is looking to build a stronger presence in the GCC region through concluding partnership agreements and establishing local representation this year. With plans to open a Dubai office in September 2015, Adionics’ technology AquaOmnes is already part of a winning tender, awarded to Degrémont last year to build an energy-efficient pilot desalination plant with Masdar. Loïc Bernard, managing director of Adionics, said, “It's a key region, first of all because they need water and fresh water, and they don't have enough resources so they need desalination plants. We have a solution to provide technology to run desalination plants at a cheap price compared to the current situation.” Launched in Europe in May 2014, AquaOmnes removes salt from water by liquid-liquid extraction, promising a desalination process that is more robust, cost-effective and runs at ambient pressure.
Adionics' technology, AquaOmnes, promises a more cost-effective desalination process
According to the company, utilising its technology means an operator can reduce a plant's costs by close to 30 per cent in terms of capital expenditure, and approximately 50 per cent in operational expenditure. Stanislas de Montlebert, Adionics vice-president operations and HR, explained, “We can treat salted water up to 200-250g per litre so there is no limit (other than the crystallisation limit). But we are not constrained by the salinity like other technologies and there is no scaling barrier so we have a small footprint.”
INNOVATE@IWS 2015 − Day 4 11:30
Closing Ceremony
12:35 -12:40
Innovate@IWS Awards, to be presented by: Stuart Moss, Managing Director, Isle Utilities Prof. Bruce Ferguson, Head, Institute Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Professor of Practice, Engineering Systems and Management, Masdar Institute
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CALENDAR
DAY 4
IWS DAY 4 – PROGRAMME AT A GLANCE 09:00 – 09:05
IWS Chairperson’s Opening Introduction
The Nexus of Water and Energy in Food 09:05 – 10:00
Panel Discussion: The State of Food Security in Arab Countries Executive Summary of the AFED Report on Arab Food Security
Round Table Discussion Session Table 1: Climate Change and the Water-Energy-Food Nexus Table 2: Environmental Economics and Social Sustainability of Farming in Arid Regions
10:00 – 11:00 Table 3: Importing Food and Virtual Water versus Local Production Table 4: Alternative Farming Methods and Shifting Eating Habits
11:00 – 11:15
Round Table Session Feedback and Wrap Up
11:15 – 11:30
Networking Coffee Break
11:30 – 12:30
Panel Discussion: Integrated Water And Energy Planning: Opportunities And Challenges
12:35 – 12:40
Awards Ceremony Innovate@IWS Winners of the technology innovation prize
12:40 – 13:00
Chairperson’s Closing Session
13:00 – 14:00
Lunch / Guided Tour of the Exhibition and Innovate@IWS Competition
IWS DAY 4 – WORKSHOP PROGRAMME 09:00 – 09:05
Workshop 1: Paris Sorbonne University Workshop A comprehensive Legal Framework for Water Resources Management in Abu Dhabi: Towards Efficiency, Security, Fairness and Sustainability Introduction Speech
14:00 – 15:30
15:30 – 17:00
Fresh Water, Stakes and Law in Context • Global Water Management Trends & Recent Water Laws • Geographic and Geohydrologic Stakes
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Economical Stakes International Commercial Law
“Towards Efficiency, Security, Fairness and Sustainability” • How can we strengthen the legal framework to protect the quality of groundwater and to control the use of groundwater that is contaminated to protect human health and the environment? • Decentralisation of Water Management • What is the most equitable and sustainable legal articulation to be applied through water access management policies between so imbalanced sectors as the agricultural, urban and industrial consumption? • What legal options would be available to apply efficient tariffs on the three types of distributed water (desalinated water, recycled water, groundwater)? Concluding Speech : The integration of environmental considerations in contracts Workshop 2: Masdar Institute Workshop Session: How to achieve sustainable marine and coastal environment in the Arabian Gulf
14:00 – 15:00
Threats to Sustainability of the Marine Resources in the Arabian Gulf Presentation: Detection and tracking of oil spills and red tides in Arabian Gulf Presentation: Analysis of long term changes in hydrodynamic conditions in the Gulf Presentation: Remote sensing for red tide monitoring and detection
15:00 – 15:20
Networking Coffee Break
15:20 – 16:20
Ongoing efforts to Monitor the Identified Threats and Assess the State of the Gulf Presentation: UAE Action Plan: Monitoring and Risk Assessment of HABs Impact Presentation: DOT Waterways division Legislation background; Role, Vision & Mission Presentation: Towards a sustainable marine and costal environment in RAK
16:20 – 16:50
Solutions to achieve Future Sustainability in the Arabian Gulf Panel Discussion: How may Application of Integrated Approaches be the Solution to Help Mitigate the Challenges?
16:50 – 17:00
Session Conclusion and Wrap Up
www.internationalwatersummit.com
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FEATURE
MENA region pioneers sustainable desalination solutions THE MENA region is taking the lead in developing energy-efficient and renewable energy-powered desalination technologies. Home to 14 of the 20 most water-stressed countries in the world, the MENA region faces a water crisis. Its growing population, forecast to double by 2050, along with urbanisation and industrialisation, are putting pressure on scarce water resources with the result that the water gap is forecast to quintuple by 2050, from 42 sq km per annum to 200 sq km per annum. Desalinisation has played, and will continue to play, a critical role in meeting the region’s pressing water needs; indeed the region accounts for around 50 per cent of global installed desalination capacity. According to Global Water Intelligence’s latest Desalination Tracker, 97 desalination projects are currently at various stages of development throughout the MENA region. However conventional desalination is highly energy-intensive as well as costly, and the waste products can be damaging to the environment. Saudi Arabia, for example, is reported to be using around 300,000 barrels of crude oil equivalent a day to power its 30-odd desalination plants. “The status quo is not sustainable. Reducing the cost of desalination, eliminating its reliance on fossil fuel and mitigating its environmental impacts are crucial,” comments the World Bank.
Growing focus on sustainability With the growing focus on environmental sustainability in the Middle East, the emphasis is now shifting from high-energy thermal desalination to less energy intensive reverse osmosis (RO). The region is playing a leading role in researching, exploring and piloting new energy efficient technologies from advanced membrane distillation, low temperature distillation and nanofiltration to pressure retarded osmosis and forward osmosis (FO), which draws liquid through the membrane without the use of pumps. Oman is home to the world’s first commercial FO plant, at Al Najda; according to its developers, the UK’s Modern Water, this technology can lower energy consumption by up to 30 per cent as well as providing additional benefits such as reduced fouling of membranes and increased membrane life, reduced chemical consumption and lower levels of pollutants in produced water. The region is also exploring the potential for desalination powered by renewable energy, par-
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The MENA region is exploring solar-powered desalination ticular solar power. “Solar energy – in particular heat from concentrated solar power (CSP) for thermal desalination and electricity from solar photovoltaic (PV) and CSP for membrane desalination – is a key solution in arid regions,” says the International Renewable Energy Association (IRENA). “As the demand for fresh water grows in the Middle East, the future of desalination will depend on combining established and emerging technologies,” comments Faisal Wali, operations manager at the Water Desalination and Reuse Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia, in an article for Nature Middle East. “Researchers need to focus on the hybridisation of FO, membrane distillation (MD) and adsorption desalination (AD) coupled with, and without conventional desalination processes such as thermal desalination and reverse osmosis.” This combination will assist the development of energy efficient and renewable energy-driven desalination technologies, he adds. A number of pilot projects are underway in the region. Saudi Arabia has developed a 30,000 cu/m per day solar PV powered desalination plant with a view to eventually powering all its desalination plants by solar energy. The UAE’s Masdar launched a pilot programme in 2013 to test and develop advanced energy-efficient seawater-de-
INTERNATIONAL WATER SUMMIT 22nd January 2015
salination systems that can be powered by renewable energy sources, laying the groundwork for developing a large-scale commercially viable desalination plants by 2020 that can be powered by renewable energy. In mid-2014 it awarded contracts to four companies – Spain’s Abengoa, France’s Veolia and Degrémont, and US-based Trevi Systems – to develop small-scale pilot plants in Ghantoot, 90 km west of Abu Dhabi. Throughout the course of the project, scheduled to last 18 months, the test plants will provide 1,500 cu/m of drinking water a day to Abu Dhabi’s water infrastructure. Veolia, for example, will be using proprietory technologies such as high-performance sea water pre-treatment combining air floatation and filtration and a new osmosis membranes feed configuration allowing high treatment fluxes. Pairing state-of-the-art energy efficient desalination technologies with renewable energy should allow power recovery of up to 98 per cent, the company claims. While issues remain to be resolved in scaling up and commercialising innovative new desalination technologies, it is clear that combining such technologies with the region’s abundant solar resources could be the way forward in mitigating the region’s water security issues. And as the cost of solar technology continue to fall, desalinisation could become a viable option for the poorer countries of the region too. www.internationalwatersummit.com
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DAY 4
MAP
VENUE MAP
EVENT FLOORPLAN CAFE FRANCE PAVILION
4416 UVERGMI
3400
SUSTAINABILITY BUSINESS CONNECT
4402 RITMO
INNOVATE @ IWS
MOEW FEATURE
THEATRE
3305
4400
SIP
4401
UBIFRANCE
4414
TMW TECHNOLOGIES
4412 ODYSSEE
4410
FAGGIOLATI
3332
3333
3344 3103 STAR ACWUA
4300
3101
PEPSI Co.
XYLEM
THERMOWATT
UTILITY SENTRY
3315
3316
3312
3313
3310
3311
ENNESYS
3320
3318
BLUE OCEAN
ATMOSPHERIC WATER SOLUTION
CONTROL POINT
3300
4413 ECOPLAGE
WISEWATER
OXYMEM
TREVI
BGH
3220
DENMARK
EAW
3331
AWW
XYLEM
ADSSC
JCCME
ITRON
IDA
4320
ENTRANCE FROM
ATRIUM
3130
4126
3100
4122 HAMBAKER
3110
4123
4120 UK PAV
3001 HEPWORTH
REVOLVE
EAD
4125
XIMAX
FCC AQUALIA
3000
4130
MI
ADWEA
MOEW
TARGET VALVE
WFES 2015 EcoWASTE 2015
RSB
ABU DHABI PORTS COMPANY
3120
HYDRO BALANCE
3104
SEATING AREA
4220
4210
JFE 3240
3231
4240
3210
ENNESYS
3242
ARAMOON SEAS SA
3102
3340 DR BLUHM
HEXACOVER
EXEED
ADFCA 3200
3330
3230 3235
FRT
3115
AL WASAIL
DMA
SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT
4411
4310
NAHTAM
3317
SUSTEC
IWS CONFERENCE
4440
4420
ADIONCIS
MICROHUMUS DATALINK
CLEANFIELD
3303
3301
HYDREKA
POSTER GALLERY
ISLE
3302
4417 4415
3003
INTER ACT
3004 DELTARES
3005
3007
REINERT RITZ
3009
WATERLEAU
7TH WORLD WATER FORUM
3010
DELMA INDUSTRIAL SUPPLY
3011
ATMOSPHERIC WATER SOLUTIONS
ORGANISER OFFICE
HALL 3 www.internationalwatersummit.com
HALL 4
EXHIBITOR HELPDESK
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DAY 4
Ireland’s OxyMem nominated for industry business awards Innovate@IWS: Industrial Water WASTEWATER TREATMENT company OxyMem has been named a finalist in the ‘Emerging New Businesses’ category at the Small Firms Association (SFA) National Small Business Awards 2015, to be announced in March. Thirty three companies have been shortlisted as finalists across eight categories in the SFA National Small Business Awards, which aims to celebrate the achievements of small businesses in Ireland and to recognise the vital contribution of the small business sector to Irish industry. AJ Noonan, SFA chairman and chairman of the awards judging panel said, “The people behind these companies are dynamic, diligent and determined.” OxyMem also won the UK Energy Efficient Technology of the Year at the 2014 Energy Awards in London. OxyMem was chosen on the basis of its innovation, widespread applicability and its overall positive impact for energy demand and the environment. OxyMem managing director Wayne Byrne said, “We are delighted to have received recog-
nition for our energy neutral solution and are thrilled to be recognised by our peers.” He added, “This award suggests that we are truly recognised as an innovative solution for the reduction of energy demand both at home and abroad.” Having won eight awards last year for their breakthrough technology for wastewater treatment between Ireland, the UK and Europe, the company was the only Irish finalist in the Global Energy Awards. According to the company, OxyMem’s membrane aerated biofilm reactor (MABR) aids in energy-intense wastewater treatment. Reportedly, wastewater treatment in developed nations can result in energy losses of 75-95 per cent, which is largely due to the amount of oxygen lost via bubble aeration. OxyMem, however, claims that its technology is four times more energy efficient than conventional aeration methods. This is achieved through a bubbleless aeration process, which uses gas permeable membrane technology. Resultantly, it eliminates the needs for bubbles and also reduces the energy cost by approximately 75 per cent.
ACWA Power awarded 12.5mn bpd Omani RO plant expansion project SAUDI ARABIAN company ACWA Power has been awarded a water expansion project in the Al Batinah region of northern Oman, which will see the current reverse osmosis (RO) plant reach a production capacity of 12.5mn bpd of seawater, equivalent to 57,000 cu/m per day. Awarded by Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP) to ACWA Power’s Barka branch, the phase two expansion project is reported to begin operations in October 2015. An ACWA Power representative said in a statement to the Muscat Securities Market, “Execution of this water expansion project phase two will not only result in value creation for all shareholders, but also support the national grid with the provision of clean and reliable water.” Once completed, the new expansion will feed the growing demand for water in the northern
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region of Oman, a demand which has an alleged projected increase of six per cent year-on-year and is expected to reach 349mn cu/m in 2020. The first phase of the expansion at Barka, which began commercial operations in May 2014 with a capacity of 10mn bdp, is owned by ACWA Power and operated under a power and water purchase agreement (PWPA) with OPWP.
INTERNATIONAL WATER SUMMIT 22nd January 2015
The expansion project will help feed the growing water demand in north Oman (Photo: Tristan Schmurr)
NEWS
Fire hazard turned environmental tool
Using pine needles as a carbon source will reduce the need to harvest trees (Photo: Daria) RESEARCHERS AT the American University of Beirut (AUB) have turned the forest fire hazard of dry pine needles into an environmental asset. Led by civil and environmental engineering professor George Ayoub, the team used dry pine needles to produce activated carbon, a material that is used to purify water, air filters, and several production processes. The team was also the first to test the effectiveness of the pine needle-produced activated carbon in removing heavy metals from water. The results showed that newly prepared pine needleactivated carbon is effective in adsorbing toxic heavy metals under various operating conditions. Although all organic material can be turned into activated carbon, coal and wood are the most commonly used source materials. While activated carbon can remove heavy metal contaminants from industrial wastewater, the decontamination effectiveness varies from one material to another. Ayoub said, “The advantages of pine needles are that they are available worldwide and in large quantities. They are simple to collect, and they’re already dry so they don’t require a lot of breaking down in order to convert them into activated carbon. In other words, it’s much cheaper to turn pine needles, instead of wood, into activated carbon.” The professor added that relying on pine needles would reduce the use of pinewood, sourced by cutting down pine trees for the purpose of producing carbon. The current practice leads to forest destruction and environmental degradation. “By turning pine needles into activated carbon we would be turning an ubiquitous, potentially harmful material, into an economically advantageous product,” he explained. While Lebanese regulations on the treatment of industrial contaminants are rarely enforced, Ayoub said he believed there was still a large market for activated carbon, which makes the conversion of pine needles a viable business. “Activated carbon is used very much in the water treatment industry,” he said. “It’s the best adsorbent material that you can think of. It’s also used in medicine.” www.internationalwatersummit.com
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NEWS
DAY 4
ADPC launches innovative Maqta Gateway project in Abu Dhabi
Wastewater used to heat and cool
Stand no: 4220
Innovate@IWS: Water for Real Estate
MAQTA GATEWAY, the Abu Dhabi Ports Company’s (ADPC) new innovative port community system project is intended to offer ports, exporters, importers, shipping lines, customs and government agencies a single point of contact and real time information at all times, enhancing processing times and communication procedures. Launched under the patronage of HH Sheikh Hazza bin Zayed Al Nahyan, national security advisor and vice-chairman of the Executive Council of Abu Dhabi, Maqta Gateway was designed in line with international standards and interlinks the relevant parties involved in Abu Dhabi’s growing import and export trade business. The ‘one-stop-shop’ system will ensure smooth transport and logistics between Abu Dhabi ports, airports and railway networks and feed into wider global supply chain communication platforms, acting as an accelerator for trade in the emirate − a core objective for ADPC and its Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030. ADPC CEO Mohammed Juma Al Shamisi said, “Maqta Gateway will help facilitate the next generation of trade in Abu Dhabi and will dramatically transform the emirate’s way of doing business. It will make import and export activities more efficient, transparent and thus more time- and cost-effective while guaranteeing optimum supply chain efficiency.
THE IWS exhibitor Thermowatt has constructed a wastewater heat recovery system at Hungarian Military Hospital State Health Centre in Budapest. Thermowatt’s technology recovers heat energy from wastewater and sewage streams and uses it to heat and cool building complexes. This is the third Thermowatt system being implemented in Budapest and supposedly the largest of such an approach being deployed in the world. Istvan Tarlos, Mayor of Budapest, explained that the investment of more than US$3mn will save the hospital around US$400,000 in heating and cooling costs for each year it is in operation. Tarlos said, “Energy is one of the most problematic industries worldwide. We are running out of energy sources and people need to come up with new ways of solving this pressing issue.” Csaba Hende, Hungarian Minister of Defence, added, “In addition to the financial savings it brings, this system is of great military and safety importance, because the hospital is no longer completely dependent upon external sources for its heating and cooling energy.” He added, “It [the military hospital] has important duties to perform which cannot be fulfilled by any other hospital in the country. It is, therefore, of key importance that the Military Hospital is as independent as possible from incidental circumstances and vulnerabilities like external energy sources.”
The new gateway is named after Abu Dhabi’s Al Maqta Bridge (Photo: Visit Abu Dhabi) “As more than 90 per cent of global trade travels by seas, ADPC’s ports are crucial logistics hubs for Abu Dhabi’s trade business and services.” With the introduction of Maqta Gateway project, ADPC is the first organisation in the GCC region to become a member of the International Port Community Systems Association (IPCSA), a global body which promotes the highest possible standards in international port community system operators. Alan Long, chairman, IPCSA, added, “We are delighted to welcome ADPC as our 26th member and our first member from the GCC and indeed the whole of the Arab world.” Maqta Gateway takes its name from the Al Maqta Bridge, which was the first crossing to communicate Abu Dhabi island with the mainland. It was a crucial connection for Abu Dhabi’s trade and development and the Maqta Gateway will be a crucial 'bridge' for future business op-
JFE Engineering acquires German power plant firm Stand no: 3242 JFE ENGINEERING Corporation has completed the acquisition of Germany-based Standardkessel Power Systems Holding (SPSH) GmbH, which provides services for power plants, generating energy from biomass, waste materials, heat, and primary fuels. Standardkessel GmbH is part of SB Group, which includes Baumgarte GmbH, responsible for the design of waste-to-energy plants, and Standardkessel Baumgarte Service Holding GmbH, covering the maintenance of plants. JFE Engineering produces grate firing systems and gasifying and direct melting furnace systems. As far as biomass power plants are concerned, the company has constructed large-sized plants employing circulating fluidised bed boilers in various regions of Japan.
www.internationalwatersummit.com
With increasing demands for waste-to-energy plants and biomass power plants worldwide, JFE Engineering has been promoting its globalisation. A JFE Engineering representative said, “By acquiring the shares of SPSH, we are determined to accelerate our development of waste-to-energy and biomass power plants all over the world. “In Asia, we already have experience in wasteto-energy plants using grate firing technology. We are now ready to focus on making wide-range engineering proposals that will meet customers’ needs, including large plants such as of 1,000 mt per day, which SB Group specialised in.” In Europe and the Middle East, there has been growing interest in thermal waste treatment by applying gasifying and direct melting furnace technologies. The company expects it will be well prepared to undertake the projects on full turnkey basis, from design to construction by unifying
JFE Engineering is looking to expand globally the SB Group into our group. “Furthermore, we will respond to the needs for biomass power plants with various ranges of output by incorporating SB Group’s grate firing technology, as it is attracting attention as a stable source of renewable energy in Japan and overseas,” the Japanese firm added.
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