Municipal drinking water and wastewater treatment facilities around the world will spend $54 billion this year for products and services involving flow control and treatment of air, gas, liquids and water. This is the conclusion reached by the McIlvaine Company in Air/Gas/Water/Fluid Treatment and Control: World Market.
The ratio of pump to valve sales is higher in municipal drinking water than in municipal wastewater due to the greater number of treatment processes needed in wastewater treatment. Plant operators are slowly moving to automation which industrial plants have already adopted. This is increasing the demand for smart pumps and valves which can indicate performance and maintenance requirements.
The liquid physical treatment processes involve delivering purified water, but also in dewatering solids. With the interest of reuse of wastewater, highly efficient technologies such as reverse osmosis are being incorporated.
Other treatment involves disinfection and biological treatment. The large size of this segment is due to the sizable investment in biological treatment of wastewater. Disinfection choices are being influenced by new rules limiting the release of disinfection byproducts. Non-chemical approaches such as ultra- violet (UV) treatment are carving out market share at the expense of chemicals such as chlorine.
Air and gas flow and treatment is required due to the use of air for aeration of biological sludges and the need for odor reduction from wastewater treatment processes. The blowers and compressors needed for aeration are the largest power consumers in the wastewater plant. There is a priority now being given to increase aeration efficiency and decrease energy consumption. Cities around the world receive more complaints about odors from wastewater plants than complaints about any other air pollutants. Biofilters and scrubbers can eliminate these escaping odors.
Too much is being spent for chemicals and not enough for automation of municipal water and wastewater treatment plants. These plants are also labor intensive with many manual quality samples being needed. Automatic sampling and control of processes promises to reduce plant costs.
Picture: Municipal Flow and Treat Revenues 2014 (Image: McIlvaine)
