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North American Markets for Water Treatment in the Power Industry
Frost & Sullivan, Jan 2008
This Frost & Sullivan research service titled North American Market for Water Treatment in the Power Industry provides the drivers, restraints, and market trends that are impacting this market. In this research, Frost & Sullivan's expert analysts thoroughly examine the following technologies: Ion Exchange Systems, Electro-Deionization Systems, Membrane Systems, and Wastewater Treatment Systems.
Growing Population and Energy Demand Driving Growth
The North American market for water treatment in the power industry is in its growth stage, driven mainly by the increasing demand for power and energy due to the rising population and growing GDP. Furthermore, the number of new power plant constructions has risen and a majority of these are coal-fired plants that consume very large volumes of water for steam production and cooling. A significant number of old plants are also being retrofitted with newer technologies as these plants are at least 30-40 years old. The water treatment technologies for the new plants are likely to depend on the feed water source and the impurities in it, while for the old plants the technology itself is determined based on the age of the plant.
However, a crucial restraint for the market is that the power industry is not fully open to new technologies, still favouring the tried and tested ones. 'Additionally, many utilities do not have sufficient funding to opt for the more sophisticated and expensive technologies,' notes the analyst of this research service. 'For example, zero liquid discharge (ZLD), which has the capacity to treat FGD blow down and recover almost all water with no discharge, does not find too many takers as the operation and installation costs are very high compared to the conventional wastewater treatment technologies.'
Increasing Focus on Wastewater Reuse likely to Enhance Equipment Sales
Quite significantly, there is a growing awareness among all plant operators about the restricted supply of fresh water worldwide. This in turn has resulted in a greater focus on reusing cooling and boiler water, boosting equipment sales. Besides, Section 316(b) of the Clean Water Act instructs cooling water systems, once-through cooling systems, to use the best available technology to minimize the environmental impact. This has resulted in cooling systems adopting the re-circulating type (cooling towers) to divert most of the water back to the process stream. This requires wastewater treatment technologies such as conventional filtration and membrane filtration or systems such as ZLD to be installed at the back end of the process.
With regard to market segments, the membrane systems segment is dominant, accounting for 64 percent of the total revenues in 2006. It is the fastest growing segment, mainly because of its importance in producing high-purity water for boilers. The market is also growing due to old plant retrofits as well as their capability in condensate polishing for water reuse. 'Among other segments, ion exchange systems accounted for 12 percent of the revenues for the water treatment market in the power industry for 2006,' says the analyst. 'Although ion exchange is a mature technology and is slowly being displaced by the growing electro-deionization technology, it will be hard to convince the regular users of ion exchange to shift to a different technology.'
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