China's Water Treatment Market Attracts Foreign-funded Enterprises     
By Amy Lee   

China is making an effort to reduce the impact of the global financial crisis through environmental infrastructure upgrades. The biggest investment program in China, with a projected budget of RMB4.0 trillion, has been inaugurated, and of this, RMB210 billion, 5.25% of the total, for environmental projects such as wastewater treatment and renewable energy facilities. This is undoubtedly good news for the Chinese wastewater treatment sector, offering many opportunities in the areas of investment, technology, research and development for this vital industry.
    Some well-established and respected companies expected to enter the Chinese water treatment market and benefit from the RMB4.0 trillion stimulus package. Bayer Technology and Engineering (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (Bayer Technology Services), a major global environmental technology provider formed six years ago as part of the Bayer Group, is one.

Bayer Technology Services    

"Bayer Technology Services is talking with four domestic chemical companies and chemical industry park located in regions such as northeastern China and Zhejiang province for cooperation on technical service," said Hong Huijie, Head of Business Management of Bayer Technology Services, "Bayer has been engaging in fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals for over one hundred years, and we has acquired rich experience in treating high-concentration wastewater during the manufacturing process, now we'd like to share it with the Chinese chemical and pharmaceutical enterprises."
   Bayer Technology Services has already popularized its wastewater treatment technology in chemical and pharmaceutical sectors in the US, Germany, Mexico and Spain. "Our process techniques in those regions have been verified to be effective in sludge removal and reducing phenols, clotrimazol and other organic chemicals concentration in wastewater. We brought those mature and reliable processes into China and reformed them to fit the features of wastewater from Chinese chemical and pharmaceutical plants", Hong told CCR in the 2nd International Water Forum held by Noppen Co., Ltd., one of the leading producers of business conference and professional training in China, in Shenyang, Liaoning province on June 1st & 2nd, 2009.
    "Bayer Technology Services has optimized the existing wastewater treatment process for a pharmaceutical factory in Xiamen, Fujian province in 2007, and finally achieved a COD reduction of more than 90%."
   "We have developed several wastewater treatment technological solutions such as LOPROX(R) BAYER Tower Biology, and BayFlotech(R) The latter two are towers in cylinder and conical shape, with much smaller footprints than the current treatment tank in China, so they are able to save much of land cost for companies using these techniques", Hong said, "this could be seen from the strong interest of some companies in the project cases."
    "In 2009, Bayer plans to reduce the energy consumption by 5% - 15% in its plants worldwide, and Bayer Technology Services is the major team to realize this target", Hong added.

Dow Chemical     

The Dow Chemical Company recently has done lots of work in dealing with coking wastewater, solar energy silicon plates cleaning water reuse, organic and color removal for dying wastewater and oil removal for refineries.
   Coking wastewater usually contains phenolic, aromatic, heterocyclic, polycyclic organics and some inorganics such as cyanides, sulfides, ammonium etc, therefore extremely difficult to degrade with conventional methods.
    Presently coking wastewater is mainly treated by biochemical methods, and the effluents still contain phenolic compounds and residual tars, consequently it is very difficult to meet regulatory limits for wastewater, and water can not be recycled or reused.
    Dow has done in a different way. After biochemical treatment, the wastewater has been further treated by resins for recycling and re-using. The COD concentration in the coking wastewater effluents dropped to 50 mg/L from the influents of 100 - 200 mg/L.
   "I'm very pleased to introduce the new applications of polymeric resins in recycling and re-using of industry water and wastewater", said Dr. Jenny Zhang, R & D Manager, PC & B Process Chemicals of Dow Chemical.
    She disclosed that Dow has been using polymeric resin in oil removal in Malacca Refinery for more than six years, and the resin lifespan was over five years. This successful case drives Dow to disseminate this technology in China's refineries. This kind of resin is now operating in Chongqing Chemical Industry Park, China.
   The case of resin in solar energy silicon plates cleaning water reuse has operated for half year and the COD concentration in cleaning water is reduced to zero ppm from 100 ppm, according to Dow's customer, she said.
    It's worth noting that Dr. Zhang had worked in Rohm & Haas, which has built a worldwide product line of ion exchange resins for water treatment, for more than four years as a Development Lab Manager before Dow acquired Rohm & Haas in 2008. (CCR2008 No.21)
    "Dow had the broader offering worldwide, and Rohm & Haas had a strong presence in personal care. After the acquisition, Dow is becoming stronger in wastewater treatment."

NethWater     

As a leading partner in NethWater, an integrated Dutch company, Evides Industriewater nowadays also offers these services for China. "Evides focus on technical services for the power & petro-chemical industry." said J. van Agtmaal, Manager of Technology Department of Evides Industriewater.
   "The national average water footprint in China is estimated as 775 m3/cap/yr, while the number is about 1 230 m3/cap/yr in the Netherlands. So there has been some new development in the Chinese water policies in recent years. Those new policies are promoting re-use, use of seawater and higher efficiency, and aiming at water conservation, efficiency water use, sustainable use of water resources and zero water discharge. Evides of course will take a chance."

Siemens Water Solution    

Siemens recently has bended itself to the treatment of high concentrated and not easily biochemically degradable industrial wastewater.
    Lai Zhigang, Marketing Director of Siemens Water Solution, introduced a treatment technology - PACT(R) System.
   He said that the PACT(R) System can well service in coal chemical, refining and petrochemical, organic chemical, pharmaceutical, textile/dye, And can Greatly reduce capital expenditures.
   PACT(R) System combines powdered carbon particle process and biological treatment process for synergetic functions. The case in ConocoPhillips Petroleum Company showed that, treatment of refinery wastewater through PACT(R) System to enable direct discharge to San Francisco Bay, which is located in California.
    "This technique has been used in the US for over 20 years", he explained, "There was not large demand for environmental technology in China decade years before, but now this is not the case at all, for the Chinese government attaches more and more importance to environmental protection in recent years."
   "Siemens has designed several wastewater treatment processes for ref