Market for chemicals to treat air will grow faster than water

The present world market for chemicals to combat air pollutants is $13.8 billion but will be growing at a healthy eight percent per year over the next five years. The larger ($24 billion) water treatment chemicals market will be growing by six percent per year (real dollars). These are the latest findings by McIlvaine Company through extracting forecasts from a number of its market reports.

Presently, lime, limestone and ammonia are the chemicals most used for air pollution control. However, the use of other chemicals will be growing at double-digit rates. In the U.S. this segment presently generates $1 billion in revenues. It includes activated carbon, sodium products, bromine, potassium permanganate, hydrogen peroxide, sulfuric acid, amines and certain other chemicals. These chemicals are used for mercury, acid gas, volatile organic compounds, odor, CO2 and microbial capture or destruction.

The U.S. market for activated carbon for air pollution promises to be twice as big as the market in water pollution which is presently 400 million pounds per year. Norit, Calgon Carbon, Albemarle and a joint venture involving ADA-ES are the major players. Bromine is competing with activated carbon. Chemtura, Albemarle and ICl are spearheading the U.S. effort.

Lime usage in the U.S. is 20 million tons with revenues of $2 billion. Environmental uses are seven million tons but with the average price of $150/ton generate revenues of $1 billion. Air applications now account for 80 percent of the total environmental revenues. Lhoist, Carmeuse, Graymont and Mississippi Lime are quite active in the U.S. market. The Chinese market for lime is presently 180 million tons with less than two percent used for air pollution control, but there will be double-digit annual growth over the next five years.

Dry injection for HCl control will boost lime sales in the U.S. Another potential is the use in inhibited oxidation wet SO2 removal systems. The resultant calcium sulfite sludge can be fixed with excess lime and encapsulate toxic metals. This eliminates the need for expensive wastewater treatment. Limestone will continue to be the most utilized reagent for SO2 capture. The largest growth will be in China in the next decade.

Ammonia is used in various forms (anhydrous and aqueous). A popular alternative is the purchase of urea and on-site conversion to ammonia. A huge NOx control program is underway in China. A preference for the urea to ammonia approach has been indicated.

The $24 billion water and wastewater chemicals market will grow at levels well above GDP in the next five years, but its pace will be slower than air. One reason is that non-chemical technologies such as ultra-violet disinfection and electrodeionization are taking market share away from chemicals. In the U. S., air chemicals presently represent 78 percent of the total for water. This will increase to 85 percent over the next five years.

Keywords: Bromine, Potassium Permanganate, Hydrogen Peroxide, Sulfuric Acid, Amines, Ammonia, Model Q45S, Model A15/66

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Potential Potassium Hydroxide Explosion

A fatal explosion happened earlier this month at an Illinois automobile control component plant, that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating. One early theory is that potassium hydroxide was a component of the explosion. It is a mucus membrane irritant, and extremely reactive with other things such as metals, which can produce explosive hydrogen gas. The explosion at the plant was devastating, killing one, injuring twelve and destroying a building. While the cause of the explosion is under investigation by OSHA to see if potassium hydroxide was a cause, the local authorities have stated that there was nothing criminal in the incident. The company, Arens Control Company, has released a statement of condolence and support for the victims and cooperation with investigators in hopes of finding the reason behind the explosion.

Keywords: Potassuim Hydroxide, Hydrogen Gas, Model Q45CT, Toroidal Conductivity, Sodium Hydroxide, Hydrochloric Acid, Nitric Acid, Sulfuric Acid, Electrodeless Conductivity Sensor, 0E conductivity sensor.

American Water Experts to Present Research at American Water Works Association Conference

American Water, the nation's largest publicly traded water and wastewater utility company, today announced that three of its water experts will be presenting their research to representatives from more than 500 water companies and organizations at the American Water Works Association (AWWA) ACE12 conference, the most comprehensive and diverse water conference in the world, held June 10-14 in Dallas, Tex.

American Water will have a strong presence at the conference with Dr. Mark LeChevallier, director of Innovation and Environmental Stewardship, delivering four industry leading presentations on Pressure Management, Opportunistic Pathogens in Premise Plumbing, Reuse in Green Buildings and Risk Modeling of Microbial Control Strategies for Main Breaks and Depressurization.

Also during the conference, American Water's David Hughes, water distribution infrastructure lead, will give two presentations on Locating Lines and Leaks for Small Systems and A Utility Approach to Prioritizing Water Main Renewal. Additionally, Orren Schneider, a senior environmental engineer at American Water, will present on the topic of Biostability in Drinking Water.

In addition to presenting innovative research, Dr. Mark LeChevallier will receive the 2012 Abel Wolman Award of Excellence. This award is one of AWWA's highest honors and is presented annually to recognize those whose careers in the water works industry exemplify vision, creativity, and excellent professional performance characteristic of Abel Wolman's long and productive career.

Dr. LeChevallier's contributions to the water industry include 20 awards, 14 AWWA positions and over 100 research papers authored or co-authored. He has also served as principal investigator or co-investigator on nearly 60 research grants totaling over $25.5 million, while being dedicated to advancing the science of water for more than 30 years through participation in national research foundations.

ACE12, the world's water event, will feature more than 550 presentations in 100 separate sessions and several in-depth workshops. Among the topics covered will be sustainability, management in tough economic times, climate change, conservation and water efficiency, residuals challenges, water resources management, infrastructure maintenance, legislative and regulatory issues and public affairs.

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Farmers and frackers compete for water in Western US

Battles over water in the arid American West are nothing new, and demands on the limited resource are growing fast. A boom in energy drilling made possible by hydraulic fracturing has added a new player to the mix just as the region enters another serious drought.

"This new player, fracking, is going to be in competition with Ag (agriculture) water," maintains Bill Midcap of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union. "We're going to have to find that happy medium where we can all get along."

Getting along is not always easy in a region where the saying, "Whiskey's for drinking, and water's for fighting" has been around since frontier times.

"They have no conception on the eastern side of the Mississippi River of how precious and important it is," says Brian Werner, spokesman for the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District. "We get by on 13, 14 inches of (annual) precipitation."

"That's a laugher for much of the country," according to Colorado State Climatologist Nolan Doesken. "Yet we're one of the wetter areas of the West. Other areas may only be looking at 6 to 10 inches of precipitation a year."

"From a Western perspective the rain that falls on your head barely waters anything. The snow that falls most winters, somewhat generously, in the mountains and then melts during the spring and summer is the water supply for most agricultural and municipal uses."

This year the Rockies got less than half the average amount of snow. As a result, a recent report by the U.S. Drought Monitor shows that 96 percent of Colorado is experiencing some level of drought. Other Western states are not faring much better.

When water dries up, arguments about who gets how much heat up.

"The last couple of years I think the issue of water use and oil and gas development have come to the fore," Werner says. That became apparent at a recent water auction in Northern Colorado when some complained that energy companies were outbidding farmers.

"They have a lot more money to bid for water on the open market than any farmer does," Midcap points out.

Kathleen Sgamma of the Western Energy Alliance believes fears about fracking using too much water are overblown. She points to a recent study by the Colorado Division of Water Resources that showed that in 2010, 85 percent of the water used in Colorado went to agriculture, 7.4 percent to municipalities and less than 1 percent to hydraulic fracturing.

"It's certainly an issue that we take very seriously," Sgamma says. "But when you consider the jobs and the economic impact that you get from oil and gas and you compare that to the water usage, it's a pretty small usage for that economic impact."

But quantity is not the only concern. Fears about what fracking might do to water quality are also being questioned.

"I think we ought to also pay attention to the quality of the water. What happens to the water after (oil and gas wells) are fracked? We know it goes really deep into the Earth's surface, but there have been mistakes made in the past."

Again, Sgamma says these fears are overblown, pointing out that wells are drilled thousands of feet below the level where aquifers lie. And if they pass through aquifers, steps are taken to ensure nothing will leak.

"There are seven to nine layers of steel and cement between the well bore and any underground aquifer. There are several layers of protection to make sure that (underground) water cannot go into the well, and oil or gas cannot get into the aquifer."

The Environmental Protection Agency recently proposed new rules to regulate fracking on public lands. But questions about how much water is used in fracking, and whether or not the process affects water quality will likely not go away soon, especially in times of drought in the American West.

"We know from the past," explains Doesken, "that any bad year might be part of a multiyear drought episode. And (right now) we don't know about next year."

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