Water Technology Markets: Key opportunities and emerging trends

Table of Contents

Section 1: Drivers

1. Energy

• 1.1 Rising energy costs
• 1.2 More energy required to provide water services
• 1.3 Greenhouse gas emissions reduction
• 1.4 High energy consumption of existing wastewater treatment processes

2. Water scarcity

• 2.1 Climate change
• 2.2 Depletion of groundwater resources
• 2.3 Increasing world population
• 2.4 Uneven distribution of water resources
• 2.5 Increasing water use per capita as countries become wealthier
• 2.6 Population migration to water scarce areas
• 2.7 Increasing cost of potable water
• 2.8 Potential conflicts due to water scarcity

3. Sludge disposal

• 3.1 Increasing sludge disposal costs
• 3.2 Tighter regulatory limits
• 3.3 Resource recovery

4. Nutrient removal

• 4.1 Nutrient trading
• 4.2 Resource recovery

5. Infrastructure gap

6. Ageing infrastructure

7. Emerging contaminants

• 7.1 Potential tighter regulatory limits
• 7.2 Concerns regarding long-term impact on the environment
• 7.3 Human health concerns

Section 2: Disruptive technologies

8. Energy Management

• 8.1 Energy from wastewater
  • 8.1.1 Anaerobic membrane bioreactors
  • 8.1.2 Microbial fuel cells
• 8.2 Energy from sludge
  • 8.2.1 Sludge to Syngas - Gasification
  • 8.2.2 Sludge to biogas
  • 8.2.3 Fuel cells
  • 8.2.4 Microturbines
  • 8.2.5 Stirling engines
  • 8.2.6 Biogas treatment
  • 8.2.7 Sludge carbonisation
  • 8.2.8 Sludge to oil - Pyrolysis
• 8.3 Waste heat recovery
  • 8.3.1 Sewer heat recovery
  • 8.3.2 Waste heat to electricity - Organic Rankine cycle
• 8.4 Lower energy alternative processes
  • 8.4.1 Chemically enhanced primary treatment
  • 8.4.2 Micromedia filtration
  • 8.4.3 Densadeg process
  • 8.4.4 Ballasted floculation
  • 8.4.5 Energy efficient aeration
  • 8.4.6 Hyper-O2 Technology
• 8.5 Hydro-power generation
• 8.6 Membrane distillation
• 8.7 Renewable energy for desalination
• 8.8 Water vapor from the air
• 8.9 Stormwater
• 8.10 Electrolytic treatment
• 8.11 Advances in UV technology
  • 8.11.1 Microwave UV
  • 8.11.2 Advanced oxidation using UV - Photocatalysis
• 8.12 Alternative disinfection technologies
  • 8.12.1 Pasteurisation with waste heat
  • 8.12.2 Pulsed power disinfection
• 8.13 Advanced detection / monitoring and analysis

9. Nutrient removal / recovery

• 9.1 Biological nutrient removal
• 9.2 Side stream treatment - Nutrient removal / recovery
  • 9.2.1 Ammonia removal
  • 9.2.2 Phosphorus recovery as struvite
  • 9.2.3 Ammonia recovery process (ARP)
• 9.3 Phosphorus recovery from sewage sludge
• 9.4 Phosphorus recovery directly from wastewater

10. Sludge treatment and disposal

• 10.1 Sludge minimisation
• 10.2 Sludge pre-treatment (disintegration / destruction)
  • 10.2.1 Thermal hydrolysis
  • 10.2.2 Pulsed power cell disruption
  • 10.2.3 Lysate centrifuge - Baker process
  • 10.2.4 Ultrasonic sludge destruction
  • 10.2.5 Homogenisation
  • 10.2.6 Ozonation - Bioleader process
  • 10.2.7 Enzymatic lysis
• 10.3 Anaerobic digestion - Co-digestion
• 10.4 Electro-osmosis sludge dewatering
• 10.5 Sludge drying - Solar drying
• 10.6 Supercritical water oxidation
• 10.7 Short rotation coppicing

11. Water reclamation and re-use

• 11.1 Advanced oxidation technologies
  • 11.1.1 Membranes
• 11.2 Sewer mining
• 11.3 Source separation
• 11.4 High recovery / Zero liquid discharge (ZLD) solutions for desalination concentrate
• 11.5 Decentralised wastewater management
• 11.6 Membrane leak detection

12. Water Scarcity

• 12.1 Advanced membranes
• 12.2 Biomimetric membranes
• 12.3 Forward osmosis

13. Other technologies

• 13.1 Energy recovery modern water
• 13.2 University of New Mexico - Low energy desalination system
• 13.3 Exergy - Electro deionisation with membranes
• 13.4 Magnetic Filtration (Cambridge)
• 13.5 Clathrate separation

Section 3 - Growth technologies

14. Disinfection

• 14.1 Ultraviolet systems
• 14.2 Ozonation
• 14.3 Clorine-based products

15. Infrastructure

• 15.1 Pipes and pipe rehabilitation
• 15.2 Pumps
• 15.3 Leak reduction
• 15.4 Metering Control
• 15.5 Membranes (RO, UF, MF)
• 15.6 Monitoring testing

Section 4: Existing technologies

16. Introduction

• 16.1 Transport and storage
• 16.2 Water treatment
• 16.3 Point of use
• 16.4 Process control technology & automation