Water is a valuable business to be in, so much so that there is a relative flood of new players entering the market. In recent months new products have arrived in the Middle East, in the hope of securing a share of a lucrative industry.
On the international stage IBM announced its decision to enter the global water market at the 5th World Water Forum.
The company said it would offer strategic water management solutions, as well as the membrane technology.
This move demonstrates how the increasing commercial value of water – in all its forms – is being recognised as a lucrative revenue stream. The numbers are huge. According to the Saudi Arabian National Water Company, in 2009 the water and sewage sector in the country is estimated to be worth SAR 2.8 billion. In Riyadh alone there are more than 100 water and sewage projects currently underway, with 44 planned for 2009.
Much of this spend will go to private companies, as opportunities for them in Saudi Arabia improve. This has led to the kingdom being first in line to see a water technology, new to the region, go into action. The bacterial water treatment process, known as HYBACS (Hybrid Bacillus Activated Sludge), is being introduced by a JV, currently under formation.
Bluewater Bio is the technology partner in the venture, which also includes Bahrain-based Zero Waste and Nesma & Partners, a Saudi construction contractor. Imad Gholmieh, the CEO of Nesma, will head the JV’s management committee.
“We believe Bluewater’s groundbreaking HYBACS wastewater treatment technology has a wide application in our market and we anticipate that it will be a strong competitor in applicable projects,” he said in a recent statement.
Heads of terms have been agreed between the prospective partners, and although there is no official date for completion of the formalities, Bluewater Bio’s CEO, Daniel Ishag, is confident that progress is imminent: the first HYBACS plant is expected to be operational within six months.
“The first site has already been identified and, in order to break ground, one would need the structure in place,” he said. “There’s every reason to get it done quickly.”
HYBACS has a rare quality for any new technology being brought to the region, it actually benefits from heat.
“With any biological process heat is always welcome,” said Ishag. “It acts almost as a catalyst to speed things up.
The big bonus we have, is that our technology is inherently odourless and in a hot market odour is a big problem.
The organisms we use have a big appetite for ammonia, making them perfectly suited to the Gulf.”
Ishag describes a level of effectiveness that will be welcome in the waste management industry. He says plants employing this technology only need half the land that a conventional option would require. Perhaps more importantly, the technology also only requires 50% of the power – the single biggest line item.
“We provide a complete platform for water reuse and full nutrient removal, usually producing a quality of water below 10 BOD,” he said. “Our technology doesn’t need primary sedimentation, so a third of the site footprint is removed right there.”
Although the technology will be new to the region, there are 25 full-scale reference sites in operation in Japan and South Korea. The initial R&D was done in South Korea. Since then Bluewater Bio has taken the initial product and added nutrient removal, a factor which opens it up to the European nutrient removal market – expected to be worth US $34 billion over the next five years.
“Our technology is both a step change in performance and economic value,” said Ishag. “And we’re not talking about 5% here, we are saving 40-60% in operating expenditure: a huge quantity. The fact we require less built up space also reduces capital expenditure, so we’re both cheaper and more efficient. Which is why we are getting traction in the Gulf.”
If these claims prove as applicable to this region as they have been to Asia, initial traction will quickly be converted into momentum. The fact plant efficiencies remain, regardless of the scale, will help too.
Ishag is confident. Bluewater is already in ‘advanced stages’ of negotiations with other potential partners around the region and hopes to announce more JVs soon.
“We view the Middle East as a big long-term opportunity,” he said. “Our focus today is really on propagating the technology locally and getting appropriate representatives in each local market, in order to be able to build plants.”
