Facilities Management: Waste Not Want Not?

Jan. 23, 2007

Processing water plays a large role in the manufacturing process, and the equipment and services involved in that process have grown to become a multibillion-dollar market. For many companies, H20 has become the new profit formula. Learn what U

John McClenahen

From his office at Bioteq Environmental Technologies Inc.'s headquarters in Vancouver, British Columbia, Brad Marchant, the company's president and CEO, sees a niche water market that's not likely to dry up anytime soon. Focused on the mining industry, his $5 million, 6-year-old company builds and operates plants that treat acid-contaminated water.

"The [environmental] regulations are getting more and more strict -- not just here in North America, but worldwide -- and that provides us with more opportunities for water treatment sites," explains Marchant. And, he adds, "As the mining industry grows in some developing countries like China, so does their need to treat water."

The cleanup cost of acid drainage from mining has been estimated to be between $36 billion and $72 billion in the U.S., and in Canada it's estimated to be about $6 billion. Bioteq claims to have a better idea for treating mine wastewater, different from conventional treatment, which uses lime to reduce the acidity of mine wastewater and leaves a sludge that contains copper, zinc, nickel and other heavy metals and which must be stored in the ground. Bioteq's patented process, using sulfur and other reagents, allows for selective recovery of the metals and prepares the water for other purposes.

"The sustainable aspect of that process is that the valuable metals that are recovered can pay for the water treatment itself," says Marchant. "The water can be discharged to the environment. It can be reused by the industry. Or it can be used [in] agricultural uses. It's been treated to the point that it's environmentally very safe."

See Also

Dirty Water

Bioteq has four plants in operation: two in Canada's New Brunswick province, a nickel-recovery operation at Falconbridge's Raglan, Quebec, mine in the Canadian Arctic and a 50/50 joint venture with Phelps-Dodge Corp. in Bisbee, Ariz., which recovers copper. Under construction is a joint venture with Jiangxi Copper Corp. at the Dexing Copper Mine in China. Also in the pipeline are plants near Breckenridge, Colo., and Sonora, Mexico.

Billions And Billions

All told, spending for water processing runs into the hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars. Charlotte, N.C.-based Si Givens, vice president and market segment director for water and process at CH2M Hill, an engineering, construction and operating firm, estimates about $400 billion a year is spent globally on processing water.

Drawing from Environmental Business International data, Givens figures about $120 billion a year is spent in the U.S., with state and local governments, including major cities, accounting for about two-thirds of the total, roughly $80 billion, and industry spending the other third of the total.

Of the $120 billion total, about two-thirds to three-fourths of the spending goes for the building of new water treatment facilities and the annual operating and maintenance costs of running water treatment facilities. The rest goes to design firms, such as CH2M Hill, for chemicals (Givens estimates $5 billion to $6 billion annually) and for equipment. The U.S. water "market" is growing at about 4% annually, Givens says.

Bioteq Environmental Technologies Inc. has four plants in operation across North America. This one, in Bisbee, Ariz., is a 50/50 joint copper-recovery venture with Phelps-Dodge Corp.What does that mean in terms of something a little closer to home, or in this case a factory? Consider the example of a typical industrial water or wastewater treatment plant with a $10 million installed cost, Givens suggests. Twenty-five percent of that cost goes for engineered or manufactured equipment that a company such as Siemens or GE Water would buy or fabricate. Engineering represents 10% of the cost and construction management accounts for 5%. The next 20% is for labor and the contractor's fee to build the facility. Forty percent is for other construction materials that aren't engineered equipment -- specifically steel, concrete, electrical conduit and electrical switchgear -- things that aren't manufactured by water-treatment equipment companies, as well as site preparation and grading. "You need all these pieces to bring a large plant together," Givens emphasizes.

At CH2M Hill, what Givens calls the "bricks and mortar pieces of water" -- the water treatment plants and the wastewater treatment plants for manufacturing facilities -- are "far and away" what companies contact them about. However, the "softer side" is becoming a bigger part of the market, he relates. It's not about building things but rather about getting advice on industrial water resources management, says Givens.

"Companies want help in how to look at water from a macro picture in their business: how to be a good steward and a good citizen in the locations they are in and balance all the issues around water availability, water ownership, scarcity issues and the risks that are involved in having to deal with water," he notes.

Givens adds, though, that "there are a lot of business risks that people are taking on if they can't source the water they need to manufacture their goods." For example, he mentions that both Coca-Cola and Perrier in recent years have had issues with contamination of water. "Water can make things very critical for a company very quickly. So helping companies understand water issues, and water resources issues and how to be a good corporate citizen is an important part of the business."

The "softer side" has a "natural" side. "Companies are looking toward natural treatment systems versus more mechanical-based treatment. And there are benefits from that," says Givens. "Natural treatment systems -- wetlands -- do a great job of removing pollutants [while] enhancing natural habitants. So you sort of get a two-for-one, in some instances, when you're able to use the natural treatment system versus a mechanically intense treatment system."

Sometimes natural treatment is coupled with mechanical treatment. "The mechanically intense treatment system will be the first line of treatment, and then the natural treatment system will be used to 'polish' the last bit of contaminant before discharge," he explains. "We're doing that more and more for both cities and industries. Cities have been a little more in the forefront, but industries are quickly catching up."

Alcoa Inc., for instance, is using natural treatment systems, with a dramatic improvement in discharged water quality and the promise of lower costs of operation.

About the Author

John McClenahen | Former Senior Editor, IndustryWeek

John S. McClenahen, is an occasional essayist on the Web site of IndustryWeek, the executive management publication from which he retired in 2006. He began his journalism career as a broadcast journalist at Westinghouse Broadcasting’s KYW in Cleveland, Ohio. In May 1967, he joined Penton Media Inc. in Cleveland and in September 1967 was transferred to Washington, DC, the base from which for nearly 40 years he wrote primarily about national and international economics and politics, and corporate social responsibility.

      McClenahen, a native of Ohio now residing in Maryland, is an award-winning writer and photographer. He is the author of three books of poetry, most recently An Unexpected Poet (2013), and several books of photographs, including Black, White, and Shades of Grey (2014). He also is the author of a children’s book, Henry at His Beach (2014).

      His photograph “Provincetown: Fog Rising 2004” was selected for the Smithsonian Institution’s 2011 juried exhibition Artists at Work and displayed in the S. Dillon Ripley Center at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., from June until October 2011. Five of his photographs are in the collection of St. Lawrence University and displayed on campus in Canton, New York.

      John McClenahen’s essay “Incorporating America: Whitman in Context” was designated one of the five best works published in The Journal of Graduate Liberal Studies during the twelve-year editorship of R. Barry Leavis of Rollins College. John McClenahen’s several journalism prizes include the coveted Jesse H. Neal Award. He also is the author of the commemorative poem “Upon 50 Years,” celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Wolfson College Cambridge, and appearing in “The Wolfson Review.”

      John McClenahen received a B.A. (English with a minor in government) from St. Lawrence University, an M.A., (English) from Western Reserve University, and a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from Georgetown University, where he also pursued doctoral studies. At St. Lawrence University, he was elected to academic honor societies in English and government and to Omicron Delta Kappa, the University’s highest undergraduate honor. John McClenahen was a participant in the 32nd Annual Wharton Seminars for Journalists at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. During the Easter Term of the 1986 academic year, John McClenahen was the first American to hold a prestigious Press Fellowship at Wolfson College, Cambridge, in the United Kingdom.

      John McClenahen has served on the Editorial Board of Confluence: The Journal of Graduate Liberal Studies and was co-founder and first editor of Liberal Studies at Georgetown. He has been a volunteer researcher on the William Steinway Diary Project at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., and has been an assistant professorial lecturer at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.