April 2014 Pump Industry Analyst3

commercialising forward osmosis technology.The board of directors includes Modern

Water’s William Harvey, Hydration Technology Innovations’ Walt Schultz, Porifera’s Olgica Bakajin and Trevi Systems’ John Webley.

The IFOA will host its first Annual World Summit in Lisbon, Portugal 18–19 September 2014.

DESALINATION

US$200 000 challenge to discover renewable energy solutions for seawater desalination

GE ecomagination and Aramco Entrepreneurship have launched

an open global technology challenge to accelerate the development of solutions focused on improving the energy efficiency of seawater desalination.

The US$200 000 challenge will be awarded to four winners with a prize of US$50 000 each, and further investments towards commercialisation of the best ideas among all submissions will be considered.

Current desalination techniques are typically very energy intensive: energy consumption can account for up to 70% of the desalination costs. The global production of desalinated water uses approximately 75.2 terawatt-hours of electricity per year, enough to power nearly seven million homes. The goal of this challenge is to identify novel ways to lower these costs around the world, either through technology advances, process improvements, or both.

Nabil Al-Khowaiter, Aramco Entrepreneurship’s director of special projects, said: “Finding a more efficient method of desalinating seawater will be a game-changer in our collective pursuit of a more sustainable energy future across the globe.

“Due to increased water scarcity, countries around the world are poised to rely more and more heavily on desalination as a means to provide fresh water. With current techniques, this increased reliance could contribute dramatically to increased energy use. Aramco Entrepreneurship is partnering with GE not only to identify new solutions to lowering desalination costs, but also to invest in and attract new technologies and industries to Saudi Arabia.”

Deb Frodl, GE’s global executive director, ecomagination said: “GE ecomagination is investing to speed up the development of more sustainable solutions for water desalination. Through this challenge, we hope to inspire scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and innovators around the world to bring their talents to this effort and help drive greater outcomes for customers.”

The open innovation challenge aims to identify new solutions to lower total desalination costs and emissions through cleaner energy sources, incorporating advanced materials, and integrating processes better. Solutions must be innovative, impactful, feasible and scalable across the globe.

Entries are being immediately accepted at www.ninesights.com/community/ecomagination. The deadline to submit entries is 16 July 2014, and winners will be announced in November 2014.

This is the fifth ecomagination open innovation challenge since ecomagination launched in 2005.

OIL & GAS

ENI renews frame agreement with Foster Wheeler

ENI SpA has renewed its existing framework agreement with a

subsidiary of Foster Wheeler’s Global Engineering and Construction Group for a further two years.

Under the new agreement, Foster Wheeler will provide basic design and front-end engineering design for downstream, upstream, power and petrochemical projects worldwide undertaken by five ENI business units: ENI Refining & Marketing, ENI Exploration & Production, Enipower, Versalis and Syndial.

Foster Wheeler has worked with ENI companies under a range of frame agreements for more than 15 years.

Veolia to upgrade Formosa water treatment plant in Taiwan

Taiwanese refiner and olefins producer Formosa Petrochemical

Corp (FPCC) has awarded Veolia a contract worth more than E15 million to upgrade the Mai Liao petrochemical complex’s water treatment plant and reduce its surface water consumption.

Veolia will design the water treatment plant upgrade, supply the technology and equipment and guarantee a performance on the upgraded plant.

The Mai Liao complex is the largest in Taiwan with a refining capacity of 540 000 barrels per day and a yearly production of more than 2.9 million tons of ethylene and 2.3 million tons of propylene.

MINING

FW to undertake basic engineering for AngloGold Ashanti mine in Colorado

A subsidiary of Foster Wheeler AG’s Global Engineering and

Construction Group has been awarded a contract for basic engineering for the Squaw Gulch ADR2 project, a new adsorption, desorption and recovery (ADR) facility at AngloGold Ashanti (Colorado) Corp’s Cripple Creek and Victor Gold Mine site in Teller, Colorado, USA.

This is Foster Wheeler’s first win with AngloGold Ashanti, a major gold producer.

Anglo American selects GE’s ABMet technology for Canadian wastewater plant

GE’s Advanced Biological Metals Removal Process (ABMet)

technology will remove nitrate and selenium from wastewater discharge at Anglo American’s Peace River Coal Trend Mine in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, Canada.

Anglo American is currently building a new wastewater treatment plant at the coal mine to remove nitrate and selenium in the wastewater. GE’s ABMet is a patented

MARKET PROSPECTS