NEWS

March 2013 Membrane Technology7

nology that can be used in the energy and envi-ronmental industries, will receive more than $1.7 million to develop a small-scale membrane reactor to convert, in a single step, natural gas into a transportable liquid.

The ARPA noted that many remote oil wells burn natural gas as a by-product because it is not economical to store or transport it. Such natural gas contains energy that equals about 20% of the annual US electricity product, and capturing that energy would reduce both waste and greenhouse gas emissions.

Ceramatec also will receive over $2.1 million to develop a solid-state fuel cell that operates at temperature ranges similar to internal combus-tion engines. The ARPA said the company’s design would enable the use of low-cost materi-als and catalysts that demonstrate high perfor-mance without the need for expensive com-ponents. The project will involve Ceramatec engineering a fuel cell “stack” that performs at a lower cost than current car engine designs.

The 66 projects selected to receive funding were chosen through a merit-based process from thousands of concept papers and hundreds of applications. The projects are based in 24 states, with approximately 47% of the projects led by universities, 29% by small businesses, 15% by large businesses, 7.5% by national laboratories and 1.5% by non-profit organisations.

Contact:

Ceramatec Inc, 2425 South 900 West, Salt Lake City,

UT 84119, USA. Tel: +1 801 972 2455,

www.ceramatec.com

Veolia set to modernise water treatment plant at Polish power station

Veolia Water Systems Sp Z oo, a sub-sidiary of Veolia Water Solutions &

Technologies, has signed a contract with Elektrownia Pątnów II Sp Z oo, part of the ZE PAK group, covering the exten-sion and modernisation of the utility’s water treatment plant at the Pątnów II power station, based in Konin, Poland.

The turnkey contract includes design, construc-tion, start-up and commissioning of the surface-water pretreatment plant and modernisation and upgrade of two existing lines. A third deminer-alisation line, using membrane and ion-exchange technology, also will be constructed to secure water for P tnów II and P tnów I power plants.

Once modernised, the treatment plant will sup-ply process water to feed the new 464-MW power unit at P tnów II power station, with supercritical parameters, as well as six existing 200-MW power

units at P tnów I. The plant has a design capacity of 198 m3 of demineralised water per hour.

Two 300-m3/h Actifloc lines will be built within the water pretreatment stage, based on the processes of coagulation, flocculation and sedimentation – leading to a 60% reduction in total organic carbon (TOC).

Part of the water treatment process, includ-ing the demineralisation plant, will use mem-brane technology such as ultrafiltration (UF) and a double reverse osmosis (RO), followed by mixed-bed ion exchangers.

Construction is scheduled to start in April 2013 and end in 2014.

The demineralisation plant based on UF and RO membranes will be one of the largest in Poland.

Contact:

Veolia Water Systems Sp Z oo, ul. Balicka 48,

30–149 Kraków, Poland. Tel: +48 12 423 3866,

www.veoliawaterst.pl

Entegris reports fourth-quarter sales of $168 million

Entegris Inc of Billerica, Massachusetts, USA, recorded

fourth-quarter sales of $167.8 million for fiscal year ended 31 December 2012, an increase of 2% compared with the corresponding period a year earlier, and a 9% decline sequentially.

Net income totalled $11.3 million, or $0.08 per share. These results included amortisa-tion of intangible assets of $2.3 million. Fiscal 2012 sales amounted to $716 million – repre-senting a 4% decline, compared with sales of $749 million in 2011. The company posted net income per share of $0.50, compared with $0.91 per share a year earlier, which included a one-time tax benefit of $0.15 per share.

Bertrand Loy, President and Chief Executive Officer, Entegris, said: ‘Our sales in the fourth quarter declined sequentially as expected, and reflected continued soft business trends in the microelectronics and semiconductor industries.’

‘Even so, sales of our filtration products grew in the quarter as liquid filter sales reached record levels for the quarter and the year. This reflects our deepening collaboration with the leading customers in our industry as they address con-tamination and materials handling challenges in their most advanced manufacturing processes.’

Contact:

Entegris Inc, 129 Concord Road, Billerica, MA 01821,

USA. Tel: +1 978 436 6500, www.entegris.com

I n B r i e f

Pall expands Menlo Park facilityUS-based filtration, separation and purifica-tion company Pall Corp has announced that it has expanded its facility in Menlo Park, California, USA – the site of its ForteBio operations – to create a centre of excellence (COE) for instrumentation. The expanded COE, located in the heart of the Silicon Valley/Bay area, occupies more than 3900 m2

(42 000 ft2) on two floors, which is nearly double the size of the original facility. The multi-disciplinary centre handles a broad range of functions, including instrument and consumable reagent manufacturing, and product development.

KMS plays a key role in water reuse project in BrazilUS-based Koch Membrane Systems Inc (KMS), supplied its Puron membrane bioreac-tor (MBR) modules and MegaMagnum reverse osmosis (RO) membranes for the Aquapolo Ambiental project, which recently won a Brazilian National Water Agency (NWA) Award for contributing to the management and sustainable use of the country’s water resources. The water reuse project was created by Foz do Brasil (Odebrecht Organization) and Sabesp, a Brazilian state-owned utility that provides water and sewage services for resi-dential, commercial and industrial use in the municipalities of the state of São Paulo.

Indian water purchase agreement finalisedSingapore’s Hyflux Ltd reports that the water purchase agreement (WPA) to deliver desali-nated water to the Dahej Special Economic Zone (Dahej SEZ) in Gujarat, India, has been finalised and signed with Dahej SEZ Ltd (DSL). The WPA between DSL and Swarnim DahejSpring Desalination Pvt Ltd will become effective once financial closure for the desalination project is achieved. DahejSpring is the special purpose company formed by consortium members Hitachi Ltd and Hyflux Utility (India) Pvt Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hyflux, for the develop-ment of the sea-water desalination project in the Dahej SEZ.

BASF starts producing water-treatment chemicals in China Germany’s BASF has started producing chem-icals for water treatment and paper manu-facturing at the Nanjing Chemical Industry Park in Nanjing, China. The company says that the wholly-owned, world-scale produc-tion plant for quaternised cationic monomers (DMA3Q) and cationic polyacrylamide (cPAM) further strengthens its position in supporting the water-treatment and paper industries in Asia.