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industrial news
Copa acquires
MBR company’s assets
Copa Ltd, one of the UK's leading environmental products
and processess companies, has successfully completed the
purchase of the assets of the Aquator Group Ltd from the
administrators of Aquator Group Ltd and Aquator
Services Ltd, both based in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, UK.
Aquator was best known as the licensees of the Kubota
membrane bioreactor (MBR) system that is successfully
sold throughout the world. To date, there are over 1200
plants incorporating the Kubota MBR.
In a separate deal with Kubota Corp of Tokyo, Japan,
Copa has also acquired full rights to the Kubota MBR
process and will be able to complete and honour the
commitments previously given by Aquator (through its
MBR Technology®) to existing and new customers in the
UK and Ireland without interruption.
Mike Froud, managing director of Copa said, “the
purchase and related deal with Kubota is an exciting
opportunity for Copa as it not only extends Copa's offers to
the market, but also fits well with Copa's existing process
skills and capabilities. We welcome the Aquator staff who
will be joining the Copa team to tackle the opportunities
ahead with new confidence.”
According to Copa, MBR technology has proved that it
can provide high levels of treatment to municipal sewage
and other wastes to enable safe discharge of effluents to the
environment.
Founded in 1980 Copa Ltd trades internationally, and
has two main areas to its business - CSO technology and
process technology for municipal wastewater treatment.
Contact: Copa Ltd, Crest Industrial Estate, Pattenden Lane,
Marden, Tonbridge, Kent TN12 9QJ, UK.
Tel: +44 1622 833900; Fax: +44 1622 831466;
Website: www.copa.co.uk
Production of ceramic diesel particulate filters increased
Japanese company NGK Insulators Ltd is planning to
double the production of ceramic purification systems for
car exhausts, to meet the growing demand that is being
created by the tightening of emissions standards worldwide.
The company aims to spend ¥5 billion (US$ 46 million)
to boost output of silicon carbide (SiC) diesel particulate
filters (DPFs) and large cordierite substrates for catalytic
converters. It says that in November last year it invested
¥10 billion ($ 92 million) and began expanding production
in China, the USA and elsewhere, but demand continues to
outstrip its production capacity.
For SiC DPFs, NGK is planning to invest ¥2 billion
($18 million) to add another production line at its plant in
Komaki, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Once the new line
becomes operational during the third quarter of 2004, the
plant’s output capacity will double to 400 000 units a year.
A SiC DPF plant is also under construction in Poland,
but the site is not scheduled to begin operating until
November 2004. NGK hopes that increased production at
the Komaki plant will enable it to meet demand that
continues to grow.
8 March 2004
Air stripping towers remove
VOCs from Californian aquifer
USFilter Westates Carbon is to supply air stripping towers,
with granular activated carbon (GAC) systems, to treat
contaminated water produced by the San Gabriel Valley
groundwater basin, an Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) Superfund Site located in California, USA.
The system, rated at about 30 000 litres per minute, will
be part of the Plant B5 Water Treatment Facility, operated
by San Gabriel Valley Water Co.
During March 2002, eight companies agreed to pay
more than US$200 million over the next 15 years to clean
up the contaminated groundwater at four locations in the
San Gabriel Valley. The area’s facilities will collectively
deliver more than 30 000 million litres of drinking water
every year to 100 000 homes in Southern California.
San Gabriel Valley Water Co considered only proven
technologies with consistent operations and low
maintenance costs when evaluating and selecting the various
water treatment technologies for its Plant B5. USFilter
Westates Carbon’s system met the space requirements, while
providing low cost operation and minimal downtime.
According to USFilter Westates Carbon, to provide
flexibility and efficiency the GAC systems were designed as
mobile units. This enabled the water quality and quantity
demands to be met, while also reducing the operating costs.
At the Plant B5 facility, contaminated water will enter
the system from the aquifer at a rate of 30 000 litres, where
it will be air stripped for volatile organic compounds
(VOCs) before being sent downstream for further
treatment. The contaminated ‘off-gas’ is captured and sent
to the GAC system for final abatement.
Contact: USFilter, 1501 East Woodfield Road, Suite 200 West,
Schaumburg, IL 60173 , USA.
Tel: +1 847 706 6947; Fax: +1 847 706 6933;
Website: www.usfilter.com
At its Nagoya factory, the company currently produces
600 000 cordierite catalytic substrates a year. It began
making large cordierite catalytic substrates at its new US
plant in January at a rate of 300 000 units a year, but the
company wants to expand facilities in Indonesia and
South Africa to raise its total yearly production capacity to
1.2 million units.
NGK is spending a further ¥2 billion ($18 million) to
construct a new plant in Indonesia, which is scheduled to be
completed in April 2005. Once it starts producing 600 000
large cordierite catalytic substrates a year, it will take over
production from the factory based in Nagoya. Production
in South African will bring in another 300 000 units by
January 2005, for an investment of ¥1 billion ($9 million).
A conference with the theme ‘Filtration in
Transportation’ is scheduled to take place in October 2004,
in Stuttgart, Germany. The event’s organizer is devoting an
entire day to DPFs. For further details see p.4)
Contact: NGK Insulators Ltd, 2-56 Suda-cho, Mizuho,
Nagoya 467-8530, Japan.
Tel: +81 52 872 7171; Website: www.ngk.co.jp
www.filtsep.com