WATER TREATMENT
calcium nitrate has seen its price increase by 150 % in 2022 as a result of rising energy and raw material prices and logistical issues .
Budget pressures
As a result , municipalities in particular are looking for alternative technologies . In one large American city , for example , the municipality ran out of budget in June 2022 . They had to carry on using the chemicals , of course , but eventually the officials holding the purse strings became aware of the problem and asked what was going on . Anue was thus able to make the most of a scheduled appointment with the city .
“ If you look at the purchase of a piece of oxygen-generating equipment from Anue and removing the chemical feed , on average the payback time would be 18-24 months ,” Bock notes . However , this comes out of capital rather than operating expenditure . It also typically takes 18-24 months to get a capital purchase approved , so there is considerable inertia in the system , particularly among municipalities . To address this , Anue devised a way to provide handling H 2
S systems as a service , supplying , servicing and maintaining the equipment and offering technical know-how , all for a flat monthly fee lower than the monthly cost of chemicals and without the need to have capex approved . It has now delivered the first such systems . The offer is working very well for both sides , Bock says .
In these instances , the gases are delivered via Anue ’ s Mobile Demonstration Unit ( MDU , pictured ). This is essentially a trailer that is brought out to municipalities for testing but can also be used to do proof-of-concept for Anue Total Solutions systems for H 2
S .
In some instances , Bock says , customers wanted to keep the trailer afterwards but Anue had to take it back because other tests were scheduled . It is therefore building more of them so that they can be left
Geomembrane cover at a processing plant
in place if the customer wants to take them permanently .
There are also logistical advantages to Anue ’ s system : it removes supply chain issues . The oxygen is generated in situ , whereas both the chemicals and the liquid oxygen used in competitor systems have to be delivered and the latter needs thermo-mechanical treatments to convert it into usable oxygen . The COVID pandemic saw so much liquid oxygen diverted to hospital use that some plants reached out to Anue for help .
Opportunities in industry
Municipalities are Anue ’ s main customer market historically but with Bock ’ s industrial background , the company is also spreading out into different industrial markets where the technology is equally applicable . The industry it currently supplies include :
• Food and beverage , where Coca-Cola is a customer for its geomembrane carbon-impregnated filtration systems
• Pig and poultry feed plants , where these systems are a strong alternative to traditional chemical masking agents ; and
• Paper mills , for whom H 2 S control is vital
In one recent instance , Bock recalls , a pig feed plant was facing closure because of the terrible odour arising from the huge volumes of off-spec cheese and cereals being fed to the piglets to promote growth . Previously , it had tried to control these by spraying chemicals into the exhaust . This did not always work well and was “ a maintenance nightmare ” because the water froze for long periods in winter .
Although it believed that its technology would work here , Anue had not supplied its equipment in this application before . The company ’ s engineers therefore partnered with those of the client and found that the odour measured on a 0-100 scale fell from 94 to 3 ; a dramatic showcase of how well the technology can work .
“ We are going to expand quickly into the industrial environment with the carbon-impregnated odour control covers ,” says Bock . Anue is currently working on proposals with Danone and a large craft beer company that is building an outdoor entertainment venue at its site and needs to control the odour from its waste treatment facility . Potentially , any industry that generates bad smells is a client , either for the passive control offered by these covers or for forced air through the other systems .
Currently , Anue is present only in the US and Canada , while Coca- Cola ’ s Femsa subsidiary has used the geomembrane covers in its Latin American bottling plants , as has Heineken which is using them in its Netherlands breweries . Bock is aware , of course , that some of the challenges are very much the same in Europe and elsewhere , so it is looking at wider geographical expansion . ●
Anue Water
k + 1 760 727 2683 J sales @ anuewater . com j http :// www . anuewater . com
50 SPECIALITY CHEMICALS MAGAZINE ESTABLISHED 1981