Veolia Water Technologies by GineersNow Engineering Magazine GineersNow Engineering Magazine September 2016 | Page 8

COVER STORY
THE COMPANY
GN: Tell us about your
company. Describe your
mission, vision and values.
Froment: With 160 years
of expertise, over 174 000
employees worldwide and
a consolidated revenue of
€25 billion in 2015, Veolia
promotes under the banner
“Resourcing the World” an
approach that integrates
water, waste and energy
to
optimize
resource
management.
Within the Veolia group,
Veolia Water Technologies
offers integrated water
treatment solutions, from
design & build projects to
standard systems. It applies its
process expertise and industry
knowledge to respond to the
needs of industrial clients as
well as municipalities in terms
of both process water and
wastewater, with a specific
focus on water reuse. We
strive to deliver innovative,
sustainable and cost effective
water solutions to our
customers to improve their
economic and environmental
performance. In the Middle
East we employ more than
1300 people with a revenue
in excess of 500 million Euros.
Our vision is to be a trusted
partner in the Middle East,
combining
the
global
expertise of a worldwide
leader to the strength of
our local teams. Increasing
access to resources as well
as preserving and renewing
them is our motto.
Our values are concentrated on
our Customers’ Satisfaction,
Responsibility,
Respect,
Solidarity, and Innovation.
GN: Where is this company
headed? What’s your future
expansion plans? Describe
briefly your strategic goals
(10 years to 20 years plan)
Froment: We are fortunate
enough to be active in the
Middle East in both the
municipal and the industrial
fields and with growing water
scarcity, water reuse is our
top priority. Of course we will
continue to chase and execute
large desalination projects or
municipal water treatment
plants in the region where
we can differentiate through
improved energy efficiency or
better value for money for our
clients but with our objective
of “Resourcing the World”, and
with the increasing scarcity of
water in the region and the
ever growing need of water
for human consumption,
industries and agriculture, we
want to focus on developing
water reuse. This is the best
way to reduce the electricity
consumption related to water
treatment. With its wealth
of in house water treatment
technologies (more than 350)
Veolia can basically treat
almost any kind of waste water
to pretty much any required
process water characteristics
while
minimizing
the
energy consumption of the
process. In addition where
our customers do not wish
to develop in house the
skills to operate such plants
(waste water varies much
more in characteristics than
A lot of the trends we
see have to do with reducing
carbon footprint, increasing
renewable energies and with
water reuse
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SEPTEMBER 2016
Clean Water Technologies
seawater or aquifer water so
water reuse plants operation
requires more attention than
conventional process water
treatment plants), Veolia can
operate the plants on behalf
of the customers bringing
its wealth of operational
experience and increased
productivity.
INTRODUCTION
GN: How does your company
define clean water and
wastewater? How do people
gain access to clean water?
Do we have limited access to
clean, drinkable water? Are
we running out of it?
Froment: Clean water is either
potable water, irrigation
water or process water (used
for industrial purpose). In
the Middle East due to the
very significant increase in
the Clean water consumption
and the limited aquifer water
available, most of the Clean
water is generated using sea
water desalination at a high
energy cost (in Qatar 87%
of the Clean water comes
from desalination). Waste
water comes from both the
human consumption and
the industries. This waste
water has to be treated to
be rejected (generally back
to the sea)