January 2015 - Filtration and Centrifugation Insights 42

Belt filter presses were developed in the 1970s and became popular just as the McIlvaine Company published the first issue of the Liquid Filtration Newsletter in 1980. This design rapidly replaced drum filters for many dewatering applications from sewage sludge dewatering to sludges in food, mining and other industries. Over the years the number of operating units has increased to more than 40,000. Each of these units regularly needs to replace belts. These belts are the heart of the operation and are relatively expensive. As a result, the annual market for new units and belts is over $1 billion/yr. worldwide. This is the latest forecast in the McIlvaine Liquid Filtration and Media World Markets. (www.mcilvainecompany.com)

There are 16,000 municipal wastewater plants in the U.S. They are operating more than 5,000 belt presses. Individual installations are tracked in the McIlvaine North American Municipal Wastewater Treatment Facilities and People Database.

China is the fastest growing purchaser of belt presses. International suppliers such as Andritz have been active in the area for several decades. Despite spending more on building treatment facilities than any other country, they still are behind the U.S. and Europe in terms of the percentage of waste receiving secondary treatment.

Belt presses compete with centrifuges and filter presses. Centrifuges are more competitive where unit volumes are large. Filter presses are more expensive and must operate on a batch basis but do achieve drier solids.

One of the highest growth markets for belt filter presses is the livestock industry. Manure generation from this industry is larger than that generated by people. Many countries are enacting tighter effluent limitations for this industry.

The biggest driver is the growth in Asia of municipal waste treatment facilities. This growth is caused by higher standards of living and expectations as well as the migration of over one billion people to the cities from rural environments.

Alfonso Morre has spent nine years studying mechanics and civil engineering in order to become — a Havana taxi driver. Following President Barack Obama’s decision to ease the embargo on Cuba, he is hoping for something better.

Driving a 26-year-old Russian-made Lada through the cobbled streets of Cuba’s capital, Morre says he needs his engineering degree just to keep the car on the road. That may be about to change.

“Hopefully, once the U.S. trade opens up, companies will come here looking for engineers,” Morre, 33, said. “Once the new cars and spare parts start coming in, you won’t need to be an engineer to run a taxi here.”

Morre is one of the army of university-educated Cubans stuck in manual jobs such as hotel laundry or waiting tables. Their skills will be a big draw for companies looking for investment opportunities in the island should the U.S. agree to end the trade embargo that started in 1961, said Philip Brenner, a professor of international relations at American University in Washington.

“The Cuban development model is going to be based on high value-added production by an educated population,” Brenner said. “No one in Cuba is talking about a future scenario of making baseballs in sweatshops. They have people who would be adept in pharmaceuticals, computer engineering and advanced mechanical machinery.”

Cuba’s economic growth has slowed to 1.3% this year, almost half the official target and down from 2.7% in 2013, according to government data.

Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced the plans to re-establish diplomatic ties, release some prisoners and work to ease a five-decade old embargo on Dec. 17.

Laundry lady Lucila Gomez, 62, hopes the move will lead to the re-opening of the pajama factory she used to supervise in Havana. After getting a degree at Moscow State Textile University and working in Bulgaria, Gomez now irons tourist shirts in the Havana Libre hotel.

Decades of Soviet investment in Cuba’s education system have brought universal literacy to the island, with about 100,000 people trained at Russian and Ukrainian universities out of a population of 11.3 million.

Eighty percent of college-aged Cubans were enrolled in post-secondary education in 2011, the highest in Latin America and the Caribbean, compared with 75% in Argentina, 71% in Chile and 29% for Mexico, according to the United Nations.

There is a special focus on hard sciences like medicine and engineering, an investment in human capital that has helped the country stay afloat since the end of subsidies from the Soviet Union. About 30,000 Cuban doctors work in Venezuela to help pay for the approximately 100,000 barrels a day of oil the South American country supplied to Cuba in 2013.

In the central province of Cienfuegos, Brazilian contractor Helio Piza is supervising 60 Cuban workers running a 30-year-old sugar plant without any spare parts.

“The level of academic preparation here is very high,” Piza said in an interview in his office in the Fifth of September plant on Dec. 29. “Education allows Cubans to be ingenious with the little they have available.”… (The remaining text is not included in this sample.)

The city-state’s economy expanded less than economists’ estimated last quarter after its manufacturing industry weakened with slowing growth in China and an uneven global recovery.

Gross domestic product rose an annualized 1.6% in the three months to Dec 31 from the previous quarter, when it expanded 3.1%, the trade ministry said in a statement. The median of five estimates in a Bloomberg News survey was for a 3% expansion.

Singapore's productivity growth has been weak, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Dec 31, and the trade ministry has said the economic outlook for 2015 is "modest" with a tight labor market restraining some industries. The export-dependent island is also adjusting to a China on track to record its weakest full-year growth in almost a quarter century, even as the US saw its biggest expansion in more than a decade in the third quarter.

"It caps a pretty moderate year for growth," said Michael Wan, a Singapore-based economist at Credit Suisse Group AG, who predicts the Southeast Asian nation will expand 3.5% in 2015. "China's slowing, Japan's pretty moribund, Europe's still essentially going nowhere," with only the U.S. providing some relief in the global economy…(The remaining text is not included in this sample.)

The United Kingdom has overtaken France to become the fifth largest economy in the world after the money made from prostitution and drugs was counted in the GDP figure for the first time.

Britain's economy is expected to be worth a total £1.86trillion in 2014 - up from £1.63trillion the previous year - compared to £1.82trillion in France, new calculations reveal.

Government figures show that prostitution added about £4.3billion to the economy while illegal drugs provided a roughly £6.7billion boost.

The darker corners of the economy are now being counted - alongside traditional sectors such as farming and financial services - as part of an overhaul in the way economic activity is measured

This year is the first time that the GDP - an economic estimate produced every three months by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) - has included the money made from illegal drugs and sex work.

The change, which was introduced as part of EU rules implemented earlier this year, means that a booming sex trade or an expansion in the market for illegal drugs can boost the Chancellor's outlook.

These more inclusive figures edged the nation ahead of France in world rankings when they were used in calculations of the size of the UK's econom (The remaining text is not included in this sample.)

A complete analysis of GDP and monthly updates for individual countries are included as part of Liquid Filtration and Media World Markets or Sedimentation/Centrifugation World Markets.

Oil and Gas Project Tracking is available at a discount to Liquid Filtration and Media World Markets or Sedimentation/Centrifugation World Markets subscribers.

Treatment chemicals are an important addition to most oil and gas processes. Access to details on the worldwide oil and gas projects is provided at a substantial discount to Liquid Filtration and Media World Markets or Sedimentation/Centrifugation World Markets subscribers.

The Other Oil Sands Fight in Utah with Possible Solution to Lower Environmental Impact

Oilsands Lead not seeping into Rivers According to University of Alberta Lab Tests

Canada’s Oil Sands Industry Goes on Offensive after Facing Escalating Pushback

ICA Fluor Awarded Fabrication Contract for Shell's Carmon Creek Heavy Oil Extraction Project

Propylene Unit Reaches Capacity in Russia due to UOP C3 Oleflex™ Process Technology

Chevron Phillips Says Petchem Industry Should Enhance Connectivity with Social Media

Gulf Coast Growth Spurs Demand for Cleaning, Environmental Services - Revision Date: 1/4/2015

Venture Global LNG Announces Calcasieu Pass Export Facility in Southwestern Louisiana

Freeport LNG Closes Financing, Begins Construction of Initial Two Liquefaction Trains

LNG Canada Selects GE Oil & Gas LMS100 Gas Turbine-Compressor Technology for Proposed Kitmat Facility - Revision Date: 1/1/2015

5th and final installment: Exclusive Platts Series on China’s Shandong “Teapot” Oil Refineries

These sales leads are part of Oil, Gas, Shale and Refining Markets and Projects, and are issued bi-weekly. As a subscriber to Liquid Filtration and Media World Markets or Sedimentation/Centrifugation World Markets you receive a 30 percent discount for this service.

This monthly update is devoted to wastewater infrastructure news around the world, outside of the United States and Canada, and is meant to complement McIlvaine's Liquid Filtration and Media World Markets or Sedimentation/Centrifugation World Markets.

FEI and Oregon Health & Science University Install a Complete Correlative Microscopy

This includes only projects where there was an update during the month. There are thousands of projects in the database.

New power generation projects are tracked in two publications. Fossil and Nuclear Power Generation includes both market forecasts and project data. World Power Generation Projects has just the project data.

Location	Location Comment	Project Title
AL	West Jefferson Co.	J.H. Miller 4-Alabama Power
AL	West Jefferson Co.	J.H. Miller 3-Alabama Power
AZ	Springerville	Springerville 2-Alamito Co.
CA	Bakersfield	Constellation/Ultrasystems 1
CA	Bakersfield	Constellation/Ultrasystems 2
Canada	Alberta, Genesee	Genesee 1-Edmonton Power
Canada	Alberta, Genesee	Genesee 2-Edmonton Power
Canada	Nova Scotia, Trenton	Trenton 6-Nova Scotia Power
Finland	Seinajoki	Vaskiluodon Voima Senajoki Plant
France		Electricite de France
GA	Forsyth	Scherer 4-Georgia Power
Germany		Wilhelm Pieck 1 Jaenschwalde
Germany		Wilhelm Pieck 2 Jaenschwalde
Germany		Wilhelm Pieck 3 Jaenschwalde
Germany		Wilhelm Pieck 4 Jaenschwalde
Germany		Wilhelm Pieck 5 Jaenschwalde
Germany		Wilhelm Pieck 6 Jaenschwalde
Germany	West Berlin	Moabit-Bewag/Berlin
IN	Rockport	Rockport 2-Indiana & Michigan Electric
India	Bombay	Trombay 5-Tata Electric Companies
Indonesia	near Jakarta	Cikarang Industrial Estate power plant expansion
Indonesia	West Java, Ciligon	Suralaya 1 Perusahaan Umum Listrik Negara
Indonesia	West Java, Ciligon	Suralaya 2 Perusahaan Umum Listrik Negara
Kenya		Nairobi diesel plant
KY	Trimble Co. Bedford	Trimble Co. 1-Louisville Gas & Electric
LA		Willow Glen 3-Gulf States Utilities
MD	Anne Arundel Co.	Brandon Shores 2-Baltimore Gas & Electric
NC		Buxton 1-5-North Carolina Elec. Mem. Corp.
OH	Moscow	Zimmer 1-Cincinnati Gas & Electric
Philippines	Calaca	Calaca-National Power Corp.
Taiwan	Taichung Harbor	Taichung Harbor 1-Taiwan Power
Taiwan	Taichung Harbor	Taichung Harbor 2-Taiwan Power
Thailand	Lampang	Mae Moh 9-EGAT
TX	Robertson Co. Hammond/Calvert	TNP One 1-Texas/New Mexico Power
TX	Robertson Co. Hammond/Calvert	TNP One 2-Texas/New Mexico Power
WI	Port Washington	Port Washington 4-Wisconsin Electric Power
WI	Port Washington	Port Washington 1-Wisconsin Electric Power
WI	Port Washington	Port Washington 3-Wisconsin Electric Power

Belt Filter Press and Belt Revenues 2015 ($ Millions)
Asia	450
Americas	250
Europe	200
Africa	100
Total	1,000