After a four-year hiatus, the Singapore International Water Week (SIWW) 2022 returned in April 2022 in an in-person format, bringing the water industry together to share best practices, co-create urban water solutions and generate new business opportunities around climate resilience, resource circularity and digital water. Organised by PUB, Singapore’s national water agency, SIWW2022 recorded the attendance of over 15,000 visitors comprising leaders in government, industry and academia from around the world.
At the Water Expo, industry players showcased innovative solutions that are aimed at enhancing the water value chain through technological advancements. At the DuPont Water Solutions booth, the company presented its end-to-end solutions to support desalination and reverse osmosis (RO) applications. For instance, the DuPont B-Free pre-treatment is a novel vessel-based media technology that mitigates the effects of biofouling in RO systems. The B-Free solution pre-treats the seawater or brackish water ahead of the RO. For optimum suspended solids removal and efficiency, ultrafiltration pre-treatment is commended upstream B-Free filtration media.
Another solution DuPont highlighted was the FilmTec Fortilife product family which is designed for plants and facilities that require nanofiltration (NF) and RO water treatment. Besides minimising biofouling issues, FilmTec Fortilife can help reduce water costs and lower operating expenses while supporting the move towards minimal liquid discharge (MLD).
The FilmTec Fortilife family comprises three members – CR200, CR100 and XC. The FilmTec Fortilife CR200 is a contaminant resistant element for recycling and treating the combined challenge of biological and organic fouling prone waters. The FilmTech Fortilife CR100 is an advanced element design for treating and recycling highly biofouling prone waters, such as wastewater, and utilises an ultra-low pressure drop element design and a fouling resistant and cleanable membrane chemistry that provides solute rejection over a long element lifetime. As for FilmTec Fortilife XC, it helps to meet the specific treat-for-purpose challenges for maximising wastewater reuse.
Another company that has been supporting utilities in addressing water management challenges was Xylem which demonstrated its portfolio of advanced solutions that build resilience to the water-related challenges associated with climate change. Particularly on climate change, Franz Cerwinka, senior vice-president and president of Xylem Emerging Markets, said that COP26 has made net zero a crucial aspect for all industries and businesses and that sustainability management is part of Xylem’s DNA. And as the world gradually recovers from the aftermath of the pandemic, Cerwinka revealed that Xylem has been “receiving huge demand of orders across the globe” despite challenges in inflation and supply chain disruptions.
At the booth, Xylem presented the Flygt PP 4200 adaptive ultra-low head propeller pump series that features integrated power electronics based on the Flygt Dirigo technology, a propeller with optimised and fixed blade angle and variable pumping capabilities with speeds up to 792rpm.
In driving digitalisation in the water sector, Xylem offers the Xylem Vue digital platform that helps utilities navigate the complexities of driving improvements across the entire water cycle – including wastewater networks, treatment plants, drinking water networks and asset management – to deliver visibility, performance, compliance and cost savings.
In the area of level measurement, Vega moved beyond the ultrasonic measurement technique and developed the VEGAPULS 6X radar sensor that is designed for continuous level measurement of liquid and bulk solids.
Suggesting that all ultrasonic sensors can be replaced with radar sensors, Goh Boon Teck, managing director of Vega Instrument South East Asia, explained that radar sensors work with electromagnetic waves, unlike traditional ultrasonic sensors that work with sound waves. Particularly for VEGAPULS 6X, the small process fittings offer advantages for liquids in small tanks or tight mounting spaces. The signal focusing ensures the use in vessels with many installations such as stirrers and heating spirals. For bulk solids under different process conditions, the device is ideal for level measurement in high silos, large bunkers and segmented vessels.
For ZWEEC, the Singapore-based water technology solutions provider sealed several partnerships during SIWW2022. One of which is a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Vizzio Technologies, a Singapore-based technology company specialising in creating and virtualizing digital realities using artificial intelligence (AI). Under this agreement, Vizzio’s capabilities in creating digital twin will support ZWEEC’s water technology solutions to enhance water quality management. Both companies have also agreed to jointly work on projects in Singapore and overseas in the domain of utilities.
ZWEEC also inked two other MoUs with Singapore’s water kiosk player Ioni Water and partners from across the region, namely China’s Sichuan Language Justbon Service Group and India’s Arosia Water. Under the MoU, ZWEEC will partner with Ioni Water to deploy, install and commission its Aquapro fish activity monitoring system (FAMS) to provide access to safe drinking water to China’s residential communities and India’s gated communities in Tier 1 and 2 cities. Collectively, the partnerships are projects to deploy up to 6,000 water kiosks in the region and generate sales worth around S$60 million (US$44.2 million) of clean drinking water over the next three years.
The next edition of SIWW will return from 16-20 Jun 2024.
Find out more about SIWW2022 here in the latest edition of Water & Wastewater Asia May/Jun 2022 issue.
