2024-10-20 10:05:00
It looks like a spinning mill, with dozens of spools of thread, lined up one behind the other, producing two millimeter thick braids in huge quantities. Three million meters a day, in a factory that operates on a continuous cycle.
We are in one of three Veolia membrane production sites, in Oroszlany, Hungary, along with those located in the United States and China. Even the biggest one. “It is the Hermes of the membrane”enthuses Estelle Brachlianoff, general director of the group, which has become number one in the world in technological solutions for water, after the acquisition of rival Suez. This subsidiary accounted for 11% of turnover in 2023, or 4.7 billion euros.
In the following workshops, change of scenery. The braids are immersed in a small tank, five meters deep and filled with a mixture of polymers and solvents used to coat them with a protective layer. This is dotted with small holes, of different sizes depending on the chemical formulation, and depending on the models and their use. This unique know-how is protected by approximately 4,400 patents. The braids are then overlapped to be assembled «modules»a sort of large tent, about two meters by one. Last year, about 160,000 were made.
The production process is a concentration of technology. “The pores are between fifty and a million timesthinner than a hair”underlines Anne Le Guennec, director of the “Global Water Technologies” area. Their size depends on the type of membranes, which are subjected to high pressure and through which water passes, thus filtering impurities.
Feeding bacteria to eat pollution
There are some for the treatment of drinking water, waste water, reused water, the desalination of sea water, but also membranes for the fight against micropollutants and PFAS, otherwise known as ” eternal pollutants », or to produce ultrapure water, essential in some sectors, such as the pharmaceutical sector or the production of electronic chips. There are also membranes, let’s say “aerated bioreactor” which feed the bacteria, thanks to a light breath of oxygen, which then eat the pollution.
Since its inauguration in 2002, the factory has increased its capacity tenfold. “Next year we will expand it further with a new membrane unit for the treatment of micropollutants”explains Daniel Smid, production manager.
Demand is strong, both from municipalities and producers. It is encouraged, both by increasingly draconian environmental regulations and by all the problems related to water, “what are the first consequences of climate change”notes the head of Veolia, with repeated droughts and floods, leading either to resource scarcity or deterioration of water quality. “The market is growing by 2-3%per year, but our goal is to grow three times faster because we are the only ones to offer such a wide range of solutions”says Estelle Brachlianoff.
An expected tightening of regulations
Veolia thus announced, on Thursday 17 October, the launch of a “unprecedented global offering” treatment of PFAS, including the detection, recovery of these pollutants and their disposal in hazardous waste facilities. The whole thing “at affordable prices”. This year, the group has already launched a major PFAS detection campaign in France in its factories and the compliance of drinking water with current standards has been certified for 99% of contracts.
But with this new offer the group wants to anticipate the expected tightening of regulations almost everywhere in the world. For the treatment of PFAS, Veolia aims for a turnover of one billion euros by 2030. It was zero two years ago, fifty million in 2023 and this year it will be 200 million, most of which it expects to achieve in the United States, where new standards were adopted in the spring.
“There is both public pressure to address the issue of micropollutants and the need for industry to better manage water resources,” observes Anne Le Guennec. He mentions lithium extraction in Latin America, but also data centers, which are multiplying with the development of artificial intelligence, and whose need for water to cool the systems is enormous. In total, the group expects a 50% increase in these water technology-related businesses by the end of the decade.
New perspectives in desalination
The desalination market is also expected to grow in the years to come. Technologies have made great progress to reduce costs, in particular by reducing energy consumption, the most important expense item, thanks to the use of membranes rather than evaporation treatments.
Over the course of ten years, the cost price of desalinated water was divided by five. “The electrical requirement to produce one liter of desalinated water today is equivalent to that of a Tesla to travel twenty kilometres”, assures Anne Le Guennec.
The group operates 2,300 desalination plants worldwide and plans to expand into new territories. “With the chronic lack of water observed in some regions, this appears to be the only alternative today, which was not necessarily the case a few years ago”notes Jean-François Nogrette, general director of Veolia France. The group is building a desalination plant in Great Britain, in Cornwall, and is very interested, in France, in the situation in the Eastern Pyrenees, characterized by a historic drought.
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