Lara Abrams Communications

biological and membrane wastewater treatment, USFilter, part of the Water Technology division of Siemens’ Industrial Solutions and Services (I&S) Group, has created a new Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) Technology Center.  The center will focus on wastewater treatment solutions that combine the company’s proven Memcor MBR with established biological technologies from the Envirex, Jet Tech and Davco product lines.  Such technologies include multi-channel oxidation ditches, vertical loop reactors and other biological technologies of Siemens. At the time of writing, January 2006, Chuck Gordon was the executive vice president of the Water Technologies systems unit.

According to the release, "MBRs were introduced in the last 10 to 15 years as a way of combining membrane filtration with biological treatment.  An alternative to conventional treatment, MBRs enable customers to meet strict effluent requirements with smaller treatment plants that allow higher reactor loadings and produce less sludge.  The technology is ideal for retrofits and for water recycling.

According to market researchers, the market for MBRs is still growing.  Robert W. McIlvaine of the McIlvaine Company, a filtration forecasting firm, has noticed a 30 to 40 percent increase in MBR sales over the past few years.  Within that number, MBR usage for wastewater treatment has increased by 60 percent.  In the U.S. alone, sales are projected to almost double to nearly $100 million by the year 2010.