Waste & wastewater sector needs more automation
2 Apr 2013
Dedham, Massachusetts – The water & wastewater industry represents one of the greatest opportunities for the automation business through the next 20 years, say market watchers at ARC – citing how many of the infrastructures in developed regions are ageing rapidly and suffering neglect.
In response, automation expenditures in the water & wastewater industry will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.8% over the next five years, forecasts an ARC report “Automation Expenditures for Water & Wastewater Industry Global Market Research Study”.
“Both developed and developing regions are seeing improving economies and thus are looking to either upgrade or install new water and wastewater treatment and distribution systems,” according to Allen Avery, senior analyst and co-author of this study.
Highlighting energy aspects of the industry, ARC notes that water is not only essential for producing fossil fuels and for generating electricity from both conventional and non-conventional energy sources; water withdrawal, treatment, and distribution are all highly energy-intensive activities.
On the supply side, water is critical for developing the increasingly important, non-conventional oil and gas resources (such as shale gas and oil sands), for growing biomass for bio-fuels, and for cooling electric power generating plants.
On the energy consumption side, transporting and treating water are both highly energy-intensive activities, requiring a significant amount of water to operate pumps, motors, and filtration systems.
Strategic planning for water & wastewater infrastructure investments and transitioning the operation and management of existing assets to incorporate new advances in technology is, therefore, critical, ARC says.
To deliver this, the report lists a number of challenges that the water & wastewater industry must address: ageing infrastructure and increased demand for water supply; inadequate and/or ineffective wastewater infrastructure in many parts of the world; and Funding for large projects during periods of economic uncertainty.
Other issues, it notes, include the transition of legacy systems to meet new demands from all stakeholders, security issues and the increasing demands upon the ageing, shrinking, internal workforce.
Automation suppliers can play a major role in providing solutions to overcome the above challenges, the study concludes.
