Scrubber and adsorber sales will exceed $5 billion this year

March 26, 2006
Sales of systems to scrub or adsorb pollutants from industrial stacks around-the-world will total $5.3 billion this year and will rise to $6.8 billion by 2010. This is the latest forecast of the McIlvaine Company in the continually updated online "Scrubber/Adsorber World Markets"...

NORTHFIELD, IL, March 23, 2006 -- Sales of systems to scrub or adsorb pollutants from industrial stacks around-the-world will total $5.3 billion this year and will rise to $6.8 billion by 2010. This is the forecast of the McIlvaine Company in the continually updated online "Scrubber/Adsorber World Markets."

Waste incineration represents the biggest potential for scrubbers. System purchases will increase to $1.4 billion/yr by 2010. The market will be split between dry and wet scrubbers which will remove SO2, HCl and other acid gases. The U.S has fallen behind the rest of the world in constructing waste-to-energy plants. However, there is now renewed interest. Asian purchases will be substantially greater than those in the Americas and even exceed purchases in Europe/Africa.

The second largest single use will be for odor control at municipal wastewater facilities. Sales of biofilters, chemical scrubbing systems, and carbon adsorbers for this application will top $1 billion this year and rise to $1.3 billion in 2009. China will be the largest single purchaser due to its rapid expansion of secondary waste treatment facilities.

The fastest growing application is at ethanol plants. Scrubbers are needed for process odor control, but this is a modest investment. The big application is the supply of dry scrubbers to capture the SO2 from coal-fired boilers needed to supply the steam for the ethanol process. There are hundreds of new ethanol projects identified in the report.

The chemical industry is and will continue to be a large purchaser of adsorbers. Packed and plate towers are used for environmental and processing applications.

The pulp and paper industry purchases will exceed $650 million/yr in 2010 due to application of scrubbers to lime kilns, black liquor recovery boilers, bark boilers and other applications.

Scrubbers are frequently used in food processing to capture particulate from drying operations and to prevent the escape of odors. Biofilters are finding an increasing niche because they do not require chemicals and do not create a wastewater problem.

Included in the market forecast numbers are the scrubbers, fans, ductwork and other associated equipment such as wastewater treatment.

The industrial scrubber market is very fragmented with a number of small players or small divisions of large companies. The very large air pollution control companies are focused on the large coal-fired boiler applications and do not have the manpower or interest to pursue the industrial applications.

Since there are no mass produced internals, there is no economic advantage to size. In fact, due to the bulky scrubber vessels it is usually desirable to arrange for local fabrication rather than long distance shipment.

For more information on "Scrubber/Adsorber World Markets," click here.

The McIlvaine Company (www.mcilvainecompany.com) is based in Northfield, IL, with a staff of 35 people that includes engineers, scientists and market researchers.

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Also see: "Asian environmental market to exceed either Americas and Europe/Africa"

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