Largest RO facility in China to use inge ultrafiltration for seawater treatment

TANGSHAN, China, July 7, 2010 -- In the city of Tangshan on the Yellow Sea, the Chinese plant constructor Hangzhou Xidoumen is building the biggest sea water treatment plant that China has ever seen -- one of the biggest projects of this kind anywhere in the world. The plant has been designed to treat 110,000 cubic meters of sea water a day to supply a power plant and local industry. Prior to undergoing desalination by reverse osmosis (RO), the water is cleaned in an ultrafiltration system. The contract for this multi-million dollar project has been awarded to the German company inge watertechnologies AG, widely regarded as the world's leading exponent of ultrafiltration technology.

China is the world's biggest and fastest-growing market for water treatment systems. The German company inge watertechnologies AG has operated a sales office in this important growth market ever since 2004. In the six years since the office opened, inge has equipped more than 30 plants with its technology for treating drinking water, process water and wastewater, including Terminal 3 of Beijing International Airport and a wastewater treatment plant in Dalian. inge watertechnologies AG has now won a multi-million dollar contract for a major project in Tangshan that will require 1,536 ultrafiltration modules, reaffirming this Germans company's status as one of the world's preeminent water treatment specialists.

Reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration are increasingly becoming the standard combination of choice for sea water treatment plants. A project of this magnitude therefore represents a highly prestigious catch that attracted attention well beyond the Asian market, offering a contract that garnered interest from virtually all the major ultrafiltration providers. According to the CEO of inge watertechnologies Bruno Steis, the key to inge's success lay in the reliability and quality of its German-made UF membranes and modules, as well as the benefits offered by its innovative T-Rack technology, an integrated module/rack system that has won high regard for its versatility, compact design and cost-effective engineering. A T-Rack has a footprint that is up to 60 percent smaller than conventional rack systems. These are the kind of features can help customers cut the overall capital cost of their ultrafiltration system by five percent or more, depending on the scale of the system being installed.

membrane resilience is another of the company's key competitive advantages. To date, inge watertechnologies has equipped more than 500 plants worldwide with its technology without a single case of broken membrane fibers -- which is why inge is the only provider to offer a five-year warranty against fiber breakage.

In the words of Bruno Steis, "This contract with Hangzhou Xidoumen is the biggest single order in our company's history and a further important milestone on our path towards further growth. Winning this contract provides inge with a highly prestigious, globally respected reference project which places us firmly among the world's top UF manufacturers."

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