Water: Week in Review (week 23, 2012)

Headworks and its sister company, Headworks BIO, have had an exciting week.  While one company secured an option agreement with Texas A&M University (to license technology), the other landed a nearly $1MM contract to provide screens for an advanced wastewater treatment plant.  Meanwhile, Grundfos, Ostara, and Mitsui all dipped their feet in the VC/M&A world this week.  The details on these stories and more can be found below.

M&A/ Partnerships

• Danish pump manufacturer Grundfos has acquired Enaqua, a US company specializing in UV disinfection and membrane filtration technology.
  http://www.filtsep.com/view/26165/grundfos-moves-into-membranes-with-enaqua-acquisition/
• Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies announced the completion of a $14.5m private equity financing – led by VantagePoint Capital Partners, UK-based Frog Capital, and Waste Resources Fund – to fund its expansion programs.
  http://www.water-technology.net/news/newsostara-completes-private-equity-financing
• Mitsui has acquired a minority interest in Water Standard as it pursues opportunities in the rapidly emerging global enhanced oil recovery market.
  http://www.chron.com/business/press-releases/article/Water-Standard-Sells-Minority-stake-to-Mitsui-as-3594873.php
• Wastewater treatment technology provider Headworks BIO has signed an option agreement with The Texas A&M University System (TAMUS) that provides Headworks BIO with the right to negotiate an exclusive license for TAMUS’s patent pending Electron Beam (E-Beam) technology for use in municipal wastewater treatment applications.
  http://www.waterworld.com/index/display/article-display.articles.waterworld.wastewater.treatment.2012.05.Texas-AM-licenses-e-beam-technology-to-Headworks.QP129867.dcmp=rss.page=1.html

• Headworks® will design and fabricate five (5) Headworks Mahr® Bar Screens for the Belmont Advanced Wastewater Treatment (AWT) Plant in Indianapolis, Indiana — a project totaling close to $1 million.
  http://www.waterworld.com/index/display/article-display.articles.waterworld.wastewater.collection.2012.05.Headworks-wins-screens-project.QP129867.dcmp=rss.page=1.html
• C.H. Nickerson & Company, a Connecticut-based general contractor, has won a $93 million bid for a ~3 year facility renovation and upgrade of the nitrogen removal processes at the Mattabassett District’s Water Pollution Control Facility in Cromwell, CT.
  http://www.waterworld.com/index/display/article-display.articles.waterworld.wastewater.2012.june-2012.mattabassett-district.QP129867.dcmp=rss.page=1.html
• Aquatech has received a contract to design and supply a wastewater recycle system for a gas field development project in Turkmenistan.  The company will supply its patented high-efficiency reverse osmosis technology to achieve 90% recovery of the total wastewater at the project site.
  http://www.water-technology.net/news/newsaquatech-to-supply-wastewater-recycle-system-in-turkmenistan
• France’s Degrémont, which built the first Perth desalination plant in 2006, is to operate and maintain all the Western Australian city’s water and wastewater assets for 10 years with a possible 5-year extension.
  http://www.desalination.biz/news/news_story.asp?id= 6562&title=Degr%26%23233%3 Bmont+to+run+all+Perth%27s+water+and+wastewater

Innovation/ New Products

• Research from North Carolina State University will allow the development of energy-efficient LED devices that use ultraviolet (UV) light to kill pathogens such as bacteria and viruses. The technology has a wide array of applications ranging from drinking-water treatment to sterilizing surgical tools.
  http://www.waterworld.com/index/display/article-display.articles.waterworld.drinking-water.treatment.2012.05.Research-on-UV-disinfection-using-LED-technology.QP129867.dcmp=rss.page=1.html
• Sulzer Pumps launched a new high-pressure pump aimed at large seawater reverse-osmosis desalination plants.  The MSD-RO pump is an axially split, multistage, double-volute pump for membrane feed in SWRO plants. Train capacities range from 20,000‑30,000 m³/d.
  http://www.desalination.biz/news/news_story.asp?id=6558&title=SWRO+high-pressure+pump+supplies+up+to+30%2C000%26%23160%3Bm%26%23179%3B%2Fd
• StormwateRx announced the availability of Aquip® Downspout, a new configuration of the Aquip® stormwater filtration system specifically for attachment to roof downspouts. Aquip Downspout removes particulate and dissolved zinc and other heavy metals that are often present from facilities with zinc-coated or galvanized metal roofing or HVAC equipment.
  http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/6/prweb9546528.htm

Other

• Swiss chemicals company Syngenta announced a proposed $US 105 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit brought by communities in six Midwestern U.S. states who claimed that atrazine — one of the most widely used herbicides in the nation — had contaminated their drinking water.  Money from the settlement fund will be available to any community water system in the U.S. that shows a measurable level of atrazine in its supply.
  http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2012/world/water-law-105-million-settlement-in-water-pollution-lawsuit-between-swiss-company-and-u-s-communities/