This year’s landmark 25th edition of the Aquatech Amsterdam exhibition, taking place on 3-6 November, will include a prominent new addition to the show floor – the Industrial User Experience. Covering key sectors such as oil & gas, food & beverage, paper, mining, and chemicals, this dedicated hotspot with sessions by and for industrial water users will provide a platform at which they can share insights into the water challenges they face and their experiences with solutions. ‘Industries need to reduce their water footprints – that’s the short message,’ says Leon Korving, Scientific Project Manager with Wetsus, the European centre of excellence for sustainable water technology. ‘We have selected these industries because we think these are the ones with the biggest water challenges ahead,’ he adds.
The Industrial User Experience programme is being prepared by Wetsus, as co-organiser with Aquatech, to ensure there is high quality content on themes of value to the thousands of visitors to the exhibition with an interest in industry.
‘We are trying to connect the technology suppliers with their end users,’ says Korving. Aquatech Amsterdam is part of the Amsterdam International Water Week, which will include the Industrial Leaders Forum, with a strong focus on policy and strategy. ‘What we want to do with the Industrial User Experience on the Aquatech floor is to really speak about the nuts and bolts of water technology,’ says Korving.
Sharing practical experiences
The Industrial User Experience will run throughout the four days of Aquatech Amsterdam and will be based around live presentations in a premier featured area near the entrance to one of the show halls. Each day will see a focus on different sectors.
‘We are specifically inviting end users to present,’ says Korving. Over 90% of speakers will be end users and during the sessions they will provide details of practical experiences with solutions to industrial challenges, including insights into progress with innovations in areas such as ceramic membranes, anaerobic technologies, and recovery of metals. The Industrial User Experience will therefore enhance what is already a hugely successful show. ‘What we are trying to provide is that Aquatech becomes a two-way experience,’ says Korving.
‘People do not like to talk about their problems,’ adds Korving. ‘We have tried to find people that see the bigger picture, and we hope that when people visit this first edition, they see the added value of having these discussions and become enthusiastic themselves and maybe support the next edition as well with their own presentations.’
Key industry sectors
The oil & gas industry will be the focus of the sessions on Tuesday 3 November. A morning session will cover produced water treatment, with offshore water covered in the afternoon session. Speakers are due to include representatives of Shell, Fluor Process Engineering, Aramco, Engie (formerly GDF Suez), and Total.
Innovation in the oil & gas industry is being driven in particular by the need to extract hydrocarbons from ever-depleting reservoirs and the expanding use of unconventional oil and gas sources. One particular challenge offshore is that water quality can vary greatly from one platform to another. ‘You need a lot of tailor-made solutions there, and that is the main message that we will try to convey during that session,’ says Korving.
The food & beverage and paper industries will be the focus of the sessions on Wednesday 4 November. The morning session will cover water reuse and the afternoon session will cover innovations in anaerobic technologies. Morning speakers are due to include representatives of Industriewater Eerbeek, serving the paper industry, and Cargill. The anaerobic technologies session will be introduced by a speaker from Royal Cosun, with presentations on innovations in anaerobic treatment realized by Mars, Paques and Naehr-Engel.
Maintaining water quality is an important aspect of water reuse, especially when it comes to the health and safety dimensions of the food & beverage industry. ‘That will set an additional demand for this water reuse requirement,’ says Korving.
On Thursday 5 November, the morning session will focus on the chemical industry, with presentations due by Dow Chemical, Croda and Dutch industrial water partner North Water. The afternoon session will focus on the mining industry, with presentations due from Nyrstar and by Paques on behalf of Barrick Gold Corporation. ‘What we will focus on here is resource recovery from wastewater,’ says Korving – an emphasis that reflects the wider realisation of the need to develop a circular economy. Such recovery offers the prospect of a creating revenue streams from recovered metals that will help offset the cost of treatment.
The session on the morning of Friday 6 November will look at the cross-industry areas of boiler feed water and cooling water, with presentations set to include a speaker from Sabic and a veteran industry expert formerly working for Dow, covering the challenges of conditioning boiler feed water for high performance steam systems and the critical role of calcium removal.
About Aquatech Global Events
Established in 1964, Aquatech Global Events organises the world’s leading trade events in the process, drinking and waste water technology sectors in Europe, the USA, China and India. The well-established format covers the following segments: Transport and Storage, Water Treatment, Point of Use, Process Control and Technology & Process Automation. Aquatech Global Events are visited by professionals from all parts of the water industry and attract policy-makers, top-level businesses, specialists, and those who apply the technology in practice. More information can be found at www.aquatechtrade.com. Aquatechtrade is also on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
The calendar of Aquatech Global Events:
- Aquatech Amsterdam 2015: 3 - 6 November 2015, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- International Water Week: 1 - 6 November 2015, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- WQA Aquatech USA 2016: 14 - 17 March 2016, Nashville, Tennessee USA
Aquatech China 2016: 15 – 17 June 2016, Shanghai, China
Fonte: www.aquatechtrade.com