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COMPANY NEWS

Freudenberg Far Eastern Spunweb is investing in a new production line for PET spunlaid nonwovens. Construction will start in 2013.

The new production line for spunlaid nonwovens in Tayuan, Taiwan will mainly serve the markets for carpet tiles, automotive interiors, filters and construction. With the new investment, the Freudenberg Group is confirming its strong commitment to its global spunlaid business and reinforcing its position as market leader on the Asian market.

Established in 1987 as a joint venture between the Freudenberg Group, the Far Eastern New Century Group and Japan Vilene Co., Freudenberg Far Eastern Spunweb Co. has been continuously expanding its production facilities after start up of its first line in 1990. Its most recent investment was in 2007 when the company added a second production line with state-of-the-art technology to further strengthen capacity to serve the steady growing Asian market demand.

"Apart from strong economic development in Asia, the construction and automotive industries in particular are growth drivers," says Lin Gowming, site executive officer in Taiwan. The new production line will increase capacity in Taiwan by more than 10,000 tons per year.

Freudenberg Far Eastern Spunweb Company has 136 employees including Freudenberg Spunweb Japan Company in Japan, Freudenberg Spunweb Shanghai Trading Company in China, Trading office in Guangzhou China, and Trading office in Chennai India. The manufacturing site in Taiwan has been certified with TS16949, ISO 14000, ISO 18000, and Carbon Emission for over a decade. Product innovation proves the leading position in environmental protection and sustainability. Strong sales team and diligent agents are reliable to serve Asian customers with speedy service and delivery level throughout Asian countries. The product brand name of Lutradurand Vildonaare well known in the Asian Nonwovens market.

Procter & Gamble Co. agreed to sell its PUR Water Purification Products Inc. unit to Helen of Troy Ltd. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The purchase includes all outstanding stock, manufacturing assets, the PUR trademark and more than 200 patents. It doesn't include Cincinnati-based P&G's (NYSE: PG) Children's Safe Drinking Water corporate philanthropy program.

The PUR business sells and markets water filtration products under its namesake PUR brand. The PUR products, which include faucet mount systems and filters, pitcher systems and filters, and refrigerator filters, are sold throughout the United States. In 2012, sales are expected to exceed $110 million, the companies said.

El Paso, Texas-based Helen of Troy (Nasdaq: HELE) manufactures and markets personal care products, including hair dryers and hair-care accessories; and household products like kitchen tools and bar and wine accessories. The purchase of PUR is expected to be immediately accretive to its earnings.

"Since acquiring PUR in 1999, P&G has grown the business and invested in the brand. It has outstanding products, a powerful equity, a strong market position, and a compelling pipeline of new initiatives," said Tom Finn, president of P&G Global Personal Health Care, in a press release. "But after determining the water purification category is not core to P&G's long-term portfolio, we are pleased to sell it to a company for whom it is a close fit and where it will receive greater focus."

Amiad Water Systems Ltd has won two contracts, worth almost US$10 million, for projects in Australia through the company’s wholly-owned subsidiary Amiad Australia Pty Ltd.

Under an US$8 million contract, Amiad will supply and commission its automatic self-cleaning screen filter technology for seawater reverse osmosis membrane protection at the Southern SeaWater Desalination Plant in Binningup, south of Perth. The plant is currently being expanded to double its capacity.

The other US$1.6 million contract is for Amiad to supply and commissioning of Arkal automatic self-cleaning disc technology (Spin Klin Galaxy) for Origin Energy’s Australia Pacific LNG (APL) project, a joint venture between Origin, ConocoPhillips and Sinopec. The APL project involves the processing of coal seam gas (CSG) to liquefied natural gas (LNG) at several sites in southern Queensland.

Both projects are due to be delivered later this year.

Voltea has raised €4.5 million in financing to support the commercialisation of its Capacitive Deionization (CapDI) technology.

The funding came from existing Voltea shareholders, Pentair Inc, Rabo Ventures and Unilever Ventures as well as from the Voltea management team.

Voltea will use the funding to commercialise two products – one to desalinate water in cooling systems and the other for residential water softening – and to increase production capacity at the Voltea manufacturing plant in Sassenheim, the Netherlands.

Mechanical Vapor Compression (MVC) desalination units from IDE Technologies have been selected by Norgener (an AES Gener company) for a power station facility in Chile owned by AES.

Following the installation of low energy consumption thermal desalination units from IDE, AES Gener has placed an order for an additional MVC unit to provide the supplementary boiler feed quality water required to meet its increased capacity needs.

IDE’s MVC units have been in operation at the AES Gener facility for the last two decades. Located in Tocopilla, Chile, the new unit at the Norgener electrical power plant will yield an additional capacity of 600 m3/day of filtered water. Seawater from the Pacific Ocean will be desalinated by IDE’s MVC technology and used as boiler feed water.

With highly efficient evaporator-condensers, IDE says that its technology will provide the increased water supply required in a cost-efficient manner, while requiring minimal levels of energy and a small footprint.

Aqua-Chem Inc has entered into a strategic joint venture with Brazil-based Vicel Group, to manufacture and assemble Aqua-Chem’s fresh water makers at the Vicel facility in Rio Das Ostras.

"This venture allows us to be highly nimble and strategic in developing custom solutions on site for a very large base of our clientele in an area of the world where the demand is high," said David Gensterblum, Aqua-Chem CEO.

In the first phase of the production plan, which is scheduled for the third quarter of 2012, the new company will exceed 60% of local content in reverse osmosis desalination systems.

Pentair X-Flow will supply its Seaflex ultrafiltration (UF) membranes to the Al Zawrah seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plant in Ajman, United Arab Emirates.

The UF system at the new Al Zawrah desalination plant will produce 4783 m3/h of pretreated seawater to feed the reverse osmosis membrane system.

Spain’s Cadagua SA and local Ajman company Essa Engineering & Marine Services LLC are undertaking engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) for this Federal Electricity and Water Authority (FEWA) project.

The Al Zawrah SWRO plant is scheduled to be built and commissioned later this year.

AdEdge Water Technologies says that its AdVantEdgePlus point-of-use (POU) system can treat more contaminants than any other POU system available today.

The Plus system from AdEdge Water Technologies features solid carbon block filtration and a digital flow meter and countdown indicator with automatic shut off when 960 gallons of water have been treated.

The AdVantEdge Plus can treat 57 different contaminants including arsenic, asbestos, chlorine, cyst (Giardia, Cryptosporidium, Entamoeba), lead, mercury, organic compounds and turbidity.

The system’s approximate flow rate is 1.0 gpm at 60 psi and the water pressure is 125 psi max, 30 psi min.

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