In the mere three years since NuWater arrived on the South African water treatment and wastewater reclamation and reuse scene, it has managed to consolidate its position as one of the most innovative and successful solutions and services providers in sub-Saharan Africa.

WATER&SANITATION AFRICA spent time with NuWater’s CEO, John Holmes, and other members of the team to better understand the basis of their success to date and to get a sneak preview of what they have planned

Says Holmes: “Although we are very much a forward-looking company focused on improving our product offering and driving further growth, it is worth reflecting occasionally on what we have achieved so far in a very short period of time.

“From a standing start in 2010 we have designed, built and commissioned a number of highly innovative world-class plants for the treatment and reclamation of wastewater for reuse or safe disposal back into the environment. In addition, we maintain ownership of some of these plants, effectively providing a complete service to our customers without them having to undertake the significant capital investment that would otherwise be required. NuWater also maintains an active role in the operations and maintenance of all its plants. So in essence we see ourselves in partnership with our customers as our interests and theirs are so closely aligned.”

Solid platform
Holmes is not talking about just any old customers. In the three years of operation, NuWater has executed major projects for the likes of Anglo American and Gold Fields to ensure that wastewater from their mines is suitable as drinking or high-quality process water.

He continues: “We have very loyal and satisfied customers, from individual property owners through to municipalities and large blue chip corporate customers. NuWater offers a range of plants starting with small plants producing a few thousand litres per day through to large plants producing millions of litres per day. The technologies incorporated in the plants also vary depending on the application – from simple media filtration through to sophisticated membranes for desalination. In terms of flagship projects, however, our plants at Anglo American Thermal Coal’s New Vaal Colliery near Vereeniging and Gold Field’s Tarkwa mine in Ghana stand out on the world stage.”

NuWater has been operating its completely modular and re-deployable plant at Anglo New Vaal since late 2010, producing up to 20 Mℓ/day of high-quality water from the mines wastewater for reuse as cooling water at Eskom’s neighbouring Lethabo Power station. The plant is required to remove a high concentration of small suspended solids as well as dissolved salts that make the water unsuitable for discharge into the environment or for reuse.

The plant incorporates advanced membrane technology in the form of ultrafiltration for suspended solids removal and reverse osmosis (RO) for dissolved salt removal. NuWater’s patented 16” RO is critical to achieving the plant’s compact footprint that allows it to be rapidly deployable and, if necessary, redeployable. NuWater retains ownership of this plant and is responsible for all operational aspects.

“What is most rewarding NuWater’s broader ambitions in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa have also been boosted by its success with Gold Fields in Ghana. “The project in Ghana, executed with support from Murray & Roberts, has further demonstrated the value of NuWater’s modular, rapidly deployable and redeployable plant design,” Holmes says. “At a practical level, we have also demonstrated our ability to execute logistically complex projects in a challenging operational environment. This stands us in good stead for future projects.”about this project is that it has changed perceptions of what a desalination plant should look like and how it should operate. Before this project, the view was that a large fixed plant, like a factory, is required to desalinate large volumes of water. NuWater has proved that a very flexible pre-built ‘packaged’ plant can achieve the same results at a lower cost and with far greater technical and commercial flexibility. What we have achieved is not straightforward, as some of our competitors have found out. The investment we have made in ensuring the success of this project has been rewarded by Anglo with further contract extensions,” states Holmes.

NuWater’s broader ambitions in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa have also been boosted by its success with Gold Fields in Ghana. “The project in Ghana, executed with support from Murray & Roberts, has further demonstrated the value of NuWater’s modular, rapidly deployable and redeployable plant design,” Holmes says. “At a practical level, we have also demonstrated our ability to execute logistically complex projects in a challenging operational environment. This stands us in good stead for future projects.”

Back to the future
On the subject of plans for 2014, there is a palpable excitement in the air. Jeeten Nathoo, NuWater chief technical officer, gives his assessment of the company from a technology perspective: “NuWater is a multi-discipline company able to execute all aspects of challenging large-scale projects, covering design engineering, manufacturing, commissioning, operations and financing. At its heart, however, NuWater is a technology-led organisation driven by the desire to offer products that achieve a step-change in terms of performance, reliability and affordability. Our proprietary RO technology is an important part of this, but obviously only addresses applications where desalination is required for the removal of salts from sea or brackish water, including mine drainage water.”

He continues: “What we have been working on is a technology that is suitable for a broad range of applications requiring the separation of solids from liquids that is highly durable and that requires very little energy to operate.”

The next big thing
So what new product offering will NuWater be launching?
According to Nathoo: “As of February 2014, NuWater has launched a new product range for water and wastewater treatment applications that is incredibly simple in its design and that is significantly more competitive in terms of capital and operating costs than comparable technologies such as membrane offerings. In addition, the NuWater system can withstand chemical and most physical damage. What is most exciting is the low energy requirement, which is up to 80% less than most comparable membrane technologies achieving similar solids-liquid separation.”

Asked what the target market for this exciting development would be, Nathoo replies: “This new product is suitable for most water treatment applications including municipal and industrial applications. It is also well suited to RO pre-treatment as it can handle very high loads of suspended solids. Its ability to handle these high levels of suspended solids also makes it an ideal alternative to clarifiers and media filters, and it competes very well against these competitor technologies on cost as well. The technology is highly effective in removing bacteria, making it ideal for water recycling applications.”

He continues: “This technology has excellent physical properties making it resilient to solvents, oils and other chemicals. This resistance to chemical damage as well as thermal degradation makes it suitable for applications and operating conditions where most membranes simply would not last. The technology benefits further from the fact that it is very compact due to its highly sustainable flux rate and is, at the same time, easy to maintain.”

Jean Vos, head of African sales for NuWater, adds: “We see huge potential for this new product in South Africa and the rest of Africa as it is able to scale from small simple applications to large sophisticated plants. Energy consumption is also critical and means that small plants can be driven by solar power or even manually. This all makes this advanced technology accessible to a far larger segment of the population, which will help bring safe drinking water to all and allow water to be more effectively reclaimed and reused. We will be out on the road demonstrating this new product to a large number of people across South Africa and other selected African countries in the coming months so that people can get a first-hand feel for the product.”

In summing up NuWater’s plans for 2014 and beyond, Holmes says: “The addition of another exciting technology to our portfolio will enhance our offering for the mining sector, other industrial customers, and the private and municipal markets. We intend offering further innovative technologies later in 2014 and beyond to support our ambition of delivering the most compelling and cost effective solutions and services available in the market.