The extended use of automation systems is crucial to water quality in any water treatment plant in the 21st century.
By Annejan Visser, process engineer, QFS The digital portion of the market is growing and proving to be important for the sustainable operation of the global water industry. Even when most markets are showing a downturn amid the turbulent times of a Covid-19 pandemic, recent figures from Global Water Intelligence show positive signs in the digital water market.Digital forecasts
Figure 1 shows the global spending on digital water solutions by application. Compared with 2019, 2020 and later years show a definite positive increase in the digital market per application, most notably in the water network sector. It would appear that the current market conditions do not affect the forecasts of growth in the digital sector which is forecast to reach a value of US$47 billion (R860 billion) by the year 2024. The areas in which QFS operates (customer services, seawater and brackish water desalination, wastewater treatment and process/drinking water treatment) also expect growth within the next five years. Because it implements various control systems in its plants, QFS will have vast exposure to the increased market forecast as shown in Figure 2. Despite a small slump in 2020, the five-year market forecast bodes well for QFS.Figure 3 indicates the digital water solutions’ global market share. QFS’s exposure is quite vast, as it operates in the following categories:
- data collection
- water quality sensors
- physical parameter sensors
- acoustic sensors
- conventional meters
- data networks
- communications equipment.