NEWS RELEASE                                                                                               MARCH 2012 

Ballast Water Treatment is the Big New Market for Liquid Macrofiltration 

Concern about invasive species in lakes and seas will create a $70 billion market for ballast water treatment systems for vessels traveling in international waters. A critical component of each treatment system is a filter. This new opportunity will add 10 percent to the revenues of the suppliers of liquid macrofiltration equipment and will double the size of the automatic backwash filter portion. This is the conclusion of the McIlvaine Company in its latest update of Liquid Filtration and Media: World Markets.

Liquid Macrofiltration Revenues ($ Millions)

The largest portion of the market is served by granular media filters often known as sand filters. However, these devices are relatively large and therefore unattractive for placement in the confined spaces of a vessel.  Filter presses, belt filters and belt filter presses are primarily used to dewater slurries. Bag filters are disposable and not suited for the demands of ballast water filtration.  The one category which does fit all the needs is the automatic backwash filter.

Automatic backwash filters use screens, sintered metal, or nested discs to capture particles ranging from 10 to 100 microns in diameter.  The initial IMO standards will specify a need to capture the 50 micron particles. This type of filter will meet the efficiency requirements. (Individual countries may later dictate more stringent standards.) The automatic backwash filter is compact and is, therefore, appealing to vessel owners who have limited available space.

Other trends will cause the total macrofiltration market to grow faster than GDP. 

The construction of large numbers of sewage treatment plants in Asia will result in a high growth rate in the belt filter press segment. Granular media filters will benefit from a rise in swimming pool construction as well as in municipal drinking water plants in the developing world.

For more information on Liquid Filtration and Media: World Markets, click on: http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/brochures/water.html#n006