NEWS RELEASE                                   MARCH 2012

New Technologies and Applications are Boosting Scrubber Revenues

Worldwide sales of scrubbers, absorbers, adsorbers and biofilters will grow at a 7 percent CAGR over the next five years due largely to new technologies and applications as opposed to new regulations impacting existing applications. This is the latest finding in Scrubber/Adsorber/Biofilter World Markets published by the McIlvaine Company.

Scrubber Adsorber Revenues ($ Millions)

In 2012, 14 percent of the market will be in a miscellaneous “other industries category.”  However, over the next five years this is the category which will see the biggest growth.   In 2015, large vessels will either have to install scrubbers or greatly reduce the sulfur in the fuel they burn. The economics dictate the scrubber option.  Scrubbers for vessels will be a big enough market to rank higher than pulp and paper, food, and electronics.

Another new application is the cement industry. New air toxic regulations in the U.S. will require retrofitting scrubbers on many plants. Some plants in Europe and Asia will install scrubbers.

New technologies will also boost scrubber revenues at the expense of some other types of equipment. Market share will be taken away from the selective catalytic reduction systems used for NO_x control as scrubbers using ozone capture some of the market. Ozone converts NO_x to a soluble NO₂ which can be captured in scrubbers.  Ozone will also be increasingly used in combination with scrubbers to compete with carbon adsorbers and biofilters for odor removal from municipal wastewater and food plant stacks.

In the 1960 to 2000 period, the scrubber market was largely driven by the regulations in Europe and the U.S. which required existing plants to install equipment.  This program has been completed. But now there is a large investment in new plants in Asia. This includes waste-to-energy plants, steel mills, chemical plants and municipal wastewater treatment plants, so the market in Asia is already larger than other regions and will continue to grow at a faster pace.

For more information Scrubber/Adsorber/Biofilter World Markets  http://www.mcilvainecompany.com//brochures/air.html#n008