H20 caught up with Tawfiq Abu Soud, Executive Director, Drake & Scull Water and Power (DSWP) to find out the company’s plans for the wastewater treatment and re-use market. Excerpts from the interview:
In 2009, Drake & Scull International (DSI) acquired 82% of Passavant-Roediger to enhance its capabilities in the region’s water and wastewater sector. Passavant-Roediger is a leading global developer of wastewater, water and sludge treatment technologies, with presence across Europe, North Africa, Asia and the Middle East. A little over a year after the acquisition, the process of integrating Passavant-Roediger into the DSI business is nearly complete, said Tawfiq Abu Soud, Executive Director of Drake & Scull Water and Power (DSWP), the Infrastructure, Water & Power (IWP) subsidiary of DSI.
He continued: “Five to six months ago, we started going heavily into the market. Depending on the region, we are going in as DSWP or Passavant Roediger. In South East Europe, for example, we are going in as Passavant Roediger. Under the DSWP umbrella, we have made major bids in Saudi Arabia, India, Djibouti and other African countries for water, wastewater and major pumping station projects.”
The acquisition has equipped DSI to offer comprehensive in-house solutions for the design, supply and building of wastewater treatment facilities and enabled it to strategically position itself as one of the leading Engineering, Procurement & Construction (EPC), water and wastewater treatment and reuse service providers in the region.
“The way we see it, Passavant Roediger will provide technology and processes, Drake & Scull Construction will be the civil contractor. DSWP will provide construction management while Drake & Scull MEP will handle the installation and building services where required,” explained Abu Soud.
At the same time, the ownership of Passavant doesn’t restrict DSI to the former’s technologies or processes. “In South America, for example, we are also partnering with competitors because we recognise they have certain strengths in that market,” said Abu Soud.
Passavant-Roediger has its core expertise in anaerobic sludge digestion, with over 2,000 successfully operating references globally. “Our patented sludge digestion technology results in lower volumes of safe and environmentally friendly by-products of wastewater treatment, whilst allowing the recovery of energy from the very same organic matter it treats,” said the DSWP head. “In principle, it is possible to generate up to 80% of the power required by a wastewater treatment plant through this technology.”
Abu Soud emphasised that Passavant-Roediger’s prowess stems from a core understanding of the main principles of sludge digestion and tailor-designing systems that consider environmental conditions, client needs and local necessities.
“This is also exemplified with other patented in-house technologies, such as Turbo LME. One of the most compact clarifiers in the market, it is capable of not only reducing plant footprints, but also achieving, consistently, water of high quality for multiple re-use applications,” he noted.
While acknowledging that sludge digestion isn’t necessarily incorporated into plant design, he stressed that the technology pays for itself through the energy savings it creates and is also a great add-on for existing wastewater treatment plants. Once deemed too expensive in terms of capital investment and operational costs, Passavant-Roediger has vastly improved upon this technology.
“In our bids for wastewater projects, we also put an alternative offer which incorporates the anaerobic sludge digestion system and its benefits” said Abu Soud. “Increasingly, clients have also started asking for such ‘with and without’ bids to understand the costs better. If we have proper guarantees, DSI is also willing to fund the sludge digestion system as part of the project.”
A major reference project for this technology is a 100,000 m³/day sludge digestion system in China, which is considered to be largest in the world. A notable local reference is the Al Aweer Sludge Digestion project in Dubai.
Abu Soud feels that sludge digestion’s impact on wastewater treatment will be similar to that of energy recovery technology on desalination. “While energy recovery technology continues to improve on the seawater desalination front, it is a neglected art in the field of wastewater re-use as the focus was solely on product water quality with little regard to method and operating cost,” he lamented. “I think the concept of energy reuse, which is embedded in sludge digestion, is ever more important when we consider the impact of energy costs on water reuse programme.”
Abu Soud also added that water reuse, especially in the industrial and municipal sectors, is becoming big business in emerging markets. Passavant-Roediger’s environmental engineering solutions and procurement competencies have enhanced DSI’s capabilities as an integrated technology and EPC solution provider for the water and wastewater market and set the stage for its accelerated growth across Europe, Middle East & Africa.
As one of the few regional companies to expand its operations beyond the Arabic-speaking world, DSI feels that its Dubai base has equipped it for the challenging task. Abu Soud explained, “The most important thing in business is culture. You have to understand how the people feel, how they behave, this is most difficult thing we are experiencing. Dubai is very cosmopolitan, so you are exposed to different cultures from Africa, South East Asia, and the Indian Subcontinent. We have these people from these regions working in our organisation. This gives us a definite edge when we venture out.”
