While the
manufacturers of microfiltration (MF) and ultrafiltration (UF) modules have
been resisting the commoditization of this market, as has happened with reverse
osmosis (RO) elements, they have unwittingly brought this upon themselves in
the past year.
In chasing
the Pall/Asahi MF module retrofit market first Scinor, then Dupont (previously Dow)
and
now Toray have all developed a direct replacement module for the Asahi
UNA-620A module. This makes the design of an Universal/Open Platform MF/UF
Module Rack that can fit 4 different modules easy – one design for all just
like a RO skid! The design of the ancillary equipment for backwashing and CIPs
still varies between each module to some degree but the hardest part of
designing a universal MF/UF system has just been solved. I mentioned this to
one of the manufacturers of the retrofit modules at a recent conference and he hadn’t
realized how his company was helping to commoditize the MF/UF module market. His
company is also helping Pall where in recent years they had been shut out of
the market for Universal/Open Platform systems, which are increasingly becoming
the norm for new MF/UF installations, but now Pall can say their standard rack
is Universal because it can accommodate four different modules…
 |
| Pall Rack with Asahi UNA-620A Modules |
So, in the
process of chasing some quick bucks for retrofitting Pall/Asahi installations,
these companies have driven the MF/UF module market faster towards commoditization
and ultimately a much more competitive and less profitable marketplace.
I don’t want
to oversimplify the ability to interchange these membranes on a MF/UF system,
where different cleaning and backwashing requirements have to be understood and
designed for and accommodated for in the system programming, plus some of these
modules have different integrity testing procedures and membrane surface areas.
But Pall has now been given a free pass into the Universal MF/UF system market,
a market that over the past 4 years has allowed smaller OEMs using Toray, Dupont and
other non-exclusive modules to win a good-sized installations while Pall was
excluded.
I haven’t seen
a spec yet with all the Asahi membrane clones listed but when doing a presentation
at a major engineering firm recently who has championed the Open Platform
system, it was not lost upon their membrane experts that this was now possible.
I am sure very soon we will see such a spec.
Dupont Acquires
Inge and Memcor Membranes to Expand Membrane Portfolio
I can’t not mention
the recent big news in the MF/UF market where Dupont acquired Inge membranes from
BASF and Memcor membranes from Evoqua over a space of two weeks late
September/early October. This gives Dupont three different types of membranes,
all that can be used for the same applications. I am interested to see how they
promote the different membranes without causing internal conflicts. The word is
Memcor was valued for their MBR membrane which Dupont did not have. I am sure
the marketing strategy will be revealed at upcoming conferences (I’ll be at
their booth at IWC next month)!
