Dow and Toray UF Modules Level Bidding Playing Field

Is commoditization of the MF/UF market finally here?

The specifications for a project that recently bid in South Dakota were a sign that the municipal Microfiltration/Ultrafiltration (MF/UF) membrane market is finally moving towards commoditization. It is the first MF/UF specification that I have seen where there were both prequalified OEMs and prequalified MF/UF membrane modules, allowing the OEMs to bid using any of the listed modules. This type of specification is common in the commoditized NF/RO market, but has been almost non-existent as far as I am aware in the municipal drinking water market. The modules listed in the specification were the following PVDF, hollow fiber membranes:

• Siemens/US Filter L20V
• Pall Microza MF
• Toray HFS
• GE Zeeweed 1500
• Dow UF (SFD 2880)

Of course Siemens, Pall and GE have exclusive access to the L20V, Microza and Zeeweed 1500 modules respectively, but any of the listed OEMs could bid with the Toray and Dow UF modules. Additional OEMs listed were Wigen Water Technologies and H2O Innovation, both of whom have municipal UF installations using Dow and Toray membranes.

There were some unique circumstances with this bid that allowed such a specification, where all of the above membrane modules had previously been piloted on Missouri River water in the Dakotas, which was also the source water for this new plant. All of the qualified OEMs had at some point conducted a pilot study under the supervision of Bartlett & West (B&W), the consulting engineer managing the project and therefore were not required to pilot for this project. To be qualified, OEMs also had to have installed at least three surface water MF/UF systems between 1 – 5 MGD.

Customers Win!

 With such a competitive bidding environment and probably due to the system size (2.7 MGD), only one of the ‘big three’ OEMs bid for the project. Not surprisingly, the lowest bidder (and subsequently the winner) bid with Dow UF modules and was more than 25% lower in price than the bidder with a proprietary membrane. Worth noting is that even the highest bidder was almost 30% below the engineer’s estimate, evidence of how much value can be achieved for customers with more competitive bidding. This is particularly the case for smaller systems that historically been reluctantly served by a few larger OEMs, resulting in high prices. Now that Dow and Toray offer their UF modules to multiple OEMs, smaller OEMs such as Wigen and H2O are aggressively pursuing this segment of the market, resulting in lower prices and, I am sure, happy customers!


Dow UF System at Fort Thompson, SD
OEM - Wigen Water Technologies

You have to give credit to B&W for writing such a spec which has saved their customer a significant amount of money. B&W's client base is small to medium municipalities and they have found a way to make advanced water treatment technologies more affordable to these customers. It is unlikely you would see such a spec from a global consulting engineering firm, but then these large firms rarely deal with the smaller municipalities anyway.

While it may not be possible to bid this sort of specification for many water sources, there are many shared water supplies where multiple membrane types have been tested and OEMs have experience, allowing a more competitive bidding process. With a number of proven pressurized PVDF hollow fiber membrane now on the market, and with system designs becoming more standardized in terms of integrity testing, block and bleed valving, recovery rates and cleaning regimes, it is becoming possible to write more standardized specifications for pressurized outside-in UF modules, much like for NF/RO systems.

The end result, as the MF/UF market moves towards commoditization, is lower membrane module prices and lower system prices which means high quality drinking water becomes more affordable and accessible, particularly for smaller systems who have historically had to bear the brunt of an uncompetitive marketplace – a great example of competition benefiting the end consumer!