Flowserve Buys Desalination Equipment Supplier
Dallas-based Flowserve Corporation has acquired privately owned CALDER AG, a Swiss company, to expand the products and advanced technologies it offers to the growing global desalination markets. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
CALDER AG specializes in the design, engineering, and supply of energy-recovery equipment and related proprietary technologies for the reverse osmosis (RO) process used in desalination plants. Energy-recovery equipment is critical technology within RO that captures and reuses waste energy, which significantly lowers net energy consumption in the desalination process.
Global water desalination needs are growing very rapidly due to the demands of continued population growth and urbanization, said Lewis Kling, Flowserve president and chief executive officer. The acquisition of CALDER AG allows Flowserve to deliver a complete integrated desalination flow control solution and provides us with expanded access to the robust growth opportunities, he added.
Market research reports from analysts covering the water industry project that worldwide desalination capacity will more than double within the next decade, with the RO methodology expected to be used for a majority of these new plant developments.
Based in Egliswil, Switzerland, the CALDER product line includes Pelton Turbines and Dweer Recovery Devices. CALDER AG generated about $23 million in revenue in 2008.
Tom Ferguson, Flowserve Pump Division president said, “CALDER products will add a key 'green' technology to the Flowserve desalination product line.”
The Flowserve Pump Division has supplied high-corrosion resistant, energy-efficient systems in both the thermal and RO desalination processes for over a half a century.