Siemens and Aramco Overseas Company, B.V. enter exclusive licensing agreement for a new water reuse system under joint development

Siemens Water Technologies Corp. and Aramco Overseas Company, B.V., a subsidiary of Saudi Aramco, have signed an exclusive patent and technology license agreement for the commercialisation of the EcoRight membrane bioreactor, a new wastewater treatment and water reuse system. The agreement grants Siemens the right to market and sell the first-of-its-kind system, which integrates membrane bioreactor technology with additional purification processes to treat highly organic wastewaters.

The new wastewater treatment system combines three technologies into a single wastewater treatment step. The companies claim the EcoRight MBR could significantly reduce the capital and operating costs compared to existing biological treatment technologies, and in most cases, allow the treated effluent to be reused, or fed directly to reverse osmosis (RO) equipment for reuse as boiler feed or cooling water, or meet stringent environmental discharge requirements. The system is currently under final technical evaluation and is anticipated to be commercially available in early 2011. Multiple patents are pending for the technology used in the system.