Mecana’s mission: reusable water, energy efficiency and cloth filters

Switzerland’s Mecana Umwelttechnik isn’t looking for revenue growth. In fact, some of the partners licensing its technology bring in more revenue than the wastewater treatment company itself. But that’s the way CEO Rene Riedel prefers it.

“If you’re small and you’re profitable then you don’t need to grow,” he told the Cleantech Group this week at the company’s Reichenburg headquarters.

Incorporated in 1989 from a parent company that has since dissolved, Mecana has net sales of about CHF 8.2 million per year (US$8.1 million), Riedel said, with a 10 percent profit margin. The 15-employee company has about 3,500 orders on hand.

The company specializes in developing biological, compact sewage treatment systems for small communities. With its rotating biological contactors, wastewater flows through reactors containing rotating discs, which are partly immersed in wastewater and provide a surface where biomass can grow. The biomass alternates between coming in contact with air and wastewater.

See a photograph of Jonathan Kemp, an internal sales representative, with the rotating discs covered in cloth filters »

According to the Mecana, the contaminants are broken down by biochemical processes, and surplus sludge is removed by the company’s unique cloth filters. The cloth filters help to keep wastewater levels even, which can alleviate the need for pumping and therefore cut down on energy consumption, Kemp said. Its systems treat municipal, commercial and industrial wastewater.

The company’s systems are installed at plants in Switzerland (30 percent of its sales), Germany (30 to 40 percent) and Spain (20 to 30 percent). Its patented cloth filter technology has been licensed to Aqua-Aerobic Systems in Rockford, Ill., and Grenex in South Korea.

A newer part of the company’s business is in membrane filter technology, which is being developed in conjunction with the Federal Office for the Environment and UMTEC, an institute of the University of Applied Sciences in Rapperswil.

One of the membrane filtration systems look like two oversized washing machines and can serve as a replacement for septic tanks. With installations in private households, the technology can filter sewage for populations of four to 50 people, Mecana said.

It’s a small but growing part of Mecana’s business because it’s more expensive, requiring more energy than traditional wastewater treatment and because the membranes need to be cleaned, Kemp said.

However, it’s able to provide reusable water that’s suitable for agricultural purposes. A typical residential unit costs CHF 12,000 to 15,000 (US$11,800 to $14,700).

On its non-household membrane technology, the company is looking into emerging technologies to keep the membranes from being fouled and needing to be continually serviced, Kemp said.

Other companies such as Anaheim, Calif.-based cleantech incubator Catalyx developed a technology to purify heavily polluted wastewater from the textile and other industries using a low-cost, chemical-free process (see Catalyx develops two-way osmosis to purify wastewater).

California-based startup DXV Water Technologies is pursing ultrasonic vibration as a method for cleaning membranes, and could also be used to keep them from being fouled (see California startup makes plans to install second desal device).

And earlier this month, Voorhees, N.J.-based American Water Works (NYSE:AWK) teamed with four Netherlands-based entities to launch a research effort focused on developing new desalination technologies for use in existing and new membrane plants. The partners are looking to develop new technologies for seawater desalination and the treatment of surface water and wastewater using reverse osmosis membranes (see American Water Works teams up on new desal tech).

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