RESOURCES SEGMENT – FOCUSED ON THE ENVIRONMENT
The Resources segment is the third pillar of the Group alongside the Construction and Equipment segments. Covering the fields of water, environmental technology, energy and natural resources, the segment's operations are all of key importance to the future of the world. The challenges in those fields are sure to increase dramatically over the coming decades. With the products and services offered by its Resources segment, Bauer will be able to help solve some of the world's major problems.
Beneath the umbrella of the holding company BAUER Resources GmbH are three operating divisions:
The Materials Division specializes in the development and manufacture of products for groundwater exploration and extraction and for the distribution of drinking water. It also offers high-quality products for the use of close-to-the-surface geothermal energy. The Exploration & Mining Services Division provides services for mining and exploration customers. Alongside other services on behalf of customers, it carries out exploration and production drilling for water extraction and groundwater control, as well as for oil, gas and geothermal energy.
The Environment Division focuses on the treatment of soil, water and air, on industrial process water and waste water and on drinking water treatment. This involves the development, manufacture and operation of complete plants, as well as services ranging from turnkey land recycling of polluted sites to operator models for large-scale industrial customers.
One of the areas of expertise of the BAUER Environment Group – an accredited environmental protection contractor under the German "Bauen für den Umweltschutz" scheme and a member of the Bavarian building materials recycling association "Baustoff Recycling Bayern e.V." – lies in the recycling and disposal of polluted soil. If biological treatment of the contaminated material is not possible – or not economically viable – on-site, the material is transported to one of the soil treatment centres. As a matter of principle, we believe that polluted material should not be merely disposed of. Instead, the focus is on implementing innovative methods of treating and then re-using or recycling the material. In 2010 an additional soil treatment centre was taken over in Hamburg. There is now a total of four such facilities, providing full geographic coverage throughout Germany.
FULL SERVICE PROVIDER IN WATER ENGINEERING
Water is one of the four elements, and the one most closely linked to the spirit of life itself and the enjoyment of it. The associations it evokes extend from a cool drink, through playing games at the water's edge, to swimming in a lake or the ocean. Yet just 0.6 percent of all the water on Earth is available directly as fresh water, and even most of that has to be subjected to costly and complex treatment before it can be used as drinking water. Increasing industrialization and technology have impacted substantially on water as a resource. In recent decades awareness of the need to conserve and use water more carefully has grown significantly. New methods of treating and purifying water based on innovative technology have been devised. The Resources segment is a full service provider that offers a wide range of solutions.
DRINKING WATER
Clean drinking water is essential to healthy living, yet in many countries around the world it is often completely unavailable. Bauer offers plants in a variety of sizes – from compact units for use in developing countries to complete drinking water processing facilities. The GWE Group has supplied and installed numerous solar-powered hand-pumps in many developing countries over recent years, including Eritrea, Gambia and Ghana. In 2010 Bauer began drilling a total of 55 wells as part of the large-scale DISI-Amman project in Jordan. The well field is located about 325 kilometres south of the capital Amman which – like the entire region – suffers from a chronic shortage of drinking water. The groundwater extracted from the wells – planned to be 100 million cubic metres a year – will be carried by pipelines into the city. Jordan is one of the most water-deprived countries in the world. This project might well prove to be a ground-breaking solution to its water supply problems.
PROCESS WATER
Process water must meet different quality criteria depending on the specific industrial application concerned. Key applications such as food production or the chip manufacturing industry demand specialized water treatment solutions. Bauer's range of services extends from chemical/physical methods to purely biological processes.
INDUSTRIAL WASTE WATER
Simply draining polluted industrial waste water into sewage treatment plants is too expensive, and ecologically mistaken – a fact which was ignored for a long time. Today closed water circuits are state of the art in meeting a wide variety of different production requirements. The wide range of areas in which the BAUER Resources Group specializes today include recovering raw materials from water as well as decontamination.
PRODUCED WATER
This term refers to water produced in the oil and gas industry. Produced water is contaminated by hydrocarbons, mineral substances and, in some cases, heavy metals. In a unique project unmatched anywhere else in the world, at Nimr in Oman Bauer has constructed a reed-bed treatment plant covering an area of 1.3 x 3.3 kilometres, capable of treating some 45,000 cubic metres of contaminated water from oil extraction operations every day. The process is purely biological, is much more efficient in terms of carbon balance than conventional applications, and the salt residue created in the evaporation process can be re-used. The unique success of the plant has resulted in a follow-up contract which will double the volume of water being treated in future.