IDEA's 4th District Cooling Conference

Shafiq Khoori says DEWA has been one of the biggest supporters of district cooling.
[More Images]

Pekka Karhumaki, managing director

Why are you exhibiting in Dubai this year?

We are here representing one of the Flowserve companies – Naval, in Finland. We’re a manufacturer of ball valves and butterfly valves, mainly for the district heating industry, but the same products can also be used in district cooling. We are now promoting these valves in this region, partly because IDEA’s best practice guide, which was presented last year, made it very clear that the ball valve is crucial, especially with regard to underground installations.

Do you see this event as being one of the ways for you to try and penetrate the regional market?

Yes, definitely. This gives us the opportunity to meet with dozens of companies who can then by word of mouth provide us with new information about where to find the right designers, the right end-users, manufacturers etc. We’ve now been in the region for 18 months and we’re now starting to get the right picture as to which are the right players with which to deal. We can get more accomplished in three or four days here than in around three or four months of email exchanges.

Story continues below

Advertisement

FEATURED COMMENT Please click here to comment on this article

Mohammed Maree, regional manager, chemicals

What is the purpose of your attendance here?

Bascially, we’re trying to share our experiences in terms of systems, equipment and technologies to treat water that will then be reused for the district cooling industry. Due to the scarcity of water in the Middle East and its high cost, we’re trying to offer some solutions that will allow for the total cost of operations for some of the companies presenting here to become less expensive. Among the products in our toolbox, we offer chemical treatment programmes. Water systems generally suffer from scaling and corrosion and to overcome such problems, we’re working with service teams who visit sites and conduct analysis. Based on these reports, we then provide solutions, which can include the application of chemicals. For corrosion, we offer corrosion inhibitors, and for scale, we offer scale inhibitors and if it’s bio-related, we offer certain types of biocides.

What are the latest technologies you are offering to the water market?

From the chemical side, we’re offering green programmes, which are much safer to handle, much safer in the system itself and much safer if there is an overdose. The chemicals are also much less corrosive, and are environmentally friendly, even when mixed with other chemicals. Due to water scarcity, we are also offering new technologies to treat TSE – this water has a lot of value in it, and we’re trying to squeeze the most value out of it.

In which other markets are you operating?

We’re very active all over the UAE and we’ve just opened an office in Oman. The same is the case in Qatar. In Saudi Arabia, we will very shortly be entering into a partnership with a large company, but as yet we have no physical presence. We’re working on something similar in Bahrain. We also have branches in Jordan and Sudan.

With regard to Saudi Arabia, how important is that market to you?

We’ve delayed a bit on the Saudi side, but we will be visiting there in two weeks to cover the final stage of opening a new facility there in a joint venture with a local company. In the UAE, we’re also just about to commission three plants to polish TSE - in Mafraq, Al Ain and Sharjah - with a total capacity of 60,000 cubic metres per day. Our industrial arm has also just been awarded a deal to assist with a massive new desalination plant in
Abu Dhabi.