Chapter 1: Regional Overview

1.4 Demand for Environmental Technologies

Summary and Overview

Overall, demand for environmental technologies was moderate. Technologies related to waste management were high in demand in all countries except for the Czech Republic. Energy-related environmental technologies were high in demand in Hungary and Poland, while technologies for water and wastewater treatment were high in demand in Poland and Slovakia. Demand for noise, vibration, and occupational health and safety technologies was low to moderate.

Considering the priority assigned to air pollution control in environmental policy in all countries, it is surprising that only moderate demand was identified for technologies in this sector. The moderate demand can be partly explained by the significance of the energy sector as a major pollutant (high demand for energy-related technologies was identified in Hungary and Poland), and partly by the fact that many major air-quality related projects are already underway (in most cases, new and stricter air-quality regulations are either in place or are due in the next two years).

Similarly, a high number of ongoing wastewater projects account for the generally moderate levels of demand in the water and wastewater sectors. In other words, when interpreting the results of the demand for environmental technologies, one has to be aware of the fact that some important environmental problems have already been dealt with or are currently being addressed.

Table 1.9 presents an overview of sectors where high demand was identified.

Environmental technologies related to industrial wastewater and hazardous waste featured prominently. Municipal wastewater related technologies were also in high demand. It is expected that within the next several years, the focus will remain on end-of-pipe environmental technologies. There will be a growing demand, however, for pollution prevention and waste minimization technologies.

The following sections provide an overview of the demand for specific environmental technologies in each sector.

Air

Respondents generally indicated higher demand for technologies related to gaseous emissions than for those related to ambient air. This seems to be a consequence of national environmental policies focusing on emission sources, with the power generation sector and other large industrial emitters (e.g. the chemical industry) being the main target of regulations.

Technologies for air pollution control and flue gas purification ranked among the highest in most countries, followed by emission abatement and cleaner production. Demand for other technologies varied in individual countries.

Air pollution control is represented by scrubbers, filters, and by large, technologically sophisticated systems used to reduce emissions of solid particles, sulfur dioxide, carbon oxides etc. Currently, the market in the sector is largely based on imports.

Co-generation and combustion conversion technologies that reduce emissions (e.g. conversion to gas and oil fuel for small and medium boilers, or fluidized bed for large coal-fired units) are also in demand. Instrumentation and process control/software were in high demand in Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland.

Technologies for cleaner production are less sought at present, partly because of the existing focus on end-of-pipe measures in industry, and partly because of current regulations oriented to treatment rather than prevention. Demand for cleaner production technologies should grow, however, since many countries are enacting legislation promoting preventive solutions and are introducing preferential financing, tax incentives, etc.

Air sampling and laboratory analysis technologies were noted in several countries as well. While such technologies were primarily required by industry for assessing gaseous emissions, government sector and local authorities indicated a growing need for technologies for the monitoring and analysis of ambient air. The demand for the latter category was high in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovenia.

Water and Wastewater

Protection of water resources, and improving the quality of drinking water are the major objectives in most countries' national environmental policies. The primary goals are to: increase the percentage of the population connected to sewage disposal facilities, increase the proportion of wastewater treated in biological processes, and to provide treatment of wastewater from industrial sources.

In general, demand in the water and wastewater sector was highest for technologies related to industrial and municipal wastewater treatment, followed by technologies for drinking water supply.

Demand for water recycling and reuse, and pollution prevention equipment was ranked high by many respondents. The demand is expected to grow in the future, driven by tightening regulations, increases in fees for wastewater discharge, and growing prices for drinking water supply.

As regards wastewater treatment technologies, it should be stressed that conventional treatment systems are generally readily available on local markets, largely based on domestic technologies. Therefore, advanced wastewater treatment technologies (tertiary treatment, specialized industrial wastewater treatment, etc.) were often ranked high by industrial users. Many industrial users also indicated their need in the category "instrumentation/process control/software" for industrial wastewater management.

It is worth noting that technologies for the treatment and disposal of sludge also ranked high in several countries (e.g. Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland). Sludge dewatering equipment and comprehensive technologies for sludge treatment and disposal were most needed.

Some experts also mentioned the need for upgrading existing treatment plants, e.g. by adding a biological stage. Technologies for the construction of wastewater collection systems were also mentioned, especially in the context of national programs focusing on smaller towns and rural areas.

As regards potable water, there was a demonstrated need for technologies used in the reconditioning and rehabilitation of existing water supply networks, particularly in Slovakia and Hungary.

Demand was also notable for technologies used for the protection and decontamination of surface and groundwater water resources (e.g. spill clean-up, quality restoration).

Finally, monitoring, sampling and laboratory analysis equipment was indicated as a growing demand area by several interviewees, most notably in Slovenia.

The individual country chapters provide a more detailed picture of the demand in individual categories.

Waste Management

Overall, among waste-related technologies, those for hazardous waste and radioactive waste management were high in demand, followed by technologies for industrial and municipal waste management.

Since waste incineration is quite marginal, high demand was indicated for technologies used for landfill disposal, both for municipal and hazardous waste. However, most landfills in the surveyed countries are reaching capacity, and there are problems with establishing new waste disposal sites. This is largely due to public opposition and funding shortages.

Aside from capacity problems, the cost of waste disposal is also rising sharply. Therefore, demand for pollution prevention and waste minimization technologies, and recycling/resource recovery technologies for industrial and hazardous waste was estimated as high and is expected to grow. The focus of governmental policies, and available support from state environmental funds are expected to reinforce this trend.

Site remediation technologies, and decontamination and clean-up equipment were in high demand in some countries (Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic), partly because of a policy which focuses on the protection of water resources, and partly because of the issue of environmental liabilities in state privatization programs. Also, site monitoring technologies were indicated as a growing demand area, particularly for landfill sites.

Interestingly, waste-to-energy facilities were not in high demand. Public response to waste incineration is negative and, in general, governments seem to move away from this disposal method. For municipal waste, there was also interest in some countries in composting/biomass conversion technologies and recycling (Poland, Hungary).

Disposal and waste minimization technologies for radioactive waste, along with technologies for monitoring, waste characterization and site clean-up for radioactive waste were identified as high demand areas in most countries. It is worth noting, however, that despite the high profile and political controversies, in terms of volume, radioactive waste disposal is not a major market sector in waste management.

Energy

Similar to the air pollution sector, demand in the energy sector is driven by national environmental policies focusing on reducing emissions from the power generation sector and from other large industrial emission sources.

By far the most frequently mentioned areas where high demand was indicated were technologies for retrofitting and rehabilitation of existing systems, and new and/or efficient energy and heat generation systems. The trend was similar both in the power generation sector and in other branches of industry. Fuel conversion from coal to alternative sources (e.g. natural gas), introduction of modern furnaces (fluidized bed boiler), as well as the installation of low-emission equipment to reduce SO₂, NO_x, and particulate emission were often noted in this context.

Another significant high-demand field was process management and control (e.g. boiler tuning, fuel efficiency optimization), where demand was driven by the increasing costs of resources and energy, and by efforts to reduce emissions. The growing cost of energy is also a factor likely to influence the demand for heat recovery and energy savings technologies, which, surprisingly, did not emerge as a significant high-demand area. Only insulation technologies were often noted in this category.

Finally, in some countries (the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia) there was demand for alternative (non-CFC) refrigerants for use in various industrial sectors. Interestingly, the use of alternative sources of energy was generally seen as a marginal issue.

Noise, Vibration and OHS

Clearly, little attention is given to the sector at present. Only in Hungary, two technology categories related to occupational health and safety were found to be in significant demand.

Some prospects identified in the OHS sector included protection equipment, and abatement technologies. Both sectors recorded a degree of interest in instrumentation, measuring, and control devices. The construction industry, and the transport sector were sometimes mentioned as potential clients driving demand, but this has still to materialize.

Some comments indicated that demand in the OHS category may grow, driven by greater attention being accorded to worker's exposure and risk assessment procedures at industrial facilities as ISO 14000/EMAS procedures are gradually implemented throughout the region.