Market Overview
The global mobile water treatment market size was worth USD 1806.1 million in 2021. It is predicted to reach an expected value of USD 4938.8 million by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 12.1% during the forecast period (2022–2030).
Water plays a crucial role in the survival of human beings and animals and helps for various operations in the industries. A large amount of workforce and chemicals are used to treat industrial water and wastewater. To address this issue, some of the players operating in the water treatment sector have developed a new service called mobile water treatment.
The service is quite helpful for the remote areas’ applications. The mobile water treatment method is cost-effective, fast, and reliable, an ideal solution for critical situations. The increasing demand for water treatment in dry areas such as the Middle East and Africa is expected to drive the mobile water treatment market. Moreover, the government's several regulation standards in various nations are expected to drive the mobile water treatment market in the near future.
Market Dynamics
Market driving factors
Increasing water scarcity to drive the market
Water scarcity has become a serious issue in various nations. The amount of freshwater is decreasing at a fast pace. According to the U.S. Food and Agriculture Organization, by 2025, approximately 1.9 billion people will live in areas with absolute water scarcity. Moreover, around two-thirds of the global population could be under stress conditions of water scarcity by 2025. According to the World Data Lab, around 2.36 billion people are living in water-scarce areas.
Most of the Middle East and African countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, among others, are on the top of absolute water scarcity regions and have water stress. In these regions, the average water availability per person is below 500 m3, and the region where the average supply of water lower than 1000 m3 is considered the water-scarce region. So, the best way in these regions is to reuse water by treating it. For this, mobile water treatment can be a good option, as mobile water treatment offers a quick, cost-effective, and reliable service to the water crisis problem. A mobile water treatment system is installed on a mobile trailer that can reach any site and provide safe drinking water.
Increasing government regulations regarding industrial effluent to propel market growth
The effluent or water treatment is mandatory in each industry, whether chemical, fertilizer, oil and gas, food processing, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, etc. The treatment of industrial water up to a certain extent is compulsory as per the government regulations of different nations. The industrialists cannot discharge untreated water to water bodies such as lakes, rivers, canals, and oceans.
The effluent that comes from the industries contains lots of inorganics, mainly the effluent from chemical, fertilizer, oil & gas, and related industries. The inorganics which come from industries are very hazardous for aquatic living beings, including aquatic animals and plants. The untreated water discharged from industries can kill millions of marine animals and create water pollution, which can drastically impact the ecological system. To curb this, governments worldwide have implemented some regulation standards that can prevent harm to aquatic animals to some extent.
For instance, in India, the water that discharges from industries should have less than 100 mg/L of suspended solids, oil and grease must be less than 10 mg/L, total nitrogen must be below 100 ppm (parts per million), among others.
According to the Condor Ferries ltd, around 80% of the global marine pollution comes from untreated sewage, discharge of untreated effluents, nutrients and pesticides, and agriculture runoff. 500 marine locations are now recorded as dead zones across the world; there is no life that exists. Most developing countries dispose of 90% of industrial water and 70% of waste to the oceans without treatment.
The chemical industry produces millions of chemicals commercially, all of which harming the oceans through transport accidents and leaking into the soil to reach the sea. All these facts have created concern regarding ocean pollution among the consumers and governments of different nations. Thus, several regulations have been imposed on the industrial water and effluent to discharge into the water bodies. These regulations favor mobile water treatment services as each company does not have enough land space to install a water treatment plant in its manufacturing facilities. The mobile water treatment helps them to treat the wastewater that comes from their industries.
- Regulations for Effluent and Water Treatment the Environment Protection Act, 2002
- Environment Protection (Standards for effluent discharge) Regulations 2003.
- In these regulations;
- 'effluent' means water sullied or contaminated by any matter, in solution or suspension and derived from the use of the water in connection with domestic, industrial, or other activities;
- 'influent' means water diverted from a river, stream, spring, canal, underground or water supply network used in connection with any activity listed in the First Column of the First Schedule;
- 'Wastewater system' –
- (a) means a sewer, conduit, pump, engine, or other appliance used or intended to be used for the reception, conveyance, removal, treatment, and disposal of effluent; and
- (b) does not include house sewers;
- 'waterbody' includes a stream, a river, a canal, a lake, a pond, a reservoir, an estuary, a wetland, and underground water.
Regional Analysis
Asia-Pacific is leading the global mobile water treatment market owing to the increasing industrial and manufacturing sector and rapidly increasing urbanization in the nations such as India, China, Japan, and South Korea. Moreover, the increasing economic performance is estimated to rally in China in the coming years with huge investments in research and technology. China is focusing on water supply and sanitation. India is focusing on the pollution created by chemicals in the water bodies. Similarly, several nations are undertaking massive changes in their areas to overcome numerous challenges faced by wastewater. Moreover, water pollution and contamination, among other such issues, are expected to increase the demand for the region's mobile water treatment market.
Europe is expected to be the second-largest market for mobile water treatment due to the increasing demand for high-purity water for industrial and potable applications in the nations such as U.K., Spain, Germany, Italy, and Russia is expected to drive the regional market in the near future. Moreover, Europe's huge food industry requires water treatment services, which are further expected to drive the regional market share in the upcoming years.
Segmental Analysis
Based on type, mobile water treatment has been segmented into resin mobile water treatment, filtration mobile water treatment, membrane mobile water treatment, etc. The demand for membrane mobile water treatment is high among the end-users owing to its high purity. The membrane used in the membrane mobile water treatment can be of different pore sizes and customer requirements. Owing to this, the demand for membrane mobile water treatment is expected to be high in the near future.
Based on End-User, the market has been segmented into municipal, chemical, construction, agriculture, and others. The municipal and chemical segments held more than half the global mobile water treatment market share in 2019. This is due to the high requirement for emergency municipal sewage treatment and the requirement to discharge treated water to the chemical industries' water bodies.
