Water and Air Filtration and Purification Systems
3564
3589
Increased consumer awareness and concern about environmental quality helped the residential water and air purification industries flourish during the late 1990s and the first decade of the 2000s. Both industries are highly fragmented and are comprised of a large number of small companies manufacturing and distributing across various product lines. Nevertheless, a handful of companies, including divisions of industrial conglomerates, tended to dominate each industry.
Both industries grew rapidly. In the late 1990s, the water quality products industry was valued at $25 billion worldwide, including all forms of treatment, filtration, and purification. The U.S. home water purification market was valued at over $1.38 billion in 1999 and by 2004 it was valued at $10 billion. Part of the reason for the growth was public understanding of the importance of water quality. According to the Water Quality Association (WQA), 60 percent of adults believe the quality of drinking water has an impact on their health and about 50 percent are concerned about contaminants in their drinking water.
Even with this growth, the industry still had plenty of room for expansion because of increased consumer consciousness and the efforts of retailers to encourage current users of water purification devices to upgrade to faucet-mounted, countertop, and under-sink models. In addition, some retailers tied water purification devices in with high-end and gourmet kitchenware, emphasizing fashionable and costlier models, according to Home Furnishing News (HFN), a weekly publication focused on retail trends and product analysis related to the home furnishings industry.
The air quality products industry was also on an upward trend. Sales of air purifiers, including fast-selling portable air cleaners, grew by more than 10 percent a year in the middle to late 1990s. The need for air purification came to the forefront of the news following the disasters of Hurricane Katrina, the SARS outbreak, the news of a possible avian flu pandemic, and the anthrax terrorist attacks of the early years of the first decade of the 2000s.
Both industries faced similar challenges for continued growth. Each segment of the industry sold products that could be used either at a particular location in a home or throughout the whole house. Encouraging consumers to upgrade inexpensive entry-level purchases to high end, large scale, or whole house purification systems was the next challenge for these industries. Furthermore, each segment began introducing more sophisticated filtration devices, each capable of removing more harmful substances than its predecessor. Through various educational marketing techniques, the industry hoped to make consumers aware of the benefits and advantages of these new products. Additionally, consumer awareness of both air and water quality issues, especially in the home, continued to rise, due in large part to new regulations requiring the disclosure of such information and the consumer's ability to have his or her home tested for air and water purity.
Both the water and air purification industries are comprised of companies that produce finished units, component manufacturers, and assemblers of finished units. Products are sold to industrial and commercial users as well as to residential homeowners. Although the largest industry leaders maintain their own networks of dealers and distributors, the large majority of firms sell products directly to retail outlets for resale.
Products sold by water industry participants include softeners, reverse osmosis units, ultraviolet units, distillation units, ozonators, carbon and non-carbon filters, filtration carafes, faucet-mounted models, countertop models, and personal filtration units. Components manufactured for those products include mineral tanks, valves, controllers, membranes, faucets, and filters. Retail operations in the industry generally have a high percentage of revenues, sometimes as high as 70 percent, derived from recurring sales of consumables such as servicing equipment, replacement parts, and filters.
The Water Quality Association (WQA) represents the household, commercial, industrial, and small community water treatment industry. The WQA is a not-for-profit international trade organization founded in 1950. In 1999, the agency had 2,200 members, all corporate manufacturers and retailers. A consumer survey commissioned by the WQA reported that the purchaser of water quality products and components is usually a dealership or original equipment manufacturer. As in many industries, assemblers and component manufacturers who make finished units sell more units to dealerships than to original equipment manufacturers.
The water quality products industry is not regulated by a government agency. Typically, however, units are labeled for retail sale with indications of the high quality of the filtration or purification system that has been installed. The National Sanitation Foundation International Standard 42 indicates a filter equipped for handling aesthetic problems such as taste, smell, and appearance, while Standard 53 indicates a filter equipped for handling basic health problems such as lead and organic compounds. Such filters normally indicate the specific contaminants they can handle. The most resistant filters, labeled as being certified "absolute one micron," are those that can filter parasites.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did not regulate the manufacture or distribution of water filter units in the late 1990s. EPA policies and guidelines, however, as well as statutes such as the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974, have had a great impact on the industry. The act contained water quality guidelines that many communities in the country failed to meet, and the 1996 reauthorization of the act made certain provisions more rigorous. Thus, while communities fail to meet federal water standards and the public grows more skeptical of the water it drinks, the water quality products industry benefits.
The Safe Drinking Water Act Amendment of 1996 was signed into law in August of that year. Congress overwhelmingly approved the bill, which authorized billions of dollars to improve deteriorating water systems. The funds represented a sharp increase in spending for water systems, both municipal and rural. The law also included a ldquo;right to know" provision that requires water authorities to disclose what chemicals and bacteria are in drinking water and requires public notice of any dangerous contaminants within 24 hours of discovery. The bill also imposes a duty on the EPA to develop and apply more rigorous standards to fight cryptosporidium and other common drinking water contaminants posing significant health risks. Beginning in 1999, water utility companies were required to report what elements were found in their water. This information would allow consumers to make better choices when purchasing home water filtration products, and the responsibility placed on the EPA reflects a shift in federal policy away from identifying new pollutants and toward controlling the most dangerous ones. The impact of the act is difficult to predict. Its passage, however, reflects a growing discontent among Americans about the quality of water. That discontent makes itself felt in the booming sales figures for companies in the industry.
The air quality products industry manufactures and markets air filters and purifiers for both whole house applications and portable use. Within those two applications, there are three general types of air cleaners on the market: mechanical filters, electronic air cleaners, and ion generators.
Mechanical filters, which may be installed in whole house or portable devices, are of two major types. The first type, known as a flat or panel filter, normally consists of a dense medium, consisting of materials such as coarse glass fibers, animal hair, or synthetic fibers, which are then coated with a viscous substance such as oil to act as an adhesive for particulate material. Flat filters may also be made of "electret" media, which is comprised of a charged plastic film or fiber to which particles in the air are attracted. Although flat filters may collect large particles well, they remove only a small percentage of respirable-size particles.
The second type of mechanical filter is the pleated or extended surface filter. Due to its greater surface area, this type of filter generally achieves greater efficiency for capture of respirable-size particles than do flat filters. This allows an increase in packing density without a significant drop in air flow rate.
In electronic air cleaners, an electrical field traps charged particles. Electronic air cleaners are usually electrostatic precipitators or charged media filters. In electrostatic precipitators, particles are collected on a series of flat plates. In charged media filter devices, the particles are collected on fibers in a filter. In most electrostatic precipitators and in some charged media filters, the particles are ionized, or charged, before the collection process, resulting in...
To continue reading
Request your trial