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When water becomes <br />the new oil, he'll be <br />ready <br />Article by: ,Star Tribune <br />Updated: June 7, 2011 - 6:05 PNi <br />It's been said that water-one day may <br />become more valuable than oil in many <br />countries. Some big companies around the <br />world are devoting time and capital to the <br />scarce-water problem. GE is one of them. <br />Joseph Such is the general manager of GE's <br />Water & Process Technologies capital <br />equipment business and is in charge of its <br />Minnetonka facility that employs more than <br />500 people. <br />The GE water business is part of GE's $38 <br />billion-revenue power and water businesses <br />In 2003, Such led the integration team after <br />GE acquired Minnetonka-based Osmonics <br />for about $265 million in stock. GE sold or <br />spun off Osmonics' smaller consumer and <br />medical-water businesses and focused on <br />its industrial and municipal water systems, <br />which are now more than twice as large as <br />they were in 2003. <br />QWhat do you make here? <br />AWe make components and systems. One of <br />our core components is membranes ... that <br />separate [brackish or waste] water into two <br />streams: a clean stream and a concentrated <br />salt stream. We also make aflat-sheet <br />membrane and sell it to companies that use <br />it in their products. We also roll it into a <br />membrane element that's connected to a <br />housing and high-pressure pumps to <br />pressurize the water through the membrane. <br />We sell components and entire systems, <br />reverse osmosis systems, to bottling <br />companies. The other big application is on <br />the industrial side, to remove all the salts <br />that could foul an industrial process -- a <br />boiler or car wash. <br />QWhat are you shipping this week? <br />AWe export around the world from here. <br />Today, on our factory floor, we probably <br />have 20 reverse osmosis systems going to <br />Africa, two units to the Middle East, Kenya, <br />Ghana, Nigeria. And we also have factories in <br />China, Brazil, Hungary. In 2006 GE <br />purchased Zenon Environmental, which <br />provides water-treatment and water reuse <br />solutions for municipalities and industry. <br />We've got two big systems going to a <br />municipality in North Dakota and for a <br />