Water Treatment a Priority for Companies

Q: What experience did Tramasa and Velamar contribute to create Alteagua?

AB: Tramasa is a manufacturer that oversees development, design and installation of water treatment machines. It has a great deal of experience in the pharmaceutical, hospital and cosmetics sectors in Mexico. Our wide experience in water treatments such as purification, ultrafiltration and electro-deionization led to the creation of Alteagua with our partner Velamar, which is an experienced commercial business present in Central America. We decided to open this company in Mexico to offer international services and technical assistance to all our clients in different sectors.

Q: How representative is your presence in the healthcare sector?

JC: This sector represents over 50 percent of our work as it was one of the first we approached. Our first goal with the creation of Alteagua was to support dialysis treatments given the importance of water in these processes. We work on biochemical processes with blood analyzers that require purified water. Alteagua also feeds equipment used in reactors and the sterilization of surgical material.

Q: What are the challenges the healthcare sector faces regarding water treatment procedures?

JC: Alteagua is always up to date with innovative trends and technologies, which has allowed us to improve our services and adapt to our clients’ needs. We offer latest-generation services for water treatment that include heat disinfection equipment. Our company is committed to constantly improving our technology and services offering, as well as to research and education so that we can provide state-of-the-art technology that addresses the needs of each sector we work in.

AB: In the healthcare sector, one of our biggest achievements is the inclusion of water purification, either through one or two-stage reverse osmosis or electro-deionization technology that allows temperature-based sanitization. All of this is new to Mexico. We are the only company offering these services and by adapting them to treatments like dialysis we can improve health services considerably. 

Alteagua has also implemented remote management of all its equipment. This also allows us to intervene to ensure our products continue to work as expected.

Q: How does Alteagua innovate beyond technological advances?

AB: We always adapt to the time requirements and financial needs of each project we work on. If a client cannot purchase our equipment, they can choose to rent it, for example. If a client chooses to rent, we can supply the water in its treated state so the client only has to pay for what they are going to consume. We have minimum quotas for this service but it saves clients costs in terms of equipment maintenance.

JC: Alteagua is also implementing a system for water reuse. The process treats water that industries would traditionally waste and reallocates its use as an alternative to purifying fresh water. This action greatly diminishes water waste and gives an added value to our services.

We want to start using equipment that makes efficient use of water with the least amount of waste and for that, technology is key. Our desalination process delivers results while efficiently using energy and many of our solutions include solar panels, photovoltaic systems or solar thermal energy structures. Using these renewable energies diminishes costs; it is a win-win solution for the environment and for our clients.

Q: What are the required conditions to start implementing innovative water treatment technologies?

JC: First we need to spread the word about their existence because clients only tend to know about traditional methods. It is also important to have a regulatory framework that allows and favors their development. Many regulations are now overseeing the quality of water in diverse industrial processes. However, the normative framework in Mexico is still permissive regarding water treatment methods. In many cases, regulation can be good but is not rigorously enforced.

AB: A change in mindset is also needed because people tend to reject new methods due to a lack of knowledge about the improvements these can provide. By making people aware of how beneficial these new technologies can be, clients can lose the fear of investing because they will have greater certainty regarding the results. Many companies are not even aware of the importance of investing in these processes, ignoring the fact of how expensive correcting an issue can be due to poor water treatments.

Q: What are your main objectives in 2020?

AB: We want to delve into desalination equipment to treat ocean water. We would like to see more regulations on this subject and a proper enforcement of the law. Alteagua also wants to expand its alliances with Mexican companies that have the will to invest in beneficial systems. 

JC: We want to consolidate our commercial presence in the Mexican market, mainly in the tourist areas of the country. We see great potential in the hospitality sector as the water used in hotels tends to go to waste. We also want to promote our heat-related sanitization technology services in the healthcare sector.

Alteagua is dedicated to the development of water treatment technologies. It participates in different sectors including the pharmaceutical industry, hospitals and dialysis centers, food and wineries