Most Innovative Companies #2: AquaTech
This week, we'll be counting down the last five of what we consider to be the most innovative industrial companies covered in-depth by Manufacturing.net and its sister publications throughout 2013.
Our #2 pick is AquaTech, which has 32 years of experience with industrial waste water treatment and is located at the heart of the Marcellus Shale region. The company was one of the first in the area to develop mobile water treatment facilities which lower costs and reduce the risk of transporting contaminated water. AquaTech is also expanding its manufacturing space as well as dedicating a company division to the shale industry.
Spend any amount of time nearly anywhere in Pennsylvania, and you’ll hear it time and time again: Shale gas production is fueling an American industrial revival. With a rich energy history—the first oil well was drilled in Pennsylvania—the state is now experiencing a “new industrial revolution” thanks to North America’s largest natural gas reserve. Engulfing roughly 75 percent of the state is what the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development calls the key to the future of the energy industry in Pennsylvania—and one that has already created thousands of jobs. Today, 240,000 Pennsylvanians are employed by the oil and gas industries, both at the drill site and beyond. And the Pittsburgh region is at the center of the story, with established energy companies, advanced manufacturing facilities, and some of the nation’s leading academic institutions coming together to create an economy that has outperformed the national average, in terms of unemployment, for over five years. This revolution has propelled Pennsylvania forward as a net exporter of natural gas when only five years earlier it was importing 75 percent of its natural gas needs.
Pittsburgh region manufacturers are rising to meet the needs of a new and rapidly expanding shale industry, many of whom are hiring and expanding as a direct result of the Marcellus Shale boom:
• Aggressive Grinding Service has put its business model of being constantly overstaffed and over-equipped to work and underwent a $4 million expansion in the last year as 50 percent of its business grew to be tied to shale.
• Elliott Group has embraced its union and management partnership and looks forward to the challenge of facing capacity constraints as it continues to find opportunities in the shale industry, even as the past year saw the company usher in a new $17 million manufacturing and service facility.
• After cutting its staff by 30 percent in 2007, Dura-Bond Coating recently opened a brand new facility and added 65 jobs as a direct result of the Marcellus Shale Boom.
• Aquatech utilized its over 25 years of experience in treating industrial wastewater to expand into a company that manufactures mobile units for treating all aspects of shale gas application wastewater at the drill site.
These companies have all directly benefitted from Marcellus Shale—and are helping to create a state that is distinguishing itself as a global innovation and skilled workforce leader.
Read the rest of the article here [1].