SUEZ has acquired the Optimatics water networks optimization company, which offers software that enables network managers to identify the best way to allocate economic resources in meeting their performance targets.

The company’s OPTIMIZER software combines hydraulic modeling tools and other analytical methods to test thousands of operating scenarios in only a few hours. With this approach, users can achieve efficiency gains from 10 to 30 percent, according to the company.

The software has been deployed in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Denver, Minneapolis, Louisville, Kentucky, and elsewhere, including overseas. SUEZ sees the acquisition as a major step in providing digital solutions for water services.

SUEZ announced the acquisition on Monday at its annual editorial roundtable for trade media at WEFTEC in New Orleans. In other news, the company made the following announcements:

• The company announced the expansion of its ZeeWeed 500 family of membranes to address the needs of smaller membrane bioreactor plants. With this line extension, the company makes its hollow-fiber ultrafiltration membranes available to all municipal, commercial and industrial applications at any flow range.
• SUEZ signed a contract with the city of Barrie, Ontario, to supply ZeeWeed 500D membrane bioreactor technology to help protect the environment and Lake Simcoe. The plant’s total capacity is 20 mgd; the MBR is being sized to treat 14.5 mgd; and the balance will be treated conventionally.
• SUEZ announced another contract to operate and maintain the wastewater treatment plant for Litehouse, a salad dressing producer in Lowell, Michigan. The plant will treat 74,000 gpd using primary treatment, an equalization tank, and a dissolved air flotation system. Effluent will discharge to the Lowell Wastewater Treatment Plant.