PPU Umwelttechnik is a manufacturer of wastewater treatment equipment and solutions based in Bavaria. They market their equipment under the ClearFox® brand name. The company exports solutions worldwide, and they have systems installed in over fifty countries to date. PPU Umwelttechnik started in 2007 and has grown every year since this date of founding.
What are the main areas of activity of the company?
The main activities of the company are split into three divisions. The first division focuses on small packaged wastewater treatment systems. These are complete plug-and-play systems that can be installed for single houses, small communities, and small decentralized applications. The second division in the company focuses on modular solutions for municipal wastewater treatment, which includes larger communities, villages, towns, and camps. The third division in the company is industrial wastewater treatment, where we focus on cleaning and treating industrial wastewater from a wide range of sectors, including food and beverage, agricultural, oil and gas, pharmaceutical, chemical, and so on. We both sell and rent solutions and equipment for municipal and industrial wastewater treatment.
What’s the news about new products/services?
We always have interesting news, and we are always involved in some amazing projects. Current examples include industrial projects in Germany, where we are treating wastewater using a modular multi step solution, and providing complete reuse back into the process. We also have modular containerized systems for sewage treatment that we are building for militaries around the world for forward operating bases, and we build systems now for the United Nations, for humanitarian and peacekeeping forces in Latin America and the Middle East. For these containerized systems for sewage treatment, we see a continued demand worldwide.
There is a demand in Western Europe to use our modular solutions to upgrade existing ageing infrastructure in a very fast, efficient, and cost-effective way. But at the same time, there is a huge demand for our modular containerized solutions in developing countries for decentralized wastewater treatment where well-developed sewer networks do not exist, and where wastewater needs to be treated in multiple decentralized locations rather than a single centralized location.
What are the ranges of products/services?
We have a very diverse range of products and services that we’re always optimizing and increasing. So if you produce wastewater, we will probably have a solution. In our small wastewater treatment plant division, we have both non-electric and electric systems that are really cutting edge and market leading with regard to process technology. These systems are from 4 to 250 persons capacity and are certified to stringent EN12566-3 standards. In our municipal division, we are highly focused on containerized and modular solutions, and we’ve completed projects beginning at one hundred people capacity up to in excess of twenty thousand persons in capacity.
ClearFox® modular solutions installed in more than fifty countries worldwide.
We have a very wide range and capability in this municipal sector. For industrial wastewater treatment, as already mentioned, we’re active across a very broad range of industries, and the typical range of our systems is from approximately one m3/hour up to about 150 m3/hour. But larger flowrates are also possible depending on the project requirements.
What is the state of the market where you are currently active?
As a company, we’re always expanding. We are experiencing continued growth, even though many sectors in Europe are facing challenges at the moment due to the economy. Our expansion into the rental market over the last five years allows us to provide a more flexible offering to clients, which can be an advantage when large CAPEX spends are not favoured by a client.
What can you tell us about market trends?
Everybody has a different view about market trends, but we have observed a consistent and growing demand over the ~20 years for our products and solutions, which can be seen by the continued growth of our company and our expansion into new markets. Because we work in the wastewater treatment sector, there is always a demand for our products and solutions. There is a huge demand in developing and emerging economies who need proven, trusted, modular and scalable solutions for wastewater treatment. And then in more developed regions, such as Western Europe, there is always the continued introduction of more stringent effluent standards and a demand for wastewater reuse, which drives our business growth. With our modular solutions, we are active in the new and upgrade markets for wastewater treatment.
What are the most innovative products/services marketed?
All of our products are really innovative and market leading. If you look at our small packaged wastewater treatment plant division, we have one of the most comprehensive product ranges on the market. We have electric systems and non-electric systems that have an incredible amount of unique selling points with regards to treatment efficiency, simple operation and remote monitoring. With regards to our containerized systems for municipal wastewater treatment, again, we are a leading company here, and many would consider us the global market leader in this sector. We continue to test, improve, optimize, and certify our systems. We are very focused on quality, and we’ve completed our ISO certification to prove this.
The containerized design enables fast deployment, scalable wastewater treatment capacity and flexible integration into existing infrastructure.
We are also the only company in Europe that currently has independent test reports from a notified test facility to prove the treatment efficiency of our containerized cascaded fixed bed systems. And we also have durability reports which we’ve obtained to prove to our customers that our systems are long-lasting permanent solutions. For our industrial wastewater treatment, we also have the same innovations throughout all of our products. If I was to focus on one specific product, such as our Dissolved Air Flotation system, which is a key process technology used in industrial wastewater treatment, we are using a unique pressure release flotation, and this process is a protected registered utility model.
So, no matter what product range or division you look at in our company, we are focused on research, development, and optimization to stay ahead of the field and cut costs for end users.
What estimations do you have for the second half of 2026?
For the second half of 2026, we are extremely positive. While many companies are facing challenges and headwinds, our incredible diversification with regards to the sectors that we work in and the geographical regions that we work in means our business model is extremely robust. We have one of the strongest sales pipelines we’ve ever had moving into the second half of 2026, and our longer-term forecast for 2027 is also extremely positive. This is mainly related to our commitment to projects and customers, allowing us to get regular repeat business in addition to new clients. So, we are expecting continued and significant growth in the next two years.
