There is a growing market for chemicals to treat industrial sludge, which can be contaminated with heavy metals and other pollutants.
Driving the market is rapid industrialization around the world and environmental regulations that set limits on many organic and inorganic pollutants found in industrial wastewater.
A new report from MarketsandMarkets forecasts that the industrial sludge treatment chemicals market will be worth $7.0 billion by 2020, with the market expanding at an annualized growth rate of 5.10 percent from 2015 to 2020.
The study found that consumption of industrial sludge treatment chemicals has grown significantly in recent years and is at an emerging stage in various countries, such as China, Japan, India, Saudi Arabia and Brazil, due to increasing industrial activity.
North America has huge installed plant capacities of industrial sludge treatment chemicals and is currently the largest market for these chemicals, accounting for more than 30.0 percent of global sales.
Consumption of industrial sludge treatment chemicals in North America is estimated to rise at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 4.20 percent from 2015 to 2020. This is slower than the overall growth of the market because of the region's dominant market size and slower economic activity compared with other regions.
In the Asia-Pacific region, China dominates the market but India, Japan and other Asian countries are showing increasing growth in demand for industrial sludge treatment chemicals. Asia-Pacific is the fastest-growing industrial sludge treatment chemicals market globally, with an estimated CAGR of 6.00 percent over the next five years.