Aegion Corporation provides infrastructure rehabilitation and protection services.
The company maintains, rehabilitates, and strengthens pipelines and other infrastructure worldwide. The company provides solutions to rehabilitate aging infrastructure, primarily pipelines in the wastewater, water, energy, mining and refining industries.
Segments
The company operates through Infrastructure Solutions and Corrosion Protection segments.
Infrastructure Solutions
The majority of the company’s work...
Aegion Corporation provides infrastructure rehabilitation and protection services.
The company maintains, rehabilitates, and strengthens pipelines and other infrastructure worldwide. The company provides solutions to rehabilitate aging infrastructure, primarily pipelines in the wastewater, water, energy, mining and refining industries.
Segments
The company operates through Infrastructure Solutions and Corrosion Protection segments.
Infrastructure Solutions
The majority of the company’s work is performed in the municipal water and wastewater pipeline sector.
The company’s water and wastewater pipeline rehabilitation activities are conducted principally through installation and other construction operations performed directly by its subsidiaries.
The company’s North American Infrastructure Solutions operations, including research and development, engineering, training and financial support systems, are headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Tube manufacturing and processing facilities for North America are maintained in ten locations, geographically dispersed throughout the United States and Canada to support the company’s North American contracting operations and through which it sells liners to third parties, domestically and internationally. The company has also developed internally multifunctional robotic devices, which it utilizes in connection with the inspection and repair of pipelines.
The company also maintains a manufacturing facility in Wellingborough, United Kingdom and one wetout facility in continental Europe to support its third-party product sales of liners internationally.
The company has granted licenses to its trenchless rehabilitation processes to unaffiliated companies in certain geographic regions. It has also entered into contractual joint ventures from to capitalize on its trenchless rehabilitation processes. Under these contractual joint venture relationships, work is bid by the joint venture entity and subcontracted to the joint venture partners or to third parties. The joint venture partners are primarily responsible for their subcontracted work, but both joint venture partners are liable to the customer for all of the work.
In addition to wastewater pipeline rehabilitation, the company performs water pipeline rehabilitation operations using its pressure pipe product portfolio. It restores water pipes using its InsituMain cured-in-place pipe (CIPP) and the Tite Liner and Tyfo systems.
The company’s 2016 acquisition of Underground Solutions, headquartered in Poway, California, bolstered its capabilities with respect to water pipeline rehabilitation operations. The company provides additional infrastructure technologies for water, wastewater and conduit applications, primarily Fusible PVC pipe, which, when combined with its patented fusion process, results in a monolithic, fully-restrained, gasket-free, leak-free piping system.
The company’s infrastructure rehabilitation operations also utilize fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) to rehabilitate and improve pipelines throughout the United States through Fibrwrap Construction Services, headquartered in San Diego, California. It designs and manufactures FRP composite systems used for rehabilitating buildings, bridges, tunnels, industrial developments and waterfront structures, which it supplies to certified applicators. The company services the Asia-Pacific FRP market, with respect to both product and engineering services, as well as application services, through its wholly-owned subsidiaries in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and New Zealand and through its joint ventures in Borneo and Indonesia. Finally, the company has granted licenses to its proprietary FRP products and processes to unaffiliated companies in certain additional geographic regions.
Corrosion Protection
This segment performs maintenance, rehabilitation and corrosion protection services for oil and gas, industrial and mineral piping systems and structures. It also offers products for gas release and leak detection systems. The company’s worldwide corrosion protection operations are conducted through its various subsidiaries (Corrpro based in Houston, Texas; United Pipeline Systems based in Durango, Colorado; and Aegion Coating Services, LLC (ACS) based in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Conroe, Texas). Certain of the company’s corrosion protection operations outside of the United States are conducted through its wholly-owned subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, Chile, Canada and, with regard to coatings, Saudi Arabia. The company further conducts certain other corrosion protection operations outside the United States, namely with regard to rotolining, liners and its proprietary Tite Liner process, through its joint ventures in Oman and Saudi Arabia.
The company’s Corrpro business performs fully-integrated corrosion prevention services, including engineering and design; product and material sales; construction and installation; inspection, surveying, monitoring, data collection and maintenance; and coatings. United Pipeline Systems performs pipeline rehabilitation and protection services using the company’s proprietary Tite Liner process. Its ACS business engages in the application of internal corrosion coatings services, provision of external field joint anti-corrosion coating services and the supply of equipment, all for pipeline construction projects onshore and offshore in locations around the world.
Products and Services
The company’s portfolio of full-service solutions includes:
Rehabilitation of Water and Wastewater Pipelines with CIPP Products
The company, through its Infrastructure Solutions segment, offers manufacturing and installation of solutions to remediate operational, health, regulatory and environmental problems resulting from aging and defective water and wastewater pipelines. The company’s Insituform CIPP product is a trenchless, jointless, pipe-within-a-pipe solution used to rehabilitate pipes in various diameters. The company’s Insituform CIPP process provides an alternative to dig-and-replace methods. The company’s Insituform portfolio of products and services are utilized worldwide.
Fusible Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Products for Rehabilitation and New Installation
Underground Solutions’ patented Fusible PVC pipe is used in the new installation and rehabilitation of pipelines for the water, wastewater, recycled water, industrial, power and conduit markets, primarily in North America. Underground Solutions complements the company’s other pressure pipe rehabilitation technologies (InsituMain CIPP, as well as the Tyfo and Tite Liner systems) and increases the company’s presence in the pressure pipe market.
Fiber Reinforced Polymer Systems for Rehabilitation and Strengthening
The company uses the Tyfo system to rehabilitate medium- to large-diameter pipelines, providing an advantage over conventional rehabilitation methods. The Tyfo system consists of proprietary and specialized carbon, glass, aramid and hybrid lightweight and low profile woven fabrics combined with the proprietary resin and epoxy polymers, which, in combinations, create the tested and certified Tyfo advanced composite system. The Tyfo system is primarily engineered, manufactured and installed to solve a host of structural deficiencies or demands in existing structures. Certified Tyfo system applicators apply the technology to civil structures to withstand seismic and force loads and provide strengthening, repair and restoration of masonry, concrete, steel and wooden infrastructure worldwide.
The company offers technical support to its customers through a trained structural engineering team that assists in all phases of a project, from the initial design to implementation and installation. There is an addressable market in North America, as well as an increasing acceptance of the company’s products and services internationally, with particular focus in Southeast Asia and Europe.
Cathodic Protection for Corrosion Engineering Control and Infrastructure Rehabilitation
The company, through its Corrosion Protection segment, offers cathodic protection solutions, a time-tested pipeline corrosion mitigation technology that is mandated by regulatory rules in various types of pipeline systems. The company provides engineering and inspection services through individuals trained and certified by the National Association of Corrosion Engineers International (NACE), which is one of the major independent consulting corrosion engineering organizations in the world.
The company also provides project management, training, research, testing and design, consultation and installation services to various markets, such as pipeline, refinery, above and underground storage tanks, water/wastewater structures, concrete infrastructure and offshore and marine structures. The company also offers a line of corrosion control and cathodic protection materials, which are NSF/ANSI 61 classified for drinking water system components. The company has improved its pipeline inspection services through the internal development of an asset integrity digital data collection and analysis tool, which is designed to increase the efficiency and accuracy of pipeline corrosion assessment data that the company collects, as well as upgrade how the company shares this information with customers to provide critical real-time monitoring and assessment of external corrosion threats to help guide decision making for pipeline operators as part of their asset integrity management (AIM) programs.
Pipe Coatings for Corrosion and Thermal Control and Prevention
The company provides products and services to protect pipes from corrosion primarily for the oil and gas industries. The company accomplishes this through external and internal pipe coatings utilizing fusion bonded epoxy (FBE) and field joint coating for corrosion protection of fittings, valves and other primary sources for metal corrosion. Additionally, the company provides custom coating services on pipe bends, fittings, fabricated spools, valves and short runs of straight pipe for oil, gas and potable water services, as well as onshore or offshore fabrication and welding services. The company also offers a proprietary robotic pipe coating and inspection technology for internal and external welded pipe field joints.
Thermoplastic Pipe Lining for Corrosion Control, Abrasion Protection and Pipeline Rehabilitation
The company’s proprietary Tite Liner installation system provides chemical, corrosion and abrasion resistance for various pipeline applications, including in the oil and gas, mining and chemical pipeline markets; and has application in the rehabilitation of pressure pipes in the municipal marketplace. The company’s system could rehabilitate pipelines for a fraction of the cost and time associated with industrial pipeline replacement. The company offers its lining protection products and services worldwide, with a strategic focus on expanding its presence in key end markets with sustainable capital spend on oil, gas and mining activities.
The company’s cathodic protection capabilities and products for lining and coating pipelines are applicable worldwide in the oil, gas and mining markets, with a focus on North America and the Middle East.
Technologies
Infrastructure Solutions
The company’s Insituform CIPP process (including Insitupipe and Insitutube) for the rehabilitation of wastewater pipelines and other conduits utilizes a custom-manufactured tube, or liner, made of synthetic fiber. After the tube is saturated (impregnated) with a thermosetting resin mixture, it is installed in the host pipe by various processes. The resin is then cured, by heat (hot water or steam) or ultraviolet light, forming a new rigid pipe within a pipe.
The company’s iPlus Infusion pull-in CIPP is a trenchless method for the rehabilitation of small-diameter wastewater pipelines, whereby a felt liner is continuously impregnated with liquid, thermosetting resin through a proprietary process, after which the liner is pulled into the host pipe, inflated with air and cured with steam or ultraviolet light.
The company’s iPlus Composite CIPP is used for the trenchless rehabilitation of large-diameter wastewater pipelines, where the felt liner is reinforced with carbon or glass fiber, impregnated with liquid, thermosetting resin, inverted into place and cured with hot water or steam.
The company’s InsituMain CIPP system is a solution for pressure pipes, including water mains and force mains approximately 96-inches in diameter. The system could negotiate bends and is pressure-rated approximately 150 psi. The InsituMain system has also been certified as complying with NSF/ANSI Standard 61.
The company’s Insituform RPP process is a trenchless technology used for the rehabilitation of wastewater force mains and industrial pressure pipelines. The felt tube is reinforced with glass and impregnated with liquid, thermosetting resin, after which it is inverted with water and cured with hot water to form a structural, jointless pipe within the host pipe.
The company’s Insituform PPL process is a trenchless technology certified to NSF/ANSI Standard 61 used for the rehabilitation of drinking water and industrial pressure pipelines. A glass-reinforced liner is impregnated with an epoxy or vinyl ester resin, inverted with water and cured with hot water to form a jointless pipe lining within the host pipe.
The company’s Thermopipe system is a non-disruptive pressure pipe rehabilitation system used for potable and non-potable water mains whereby a high tenacity polyester reinforced liner is winched into a host pipe from a reel and inflated with air, forming a close-fit, jointless, leak-free lining system able to independently carry the full system design pressure.
The company’s iPlus Glass UV system is a CIPP solution for small- to medium-diameter pipes utilizing a glass fiber tube that is impregnated with a resin sensitive to ultraviolet light. The tube is pulled into place in the host pipe, inflated by air and cured through an ultraviolet light source.
The company’s iPlus Felt UV system is a CIPP solution for small- to medium-diameter pipes utilizing a 100% felt tube that is impregnated with a resin sensitive to ultraviolet light. The tube is pulled into place in the host pipe, inflated by air and cured through an ultraviolet light source.
Sliplining is a method used to push or pull a new pipeline into an old one. With segmented sliplining, short segments of pipe are joined to form the new pipe. For gravity wastewater rehabilitation, these short segments could be joined in a manhole or access structure, eliminating the need for a large pulling pit.
The company’s iTap is an internal service line reinstatement process that includes associated fittings, robotics and control systems for leak free connections in CIPP lined potable water mains.
The company’s Fusible PVC technology contains proprietary PVC formulation that, when combined with its patented fusion process, results in a monolithic, fully-restrained, gasket-free, leak-free piping system. Fusible PVC pipe products include Fusible C-900 and FPVC pipes. Fusible C-900 pipes comply with the AWWA C900 standard and are certified to the NSF/ANSI Standard 61.
The company’s Tyfo Fibrwrap system is a series of high-strength, light-weight fiber reinforced polymers used to strengthen structures, including columns, walls, slabs, beams and large diameter pressure pipelines. Beyond general strengthening of pipelines and structures, the Tyfo Fibrwrap system also has applications in blast mitigation and seismic retrofits.
Corrosion Protection
The company’s Tite Liner system is a method of lining new and existing pipe with a corrosion and abrasion resistant thermoplastic pipe.
The company’s Safetyliner product is a grooved thermoplastic liner that is installed in an industrial pipeline using the Tite Liner process. The Safetyliner liner is used in natural gas or CO2 pipelines to allow the release of gas that permeates the thermoplastic liner. If gas is allowed to build in the annular space under normal operating conditions, the line could be susceptible to collapse upon sudden changes in operating pressures. The Safetyliner liner also has been used in pipelines as a leak detection system and for dual containment in mine water pipelines.
The company’s rotational lining process bonds a uniform polymer layer to the interior of any metallic structure, regardless of shape and complexity. This result is achieved by placing granular resin inside the structure to be lined and all openings are covered. The structure is then heated while simultaneously being rotated approximately two axis. The resin melts and flows evening over the entire inner surface of the structure, bonding to the metal substrate. Once cooled, the result is a monolithic corrosion and chemical resistant lining that conforms to complex shapes and is free of stresses.
The company’s WeldTite family of products allows for the connection of individual lined pipe sections through the use of welding rather than the industry standard of bolted flange connections. This provides a level of assurance against leaks and allows United Pipeline Systems to utilize its liner systems in customer locations, such as environmentally sensitive areas or offshore where flanges are generally not allowed.
The company’s PreFIT product line offers customers thermoplastic lined steel pipe in sections short enough to be manufactured, transported, and then inventoried at a customer’s location. This allows customers control of their pipeline production schedules when compared with standard on-site liner installation processes.
The company’s fusion bonded epoxy pipeline coating utilizes heat to melt a dry powder FBE coating material into liquid form. The liquid material flows onto the steel pipe and solidifies through a process called cross-linking. Once cooled, this ‘fusion-bonded’ epoxy cannot return to its original state and forms a corrosion protection barrier on the interior or exterior surface of the pipe.
The company’s 3-layer polyethylene coating is an external coating for buried or submerged oil or gas pipelines and offers adhesion, cathodic disbondment resistance and mechanical protection.
The company’s deepwater coating and insulation capabilities answer the challenge of subsea wet insulation requirements for high-pressure and high-temperature environments. Applications include subsea equipment and field joints for coating the girth welds where the pipe coating has been cutback to allow for welding joints of pipe.
The company’s internal field joint coating technology consists of self-contained robots that travel inside the pipe, find the weld and then clean, vacuum and coat the area. Utilizing various cameras, these field joint coating robots transmit a real-time video image back to the operator, which is then used for control and inspection. The technology allows for the field application of FBE and plural component liquid materials to the weld area.
The company’s liquid coating services offer an array of plural component and multi-layer corrosion coatings. These coatings could be applied to protect metallic substrates of geometry, including pipeline equipment and manifolds.
Cathodic protection is an electrochemical process that prevents corrosion of new structures and stops corrosion on existing structures. Metal loss is prevented by the passing of a direct current from a cathodic protection electrode (anode), through the electrolyte (soil, water, concrete, etc.) on to the structure to be protected (cathode). In this process, the anode corrodes, sacrificing itself to protect the integrity of the cathode. Structures commonly protected by this process include oil and gas pipelines, offshore platforms, above and underground storage tanks, ships, electric power plants, bridges, parking garages, transit systems and water and wastewater facilities.
The company’s CorrFlex system is a linear anode system installed parallel to pipelines, oftentimes to prevent stress corrosion cracking that could lead to ruptures on high pressure gas transmission pipelines.
The company’s CorrSpray product provides a solution for preventing corrosion of steel reinforcements in concrete structures.
The company’s Corrpower DC power supplies include designs, as well as remote monitoring and control capabilities.
The company’s Green Rectifier system is an ecologically friendly method of cathodic protection using solar panels and a wind generator to power the cathodic protection process.
The company’s Permanode product is a submerged anode system and it is the industry standard for internal water tank cathodic protection designs.
The company’s Grid system has set the global standard for preventing releases from external corrosion of at-grade storage tanks containing oil and petroleum products, thereby ensuring operations and protection of the environment.
The company’s AC interference mitigation solution protects pipeline operators and the public from electrical hazards when pipelines share space on rights-of-way with overhead electric transmission lines. Beginning with advanced predictive modeling, the company then designs mitigation schemes and provides systems to protect people and the pipeline.
The company’s asset integrity management (AIM) platform allows for the collection, communication and storage of data in the cloud using a geospatial information system-based, centralized, integrated repository that provides it and its customers information and improved data analytics. Data collection applications include LiveLine and CISView, data delivery applications include AssetView and FieldLine, and data analytical tools include ScanLine and ChargeLine.
The company’s Correlator data collection system electronically records corrosion protection data on its customer’s assets, then transmits and stores the data in its AIM platform for compliance reporting and advanced analytics.
Long-Term Strategy
The company primarily serves aging infrastructure markets. The company is pursuing growth through three key strategic offerings, such as municipal pipeline rehabilitation, and pipeline integrity and corrosion management.
Licensees
The company has granted licenses for the Insituform CIPP process covering exclusive and non-exclusive territories to non-affiliated licensees that provide pipe repair and rehabilitation services throughout their respective licensed territories. The licenses grant to the licensee the right to utilize the company’s know-how and patent rights (where such rights exist) relating to the subject process, and to use its copyrights and trademarks, or, alternatively, only a license to its CIPP-related trademarks. These licenses have varying durations and some of these licenses allow the licensee to renew the license at the end of the term.
The company’s CIPP licensees are obligated to pay a royalty at a specified rate. Any improvements or modifications a licensee might make in the subject process during the term of the license agreement becomes the company’s property or is licensed to the company.
The company’s Fyfe joint ventures in Borneo and Indonesia provide design, product and engineering support to applicators of FRP systems in the Asia-Pacific. The company’s joint ventures in the Asia-Pacific are granted the non-exclusive right to use Fyfe products in their respective territories. Fyfe Co. also periodically licenses its patented technology to both affiliated and third-party certified applicators.
With regard to the company’s Underground Solutions business, it has granted licenses to its Fusible PVC pipe products and fusion processes internationally covering exclusive and non-exclusive territories to non-affiliated licensees that provide Fusible PVC products and services. The licenses grant to the licensee, in exchange for royalties at a specified rate, the right to utilize the company’s know-how and patent rights (where such rights exist) relating to the subject products and processes, and to use its copyrights and trademarks. Underground Solutions also licenses domestically its patented technology to third-party extruders and installers.
Ownership Interests in Operating Licensees and Joint Ventures
The company holds controlling interests in Fyfe/Fibrwrap joint ventures in Borneo and Indonesia. Through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Fyfe Asia Pte. Ltd., the company holds a 51% equity interest in Fyfe Borneo Sdn Bhd., with the other 49% equity interest held by C. Tech Sdn Bhd; and a 55% equity interest in PT Fyfe Fibrwrap Indonesia, with the other 45% equity interest held by PT Graha Citra Anugerah Lestari.
The company, through its subsidiary, Aegion UK Holdings Limited, holds a 51% equity interest in United Special Technical Services LLC located in Oman for the purpose of executing pipeline, piping and flow line thermoplastic lining services throughout the Middle East (other than Saudi Arabia) and Northern Africa. The other 49% equity interest is held by Special Technical Services LLC, an Omani company (STS).
The company, through its subsidiary, Aegion International Holdings Limited, holds a 51% equity interest in United Special Technical Services Arabia Company Limited located in Saudi Arabia for the purpose of executing pipeline, piping and flow line thermoplastic lining services in Saudi Arabia. The other 49% equity interest is held by STS International Holdings Ltd., a company organized in the Dubai International Finance Centre and an affiliate of STS.
Customers and Marketing
The company offers its products and services to diverse markets worldwide. It services municipal, state and federal governments, as well as corporate customers in various industries, including pipelines, energy, oil and gas, refinery, mining, general and industrial construction, infrastructure (buildings, bridges, tunnels, railways, etc.), water and wastewater, transportation, utilities, maritime and defense. The company’s products and services are utilized and performed in approximately 80 countries across six continents.
The company offers its corrosion protection solutions worldwide to energy, refinery, mining and other customers to protect new and existing pipelines and other structures. The marketing of wastewater pipeline rehabilitation technologies focuses primarily on the municipal wastewater markets worldwide. It offers its water rehabilitation products to municipal and commercial customers. The company offers its other infrastructure rehabilitation products worldwide to certain certified third-party installers and applicators and market its engineering, manufacturing and, in various countries, installation services to municipal, state, federal and commercial customers.
Divestiture
In 2020, the company discontinued its Energy Services segment.
The company completed the divestitures of CIPP operations in Australia and Spain in 2020.
Research and Development
The company’s research and development costs were $4.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2020.
Government Regulation
The company’s lining and coating products for drinking water use are NSF/ANSI Standard 61 compliant, including the entire Tyfo system, the range of Insituform water pipe lining products and the company’s Fusible C-900 and Fusible C-905 products. In addition, the company’s Tite Liner high-density polyethylene system is certified to NSF/ANSI Standard 61. Corrpro’s corrosion control products are NSF/ANSI Standard 61 classified for drinking water systems and its cathodic protection solutions for water storage tanks and water treatment units are compliant with AWWA Standard D104 and NACE recommended practices.
History
Aegion Corporation was founded in 1971. The company was incorporated in Delaware in 1980.
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