ADM Selects KMS's PURON HF Ultrafiltration System For Plant Upgrade

Koch Membrane Systems (KMS), a global leader in membrane filtration technologies, announced in conjunction with Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) the planned upgrade of the water treatment plant for ADM’s Southern Cellulose facility in Chattanooga, TN.

The facility, which processes cotton fiber to produce rolled cellulose, intends to replace their aging settling ponds, clarifier and sand filtration treatment system with a KMS PURON® HF submerged ultrafiltration system. The KMS system is designed to produce higher quality process water and reduce the discharged waste stream of the Chattanooga site.

The upgraded facility is designed to produce a continuous flow of 1,400 gpm (a little over 2 million gallons per day) from a mixed stream consisting of 20% recycled whitewater and 80% well water. The whitewater presented a challenging recycle stream due to the presence of fibrous residuals that have the potential to clog a standard hollow fiber membrane. The PURON® HF submerged membrane product offers a unique solution to this problem through the single header design. This design feature permits the sealed top end of the fibers to float freely, removing the potential to clog underneath a top permeate header.

“The innovative design of Koch’s submerged hollow fiber membrane system was the deciding factor in our decision to purchase the Koch system,” said Mark Carroll, water resource engineer with Archer Daniels Midland Company. “Their system uses a single header design with the fibers potted in only at the bottom and scour air nozzles centrally located in each of the circular fiber bundles.”

In addition to the single header design, the PURON® HF product exhibits other unique attributes that differentiate it from other products in the market, increasing filtration performance significantly over standard systems. These attributes include a robust membrane, evenly spaced fibers, central aeration system and materials of construction compatible with challenging industrial applications.

Manny Singh, president of Koch Membrane Systems added, “Industrial water and wastewater treatment is one of our key focus areas. Our PURON technology has unique features which make it ideally suited to treat challenging industrial water applications. We are glad ADM found value in these differentiators and selected KMS technology as a solution for their problem.”