The Basin Creek Reservoir in Butte, MT served its community with pristine water from both sides of the Continental Divide for nearly 100 years. In 2010, a pine beetle infestation killed most of the trees surrounding the reservoir, many of which fell into the water, increasing the natural organic matter (NOM) level.
The financial cost to maintain their ozone equipment, and increasing scarcity of replacement parts for their ozone generator, motivated a utility in Springfield, MO, to upgrade their ozone system. Read the full case study to learn how the plant assessed the energy cost of a sidestream ozone injection system compared to that of a turbine mixing design and showed that the Mazzei retrofit design reduced the energy cost of ozone contacting by an average of 69.2% under all plant flow conditions.
The North Texas Metropolitan Water District began working to add ozone to its four interconnected water treatment facilities which operate as the Wylie Water Treatment Plant (WTP).
The Mazzei Sidestream Venturi Injection – Pipeline Flash Reactor System provides a feasible alternative for dissolution of ozone at the Clark County Water Reclamation District (CCWRD) in Las Vegas, because it allowed for flexibility in basin design to meet geographic site constraints.
A water quality audit revealed that two of the largest drinking water plants in the City of Montreal were out of compliance with Quebec’s latest water quality rules. Both drinking water facilities were located in heavily populated areas; consequently, plant modifications had to be accomplished within their existing infrastructure footprints.
A potable water plant in Eastern Angelina County, Texas, serves over 2,000 rural customers.
The design team for the intermediate ozone system at Buckingham Water Treatment Plant, Quebec, had limited space available for ozone contacting for the plant’s 1.3 – 7.4 MGD flow, so a standard fine bubble diffusion basin for ozone disinfection was not an option.
A chemical company which specializes in Clean-In-Place (CIP) systems, contacted Mazzei to discuss the use of ozone as an alternative to peracetic acid sanitation or heat sterilization at their customers’ plants.
The Santa Barbara desalination plant located in the south-eastern part of Curaçao provides drinking water to about half of the population of this Caribbean island. With an average precipitation of approximately 500 mm, rainwater is the only natural source of freshwater in the island. Government efforts to address the water shortage problem date back to the 20s of the last century. Initially based on evaporation, the seawater desalination evolved into the reverse osmosis technology in the 90s. After several years of experimenting with RO, Aqualectra, the municipal supplier of potable water and electricity for Curaçao, took the decision to move forward with this technology and in 2003 started a project to build a SWRO desalination plant.
An MABR is essentially a biological wastewater treatment process that utilizes seemingly passive aeration through oxygen-permeable membranes. Oxygen transfer through the MABR membranes is diffusion based: driven by concentration differences such that oxygen passes from air at atmospheric pressure into water at a higher hydrostatic pressure. This oxygen transfer mechanism, wherein air is supplied to the process at very low pressure, is the reason MABRs have significantly lower energy consumption compared to other wastewater treatment processes, such as conventional activated sludge (CAS), that utilize diffusers. This energy savings is one of the key reasons MABRs are gaining traction in the municipal wastewater industry.
The city of Limassol in Cyprus was experiencing an increasingly severe water shortage, with the growing population and expanding tourist industry placing extra pressure on existing supply. An aquifer in a residential neighborhood was seen as a potential water source, but had high levels of salts and nitrates. The Cyprus Water Development Department (WDD) awarded Fluence a Build-Own-Transfer (BOT) contract to implement a cost-effective solution.
After an international tender process, the Israel Electric Company (IEC) chose Fluence to design, manufacture, and supply containerized ultrapure water production systems for use as makeup water for heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG) and for NOx emission reduction at recently upgraded power plants across Israel. More than 15 units of 20 m3/h production modules, each fitted in two 40-foot shipping containers, were provided to seven power plants. Their compact design allowed for ease of installation, operation, and maintenance while meeting the customer’s demanding engineering standards.
Reverse osmosis (RO) membranes are widely used in potable water, wastewater, and industrial applications. However, a major issue in the application of RO membrane technology for desalination and wastewater reclamation is membrane fouling. It limits operating flux, decreases water production, and increases power consumption. Membrane fouling also increases the need for RO plants to perform periodical membrane CIP procedure. These problems decrease process efficiency, increase operation cost, and raise environmental issues related to the CIP solutions disposal.
Hayogev is a residential development in the rural area of Jezreel Valley, with 1000 homes, agricultural fields and dairy farms. Located in an open field next to small farms, the local treatment facility handles wastewater from HaYogev and Midrach Oz. The customer was looking for a localized wastewater treatment solution to replace the existing pond system, which faced difficulties in treating the wastewater due to high levels of nutrients. A new state-level regulation concerning reclaimed water required the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) operator to reduce the nutrients in the effluent stream. The solution had to be odorless and quiet, have low power consumption, and use the existing pond and structure.
SUEZ has delivered over 1000 PRO Series Reverse Osmosis (RO) systems since its launch over a decade ago. The PRO has always been known as a rugged, industrial RO, capable of delivering consistent product water over years of operation. The PROflex line originated in feedback from our many customers on how to make the PRO even better.
aquasource Z-XS is a highly compact ultrafiltration unit able to adapt to your raw water source with its comprehensive yet easy-to-use automation. Featuring up to 4 membrane modules ZW700B, the aquasource Z-XS is a packaged unit that can produce up to 350 m3/day of clarified and sanitized water from surface, ground, city- or seawater.
SUBRE, a highly effective upgrade solution for wastewater treatment plants, intensifies the biological nutrient removal process and increases plant's capacity with no added footprint and reduced energy requirements. SUBRE utilizes Fluence’s Membrane Aerated Biofilm Reactor (MABR) technology to achieve a stable and high quality effluent.
For more than two decades ZeeWeed 500 has been a trusted name in filtration for membrane bioreactors (MBR). The ZeeWeed 500 ultrafiltration, hollow fiber, reinforced membrane provides customers with high-performance, energy efficiency, and proven membrane life. The ZeeWeed 500 membrane family gives customers the flexibility to treat any flow rate, from ultra-low flows to mega MBR plants.
With enhanced Thin Film Nanocomposite (TFN) technology, the next generation LG SW G2 membranes have achieved record-breaking 99.89% rejection, improving the product quality up to 45% compared with the conventional technology.
AnMBR is the latest innovation in anaerobic reactor configuration: a combination of anaerobic digestion and membrane bioreactor technology, which concentrates solid digestate without the use of centrifuges or dissolved air flotation (DAF).
Membrane bioreactors (MBRs) are not new, but they are the subject of renewed interest among utilities, and for Carollo Engineers Vice President Andrew Gilmore. He sat down with Water Talk's Todd Schnick and Kevin Westerling to discuss the MBR renaissance and the reason for their rise in popularity.
Jon Loveland, Global Practice Leader - Alternative Water Supply at Black & Veatch, shares insight on a major development for membrane bioreactor (MBR) systems and potable reuse.
If you don’t need the performance of an ultrafiltration membrane but also want to avoid the large footprint of a conventional media filter, you might want to consider FiltraFast extreme rate compressible media filters. As Ryan Hess, Director of Advanced Separation with SUEZ Water Technologies suggests in this Water Talk interview, “They provide roughly ten times the hydraulic loading rate of conventional media filters.”
Toray Membrane USA introduced an aptly-named product at WEFTEC 2017, the NHP (New High Performance) module for membrane bioreactors (MBRs). Toray's Peter Waldron sat down with Water Online to discuss how the NHP, which features thin membrane flat sheets densely packed into easily interchangeable cassettes, differs from current industry offerings and how these features benefit MBR operation.
In this Water Online Radio exclusive interview, Fred Wiesler, Global Director of Sales for the QUA Group, discusses some of the company’s key products, including the EnviQ that uses a flat sheet PVDF membrane, and has a .04-micron pore size. It provides ultrafiltration quality water, with the strength of a PVDF flat sheet membrane.
In the early 90s, Bio-Microbics introduced membrane treatment technology, traditionally used in drinking water treatment plants, to the decentralized treatment market. In this Water Online Radio interview, Jennifer Cisneros, Director of Marketing for Bio-Microbics and Chair of the National Onsite Wastewater Recycling Association’s Marketing Committee, discusses the use of the onsite technology at an oyster bar where Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen (TKN) was about three times the level of ammonia.
Delivering the best MBR experience, Smith & Loveless announces the new TITAN MBR™.
Silicon carbide, or SiC, membranes are made from one of the earth's hardest natural materials, making them extremely strong and resilient. They are also hydrophilic, lending to a high flux rate (4 to 6 times that of other membranes) and making them particularly suitable for stormwater/CSO applications.
The need to recycle wastewater has grown dramatically in various markets. Due to the increasing drought, rural villages suffer from lack of water for agricultural needs. Fluence delivers a revolutionary aerobic wastewater treatment solution is modular and reduces energy usage by up to 90% compared to conventional treatment.
Local and decentralized wastewater treatment and reuse is known to be a cost-efficient resource, which is why more and more communities are adapting this planning approach.
An MABR is essentially a biological wastewater treatment process that utilizes seemingly passive aeration through oxygen-permeable membranes. Oxygen transfer through the MABR membranes is diffusion based: driven by concentration differences such that oxygen passes from air at atmospheric pressure into water at a higher hydrostatic pressure. This oxygen transfer mechanism, wherein air is supplied to the process at very low pressure, is the reason MABRs have significantly lower energy consumption compared to other wastewater treatment processes, such as conventional activated sludge (CAS), that utilize diffusers. This energy savings is one of the key reasons MABRs are gaining traction in the municipal wastewater industry.
The innovative CoMag System from Evoqua infuses magnetite into chemical floc to make it heavier, significantly improving clarifier performance. This video explains how the CoMag® System works and how it can be used to increase capacity, enhance clarifier performance and achieve total phosphorous of 0.05 mg/L.
Water membranes are widely used in the water treatment processes. They have become a fundamental player in separation technology because of the fact that they require no additional chemicals and their relatively low energy requirements.
Water membranes have been applied during the extraction of produced water, treatment of waste/sewage water and processing of surface water all with huge success levels. Conventional water treatment techniques are over time incorporating in their processes the use on water membranes. Commercialization of membranes was first done in the 1970s and 1980s.
Membrane technology is chiefly based on the presence of pores on the membranes that make them semi-permeable. The simple principle on which water membranes work is such that the semi-permeability of water membranes ensures that only water is allowed to pass through a specific membrane while trapping unwanted particles and substances.
In both microfiltration and ultra filtration, membranes provide an effective barrier for arresting suspended solids in water.
To aid substances to penetrate across a semi-permeable membrane the following steps are undertaken: Electric potential introduction, high pressure application and ensuring that the concentration gradient on both sides of the membrane is maintained. The surface area of the membrane also determines the efficiency of the membrane in use.
The only drawback on water membranes is that they cannot remove substances that are actually dissolved in the water such as phosphorus, nitrates and heavy metal ions. The following are categories of membranes: Microfiltration (MF), Ultra filtration (UF), Reverse osmosis (RO), and Nanofiltration (NF) membranes
Ultra filtration membranes employ polymer technology with chemically created microscopic pores that trap dissolved substances therefore eliminating the possible use of any coagulants.
