Technology news12

Filtration+Separation September/October 2013

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Netherlands-based companies Aquaver and Bredenoord are collaborating to demonstrate that water treatment can be powered by waste heat from power generators, enabling water and energy cogeneration, through the addition of Aquaver devices to existing power generators.

Aquaver has developed commercial water treatment systems based on membrane distillation, a novel technology that can purify almost any water type using low temperature heat as energy source. Bredenoord has over 70 years’ experience in manufacturing temporary, permanent and mobile power systems.

Current water treatment systems used in remote areas or for temporary locations have high energy requirements. In many cases this energy is supplied by diesel power generators. Power generators typically convert 40-45% of the diesel energy into electrical energy, while the rest is wasted as low temperature heat, being removed from the engine by its cooling system. Aquaver and Bredenoord wanted to demonstrate a more efficient approach, in which the low temperature waste heat is used to power a water treatment system. With this configuration, it is possible to reduce the electrical energy consumption of the water treatment system by between

50-75%. This solution is more efficient, requiring less diesel to purify water, and also more sustainable, since every litre of water produced has a 50-75% smaller carbon footprint.

In order to demonstrate the novel water treatment approach Aquaver and Bredenoord have successfully run a pilot project at Kamperland, Zeeland (The Netherlands). Bredenoord modified and supplied one of its power generator systems (15 kVA) to power an Aquaver water treatment system WTS-40. The WTS-40 successfully purified over 1500 litres of seawater per day with excellent water quality (<10 μS/cm). The WTS-40 and the power generator are connected with a closed water circuit, which transfers the heat from the diesel cooling system to the WTS-40. The simple modifications needed to couple the generator cooling circuit to the WTS-40 can be adapted to any size of liquid cooled power generator.

Aquaver has products with water outputs covering 1,500 l/day to 100.000 l/day, and Bredenoord offers power systems covering 5 kVA to 2000 kVA. They can be used to provide energy and water to communities in remote locations or for temporary situations.

www.aquaver.euwww.bredenoord.com

Collaboration promotes water treatment using residual heat

New self-healing membrane aimed for wastewater treatment

German company MICRODYN-NADIR has introduced a self-healing membrane. The company explains that when operating wastewater treatment plants using MBR technology, factors such as energy saving, reduction of the chemical demand or minimisation of the total costs of a plant is of major interest. However, increasingly another criterion is becoming important. The membranes built into

submerged modules and installed in a WWTP have to be of the highest quality in order to ensure, amongst others, compliance with international water standards when looking at effluent quality and turbidity.

A damaged membrane is one of the worst things that can happen to an operator of a wastewater treatment plant and consequently for the manufacturer of the

membrane module. For example, screw drivers or other tools falling into the filtration chamber of a plant can damage the membranes severely.

MICRODYN-NADIR has introduced a self-healing mechanism for BIO-CEL® sheets, which represents the core part of the BIO-CEL® MBR module. Due to its sandwich-like and self-supporting structure the

membrane ‘heals’ itself and closes any scratch or cut immediately.

Several tests have proven that even under worst case conditions, such as very low MLSS concentrations and significant damage of the sheet, the BIO-CEL® module offers turbidity values which are compliant with existing international regulations for water reuse.

www.microdyn-nadir.de

Sales of cartridges to filter solids from liquids will rise to over $15 billion next year. The residential point of use segment will account for 27% of the total. This is the conclusion reached by the McIlvaine Company in its continually updated Cartridge Filters: World Market report.

More than 50% of the sales will be for commercial and residential applications. The pharmaceutical industry will be the largest industrial purchaser. Cartridges are used to separate products as well as to remove contaminants. Companies such as Pall and Millipore are large suppliers of product recovery filters.

The healthcare industry uses cartridges for purifying water as well as blood and other fluids.

Municipal wastewater plants use very few cartridges. The reason is that cartridges are not self-cleaning. Most municipal applications involve removal of large quantities of solids. Filter presses and sand filters are, therefore, found to be more economical.

In recent years a cleanable version of the cartridge has been developed. McIlvaine has classified this category as automatic back-wash filters. Sales of these filters are modest now, but there is a longer term threat to cartridge suppliers. Another competing product is the bag filter. Both bag filters and automatic back-wash filters are included in a separate report.

www.mcilvainecompany.com

Cartridge filter market to rise to over $15bn

Table 1: The cartridge filter market in 2014 ($ million)

Industry 2014Total 15,434 Chemical 688 Commercial - Point of Entry 868 Commercial - Point of Use 2,428 Electronics 485 Food 516 Healthcare 1,276 Metals 181Oil & Gas 316 Other Industries 619 Pharmaceutical 2,119 Power 232Residential - Point of Entry 786 Residential - Point of Use 3,928 Wastewater 267Water 725

FISE0513_technology news 12 09-10-2013 12:22:45