Reuse of wastewater by means of membrane filtration techniques: from process water up to drinking water
Water is getting more and more expensive everywhere around the world. The contribution for wastewater discharge is getting up. So reusing these wastewaters, as much as possible, is the logical next step, especially for companies and industries with a high water consumption, such as slaughterhouses, breweries, food and beverage industries, cosmetic manufacturers, industrial laundries, texile industry, the recycling industry, etc.).
Several wastewater pretreatments are possible to start from. The example above (see picture) is a membrane filtration unit connected to an MBR installation (membrane bioreactor). A reverse osmosis unit allows to reuse a substantial part of the wastewater (up to 60 to 80 %) in the production process. Big savings can be realized on the supply cost of drinking water and on a substantial reduction of wastewater discharge taxes. The investment can be relatively quickly recovered. Knowing that the cost of water will only continue to increase, this cost saving investment for water reuse is crucial for all kinds of industries. The exploitation cost for this kind of membrane filtration unit, can be as low as only a third of the cost for the supply of public drinking water, all depending on the customer’s requirements.
Thorough feasibility check and custom made solutions
For every specific project the feasibility is carefully checked in advance, by means of efficiency and dimensioning tests on site. Whenever necessary, a test unit is installed. The full scale scale unit is entirely custom made, specifically adapted to the customer’s needs, in function of the particular type of wastewater we are starting from and in function of the water quality required for reuse.The economic aspects of the entire installation and its overall consumption are never lost out of sight. The membrane filtration units are delivered on skid or in container. These low footprint installations are easy to integrate in an existing water treatment plant. The reverse osmosis installation is fully remote controlled.
Meanwhile, we dispose of several decades of experience in the field of membrane techniques and can can submit several succesfull references, in all kinds of industries.
More information about membrane technology in general can be found here. Some more examples of water reuse installations.
