Water Purification and Recycling. Sohail Mirza Somicon Limited Basel, Switzerland. Recent Developments in the Membrane Technology

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1 Water Purification and Recycling Recent Developments in the Membrane Technology Sohail Mirza Somicon Limited Basel, Switzerland

2 Content Water is an important commodity Overview and advantages of membrane systems Established technologies: some uses and recent developments Technologies gaining importance Forecast for future developments Discussion and if desired case studies

3 Water on our Planet (Visually) sweet water 2.6% or 36 M km2 bound as ice (sea or glacier) salty water 97.4% Rome 1100 km Cologne potable water 0.3 % or 3.6 M km2 Hannover 156 km Hamburg

4 Worldwide Situation Water A scarce resource Uneven distribution In the last 70 years: Population x 3 Water Consumption x 7 Currently using 50% of available fresh water Current use: ca. 50% Consumption Forecast 2025: 70% About 2/3 is used for agriculture Multiple use (recycling) a must

5 Pressure Driven Processes Water Ethanol Salts Small Molecules Aroma Sugar op. Brightener Dyes Endotoxins Gelatin Proteins Bacteria Red Blood Cells Turbidity Pigments MF A UF A NF A RO 1-10 A

6 Pressure Driven Processes

7 Construction of Membranes Symmetric Asymmetric Asymmetric Composite

8 Short List of Membrane Materials Polymeric Polysulfone (PS) Polyethersulfone (PES) Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) PTFE Fluorocarbon PES / PVP Blend Cellulose Acetate Blend (CA) Thin Film Composite (TFC) MF, UF MF, UF MF, UF MF MF, UF RO, UF, NF, RO Inorganic Ceramics Stainless Steel Glass MF, UF MF, UF MF, UF

9 Where do Membrane Processes fit in?

10 What makes Membranes attractive? (removal of water)

11 Use of RO Membranes All applications can be classified under: Desalination of surface water, brackish water and seawater Concentration of aqueous solutions (food, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, wastewater) Recovering (almost) de-ionized water from effluents

12 Reverse Osmosis what is new? Membranes with low hydraulic resistance Membranes with better (sharper) salt rejection Membranes resistance to higher temperature (pasteurization possible) Membranes with low Zeta Potential (Low Fouling Composites) Membranes with more tolerance to oxidizing substances Larger Modules ( beyond 8 inch spiral wound) - this is a questionable subject Better Feed Flow Distribution

13 Some uses of Nanofiltration Membranes Water softening Salt removal from aqueous but salty product solutions Refining aqueous product solutions from smaller impurities Concentration of aqueous solutions (chemicals, bio-tech, food) Removal of color from waters, juices etc. Recycling of salt solutions (ionexchange, dyeing houses...)

14 Recent Developments in Nanofiltration Membranes with less hydraulic resistance Selective salt removal membranes (highly charge membranes) Alkaline and acid resistant membranes Solvent resistant membranes Membranes resistant to chlorine Membranes with low Zeta Potential

15 Uses of Ultrafiltration / Microfiltration (some applications) Water & Wastewater Filtration (removal of bacteria, pathogens, TOC, Turbidity) Recovery of E-Coat Paint Cheese Making Protein Processing Recovery of Indigo and other textile applications Separation of Oil-Water Emulsions Clarification of Solutions (Juices, Wine, Fermentation Broth, Sugars, Gelatin etc.) Diafiltration of Products Separation and Harvesting of Enzymes and Microorganism

16 Developments in the UF / MF Sector Inexpensive modules for surface water filtration - replacing multi-media filter and the like Special systems for bio-mass separation (MBR) New generation of Ceramic Membranes

17 Cane and Beet Sugar Versatility of Membrane Use Clarification ( w / MF/UF) Raw Juice Clarification Evaporated Juice Clarification Molasses Clarification Purification ( w / UF) Decolorization of Sugar Solutions Fractionation ( w / NF) Separation of sugars and salts Concentration ( w / RO) Chromatographic Separator Effluents Clarified Raw Juice Dilute Sugar Solutions

18 Sugar Processes

19 Technologies Gaining Importance (pertaining to water) UF for Surface Water Filtration UF in MBR (Membrane Bioreactor) Dynamic Strainers

20 What is MBR? Wastewater treatment process consisting of a biological reactor and membrane filtration Process defined by high concentration mixed liquor operation: from 6,000-20,000 mg/l Characterized by consistently high effluent water qualityturbidity < 0.2 NTU TSS < 1 mg/l BOD < 2 mg/l Bacteria/pathogen free Can use immersed membranes or external membranes Typically suitable for small communes, hotels and resorts or where the STP is a bottleneck Combination with RO makes it an excellent recycling process

21 Schematics of MBR

22 So what is the issue? Conditioning the Feed to Safeguard the Membranes Combinations with Chemical Reactions Combinations with other Unit Operations Innovation of the Chemical Engineers

23 Discussion & Cases (on Demand)

24 What do we do and what we are interested in? 1. Applied Studies for Clients and OEM 2. Supply of Special Membranes 3. Turnkey Systems for Dairies, Sugar, Breweries, Chemical, Pharmaceutical, Beverage and Metal Industries 4. Skids, Racks, Automation, whole plants 5. Leasing of Equipment, BOT etc. 6. We are interested in meaningful partnerships 7. We can support / represent manufacturers in UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Jordan, Syria, Pakistan and Iraq 8. Possibility of local production in these countries