Increasing quality demands for wastewater treatment plants require efficient and reliable process technologies.
Especially stringent discharge limits - notably for hygienic parameters - are set when a direct influence on public health is given or where water is re-used, examples are:
Membrane filtration is increasingly used for these applications as well as for disinfection. UV-radiation, frequently used in former years, is more and more replaced by membrane technologies, as micro-organisms are reliably rejected and not only inactivated as by radiation, thus presenting a potential risk for contamination.
In arid regions or in case of a potential salt accumulation in the aquifer the filtrate is often used directly for irrigation or indirectly for drinking water production. As shown in the last years, further processing of the membrane filtrate is more cost efficient than desalination due to the lower osmotic pressure.
As the system prices have dropped, membrane filtration is now a competitive technology, which not only offers a superior effluent quality but has proven to be as cost efficient or under certain circumstances even lower priced than conventional technologies. The fastest development in municipal applications has occurred in the US, the Middle East and some Mediterranean countries, both for small and large wastewater treatment plants. As things are now (2007) approximately 20 MBR plants with a capacity of impressive 2,000 - 6,000 m3/h are already commissioned or under construction.
Many experts agree that membrane filtrations in municipal wastewater treatment will not only increase but will generally prevail. The issue is rather "when" than "if" this will happen. Membrane filtration is by the way the process to achieve MTR-quality (maximum tolerable risk) of 2,3 mg/l Ntot or 0,1 mg/l P required in some regions in The Netherlands.
Another growing concern is dealing with endocrine disruptive substances. Membrane filtration is an ideal pre-treatment for further or combined process technologies.
Aquantis GmbH is your partner for complex wastewater treatment solutions, with long-term experience in designing, costing, engineering, project management, procurement, commissioning and service of complex membrane plants. Depending on the individual project definition, immersed hollow fibre, tubular or flat-sheet membranes are selected from a choice of qualified manufacturers.