Water. Desalination + reuse
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/1056083
name-checking MembranePRO Services and Watershed Tech Services. It read: "In recognition and celebration of the success of the Wasco Treatment Plant as California's • rst merchant facility to reclaim produced water for bene• cial reuse; and for exemplary public service and civic contributions to the community and to Kern County." MembranePro Services, the technology side of the operation, was spun out of Los Angeles- based Water Planet in November 2017. At that time, the business had more than $7 million of water treatment projects on its list of references, and $13 million of forward business booked. The company's shares are owned by Water Planet, family fund The Wolfen Group, and South Dakota-based venture capital • rm Bluestem. Another former Water Planet division, the membranes business PolyCera, supplies the technology that forms the core of the plant. Core of the process "PolyCera is pre-treatment for the reverse osmosis (RO), is the heart of our operation, and is the key to the pre-treatment," explains Arian Edalat, former vice president of engineering at Water Planet, who became • Local officials bestow Certificate of Recognition on plant • PolyCera Membranes selected for cost-effectiveness • Plant to double capacity in 2019 Up in Kern County, California, northeast of Bakers• eld, at an elevation of 100 metres, lies Wasco Treatment Plant. It's the • rst merchant facility in California state for treating industrial wastewater. The site is owned, managed, and was developed by Watershed Tech Services, and the technology running there is owned and operated by MembranePro Services. The facility takes mostly oil and gas produced water, and cleans it up for bene• cial reuse by industry, including agriculture. And it regenerates resins from the wastewater. Oil and gas is big business in Kern County, which boasted 78 per cent of California's 56,653 active oil wells in 2015. But in California and across the US, use of deep well injection as a disposal method for produced water is increasingly frowned upon; some have been closed. The water reuse merchant facility model potentially oœ ers a sustainable alternative, and Wasco Treatment Plant has won plaudits from ož cialdom: in May, Kern County Board of Supervisors awarded the out• t a Certi• cate of Recognition, president and general manager of MembranePro. "The water we take typically has lots of suspended solids, most in the submicron size range (50 to 100 nm), and a lot of oil and organics, which we want to remove before the RO." Before selecting PolyCera membranes for the installation, Edalat and his team piloted the product side-by-side with ultra-• ltration (UF) ceramic membranes. This resulted in "two key outcomes," he says. "First, we realised that the performance is comparable - it does what a ceramic does - and second, that it saves energy. What happens with this class of UF membrane is that for the operator to delay fouling you create a cross¢ ow velocity across the membrane, recirculating the water in a 16 On Site December 2018 Water.desalination+reuse The fi rst merchant facility for industrial wastewater in California has won plaudits as a pioneering operation that is saving water resources The team at Wasco Treatment Plant: (l to r) Cole Garris, MembranePRO Services; Mark Harrington, MembranePRO Services; Arian Edalat, president and general Manager, MembranePRO Services; Eric Hoek, Wasco Treatment Plant an alternative to deep well injection Energy consumption was 40 to 50 per cent lower for PolyCera versus ceramic membranes. Arian Edalat, president and general manager of MembranePRO In May 2018, Kern County Board of Supervisors awarded Wasco Treatment Plant a Certifi cate of Recognition, name-checking MembranePRO and Watershed Tech Services, "…for exemplary public service and civic contributions." family fund The Wolfen Group, venture capital • rm Bluestem. Another former Water Planet business PolyCera, supplies the technology that forms the core the pre-treatment," explains the membrane, recirculating the water in a In May 2018, Kern the pre-treatment," explains Arian Edalat, former vice president of engineering at Water Planet, who became won plaudits from ož cialdom: in May, Kern County Board of Supervisors awarded the out• t Energy consumption was 40 to 50 per cent lower for PolyCera versus ceramic membranes. Arian Edalat, president and general manager of MembranePRO County Board of Supervisors awarded Wasco Treatment Plant a Certifi cate of Recognition, name-checking MembranePRO and Watershed Tech Services, "…for exemplary public service and civic contributions." the pre-treatment," explains who In May 2018, Kern