Water. Desalination + reuse
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/1056083
consistent as possible before it flows into the treatment system. The clean water produced "has passed through the RO twice, and surpasses every federal and California regulation there is," says Edalat. It can be used for irrigation, and the "very clean brine" also goes for industrial reuse, sometimes for use as drilling fluid. As well, the facility helped in developing IntelliFlux, the artificial intelligence-driven membrane monitoring platform owned by Water Planet. IntelliFlux contributes to the plant's overall performance by tailoring the maintenance regime to maximise uptime. Future plans Each of MembranePro Services' three major shareholders has a representative on the board, and it is they who set the agenda for Water.desalination+reuse December 2018 On Site 17 the company's future. The business wants to grow. In the short- to medium- term, the plan is to continue developing projects across California, particularly in Kern County, Kings County, and Ventura County. And for the longer-term the team wants to expand further afield, developing sites across the western US, and Canada. Throughout Kern County and the Central Valley the two big industries are oil and gas and agriculture, both of which are water-hungry. Rainfall in Bakersfield is on average 6.49 inches a year, making it a very, very dry place. The immediate future, then, is focused on an expansion of Wasco Treatment Plant. On the back of their success so far, MembranePRO Services and Watershed Tech Services closed loop. With PolyCera this was 20 to 40 times lower." Edalat continues: "And with backwashes, because the ceramics are more like a sponge, the water has to travel much farther than with a polymeric membrane which are sheets. When put all together, the energy consumption was 40 to 50 per cent lower for PolyCera versus ceramics." Commercial operations began in February. As well as oil and gas produced water, the treatment plant receives wastewater from an assortment of clients within a radius of 40 miles. These include used water from a biofuel refinery - a mid- to large-scale operation using fats from a chicken factory to produce energy. The various feedwaters are blended in a series of large tanks to make the water quality as chief executive, Water Planet; Simon Marshall, chief executive, PolyCera Membranes; Dundee Kelbel, consultant manager, Watershed Tech Services; Jack Rottman, Watershed Tech Services The oilfields in Bakersfield, Kern County. In 2015, the county boasted 78 per cent of California's 56,653 active oil wells, but traditional deep well injection is becoming increasingly unpopular as a method of produced water disposal. Photo: MembranePRO WATER SOURCES IN KERN COUNTY It will take approximately 11 trillion US gallons (41.6 billion m3) of water, or the equivalent of 1.5 times the capacity of the US's largest reservoir Lake Mead, to recover from California's drought, according to analysis by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). 20% 26% 12% 6% 36% n Kern River, n State Water Project (California aqueduct) n Federal, Friant-Kern Canal n Local streams and other sources n Groundwater Source: Water Association of Kern County