Water. desalination + reuse

May/June 2013

Water. Desalination + reuse

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AMTA/AWWA MEMBRANE TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE REVIEW JOINT CONFERENCE & EXPOSITION l 25-28 FEBRUARY 2013 l SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, USA SAN ANTONIO SHOWCASE Many manufacturers were holding back their product launches to coincide with the International Desalination Association World Congress in Beijing, China, in October, but there were still one or two interesting product news items at the AMTA/AWWA conference. LANXESS PROmISES SEAwATER mEmBRANES FOR 2014 Membrane manufacturer Lanxess is looking to unveil a low-pressure desalination membrane in July with seawater membranes to follow in 2014. The company is also hoping for NSF certification in April 2013 and is making a major investment in rethinking reverse-osmosis (RO) modelling software. Alan Sharpe, head of RO for Lanxess, told D&WR that the company's new modelling tool would be derived from its existing software for looking at ion-exchange (IX) systems. It would permit engineers to test the results of bolting an RO and IX system in series and would be using new indices for scaling. At San Antonio, the company was also promoting its three new types of membrane for strong-fouling waters, which were launched on 1 February 2013. The new membranes have a surface area of 37.2, 34.4, and 8.4 m² (equivalent to 400, 370, and 90 ft²). Lewabrane RO B400 FR and Lewabrane RO B370 FR have a diameter of 201 mm (8 in), while Lewabrane RO B090 FR 4040 has a diameter of 101 mm (4 in). All Lewabrane products comprise a polyamide composite membrane, wound in several layers to form a spiral wound element. A special feed spacer has been incorporated in the newly developed FR types. "Our membrane separation elements are characterized by a high degree of polymerization and a low surface charge, which in itself reduces the accumulation of dissolved solids at the membrane surface," says Alan Sharpe. "The new membrane elements were designed to generate greater turbulence in the feedwater channel, meaning that less solids accumulate on the membrane surface." The separation elements, manufactured at Lanxess' Bitterfeld site, were engineered specifically for industrial water treatment. The fields of application include the desalination of brackish and low-salinity water with a high potential for organic or biological fouling. • The IX Resins business unit has also expanded its design tool for industrial water treatment. Using LewaPlus, complete systems can now be designed, for example, employing different separation processes. Dr Jens Lipnizki, membrane applications manager, explains: "Until now, LewaPlus was only capable of engineering RO and IX systems separately. With the expanded version, an RO process can now be engineered with a downstream IX and, if necessary, even with an intermediate degasification system." This is a typical application for water treatment in power plants. | 42 | Desalination & Water Reuse | May-June 2013 COLOURFUL AvISTA EvENT Avista Technologies hosted an evening reception in San Antonio promoting the use of chromatic elemental imaging (CEI) for membrane troubleshooting. Dressing the room as an art gallery with brightly coloured high-resolution images replacing old masters, the company illustrated brilliantly how CEI can pinpoint the exact location of a particular element on a membrane sample. The analytical technique accelerates a beam of focused electrons across the surface of a foulant sample, interacting with the sample's inorganic elements and causing them to emit electrons. Since each element has its own unique atomic shell, these emissions generate a characteristic x-ray spectrum that allows for its identification. CEI can uniquely identify the distinct elements in a mixed foulant sample containing a number of inorganic deposits. This technique also reveals the location and concentration of elements relative to each other in a sample. CEI imaging of a scaled membrane surface showed the distribution of the calcium carbonate was isolated to rhombohedra crystals while traces of silicon (blue) and magnesium (green) showed below them. The sulphur (orange) is the membrane surface. mETAwATER LAUNChES N AmERICAN BUSINESS Metawater, a joint venture established in 2008 by merging the water treatment divisions of Japan's Fuji Electric and NGK Insulators, announced at the start of the San Antonio event that it was launching Metawater USA Inc. The company, aimed at USA and Canada, will focus on providing water treatment and reclamation technology equipment and engineering services. Fuji Electric Corp of America entered the North America water treatment and reclamation market in the late 1990s with the introduction of the MicroGap™ ozone process control technology and has provided it for disinfection and taste- and odor-removal for municipalities in Boston, San Diego, Orlando and Ontario. The 900 MGD (3.4 million m3/d) MicroGap ozone facility in Wylie, Texas, slated to start up in 2013, is the largest ozone treated drinking water facility in the world. Metawater USA Inc represents the first major step to expand Metawater's presence worldwide, providing MicoGap and also high-flux ceramic membrane filtration (installed in more than 100 facilities around the world) and high-rate combined sewer overflow. Yuichiro Shinoda, sales manager - water treatment, for Fuji Electric Corp of America, told D&WR that the new company would be in a position to announce its US office in June or July 2013.

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