H2O Systems' SiC Membrane Technology has been tried and tested at power plants in Germany & Denmark. The results show that SiC Membranes are a viable alternative in filtering flue gas effluent for water re-cycle with low OPEX, 0 chemicals, and no disposable media.
2. Reverse
Osmosis
• Technology used to remove
dissolved solids and impurities
from water using semi-permeable
membrane.
• RO membrane requires water to
be under high pressure
• Industrial RO systems can
remove up to 99.5% of dissolved
salts/suspended solids from
feedwater
4. RO Pre-Treatment
• Performance of RO System
depends highly on quality of pre-
filtration
• Without proper pretreatment,
fouling, scaling can occur causing
membrane failure
• Increases cleaning requirements
and OPEX
5. Why Pre-
Treatment?
1. Improved pre-filtration with more
efficient removal of suspended
solids results in longer operating
intervals of RO system before
chemical cleaning.
2. Reduced chemical cleaning
means prolonged lifetime for RO
membranes and reduced OPEX.
3. Prior removal of TSS reduces
fouling of RO membrane.
4. Quality and capacity of RO
membrane is seen.
6. Our Solution
SiC Ceramic Membranes
Ideal in scenarios with bio-fouling
potential
Can be cleaned with any chemicals
(pH 0-14), strong oxidziers (e.g.
ozone) and have high mechanical
strength enabling high pressure
back flush
Ensures efficient cleaning and
membrane selectivity at high
temperatures
7. What can I
remove?
• Oil
• Grease
• Iron
• TSS
• Bacteria
• Algae
• Organic Matter
8. Why SiC
Membranes
• Oil repelling
• Inert
• Less Footprint
• Longer lifetime
• High Recovery
• Self-cleaning
All this filtration can be
accomplished in 1 single
step!
9. Why SiC over
traditional
methods
POLYMERIC MEMBRANES ARE
• Not as chemically or
temperature resistant as not
good (ecspecially at high
temperatures of oil&gas
industry)
• Handle oil very poorly
Polymeric membranes are
• Expensive
• Low water flux
11. How it works
Feed flow is tangential to the
surface of the membrane
in order to sweep rejected
particles and solutes away
CROSS FLOW FILTRATION
12. Case Study:
Filtration of
Scrubber Water
Application:
• Wet scrubbers used for cleaning exhaust
gases to reduce air pollution
• Harmful particles transferred from gas phase
to scrubbing solution
• Liquid solution contains high amount of heavy
metals -> must be removed to meet discharge
limits
Challenge:
• Scrubber water has fluctuating heavy metal
conc.
• High T
• Acidic or alkaline feedwater
• High fouling potential due to scaling
13. Case Study:
Filtration of
Scrubber Water
Test:
H2O Systems to use SiC membranes to treat
scrubber wastewater at Danish Biomass
Fired Powerplant with 2 objectives:
• Fulfill discharge requirements
• Re-use scrubber wastewater as RO
feedwater
Results:
14. Conclusion
• SiC membrane installation capable of providing treated
water that meets discharge legislation requirements
• RO feed water quality is met (SDI <3)
• Improved quality of treated water (Table 1)
• Reduced footprint of filtration unit (35 m3/h system is 8
m2 with a height of 2.2 m)
• No need for chemical dosing/sludge disposal
• Chemical resistance of membrane protects against
highly corrosive scrubber water
15. Future Outlook
• SiC membranes allow for reduced installation
costs with a smaller footprint and can meet future
legislation requirements.
• Re-use of treated water in a closed loop reduces
OPEX and environmental impact
• Polluted liquid treated by SiC membranes followed
by RO membrane -> enables re-use of treated water
• 80% reduction of clean water use
• Operating costs associated with waste discharge/
sludge handling reduced by 90%
16. Next Steps
• Meeting
• Submit water analysis
• Proposal and savings
• Trial
• Full systems intergration
