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also reducing their environmental footprint through, for example, less waste, high water recovery and high uptime.’

DW & PS says that the filter’s patented and award-winning design combines, in a single device, the power of continuously cleaning cross-flow filtration with centrifugal separation and solids collection to meet the demands of extreme water environments. It is unique to the ‘‘tough water space’’ – reliably handling high and variable total suspended solids up to 10 000 mg/l without frequent filter changes – even in the presence of oil. These and other features enable it to overcome the shortcomings of conventional technologies such as bag and cartridge filters, claims the firm.

John Patrin, Global Marketing Director, Filtration, DW & PS, cited a recent success in the wastewater treatment and reuse market at a meat processing plant.

He said: ‘When integrated into an exist-ing wastewater treatment system the Tequatic Plus filter removed 98% of the solids above 20 μm – using a 35-μm filter – in a feed-water stream containing total suspended solids levels of 2000 mg/l above 20 μm. This was achieved with no fouling or back-wash cycles, and with 99% water recovery.’

Consequently, the customer extended the time between bag filter changes from 10 minutes to 60 minutes, and improved the performance of the downstream ceramic filters. In addition, because the Tequatic Plus filter removed such a high level of solids, the customer is able to increase the flow rate through the dissolved air flotation unit, minimising the need to invest in capital for higher throughput rates.

‘We are seeing results like these in a variety of other industrial wastewater treatment markets too, such as pulp and paper, textiles and laundry. This is in addition to proven performance in applications such as produced water for oil and gas, and food and beverage,’ continued Patrin.

The Tequatic Plus filter is specifically tar-geted at non-potable water applications – func-tioning as a primary filter, a pre-filter or a post-filter, depending on the need.

Clean Filtration Technologies Llc (CFT), a wholly owned subsidiary of Dow, markets the Tequatic Plus filter through DW & PS. To sup-port growing demand and to accelerate innovation CFT opened a manufacturing facility in Menlo Park during 2013 (see Membrane Technology June 2013, page 4). The five-fold increase in floor space is dedicated to best-practice manufacturing and a progressive application development laboratory. Equally important, a dedicated call system is in place to direct product inquires to a technical expert for prompt response.

Beazley added: ‘Our goal is three-fold: to make it easy for customers to purchase the

Tequatic Plus filter, to offer a reliable sup-ply of product to customers across industries and geographies, and to bring products and technology to market faster than ever before. Our product development strategy is, in fact, focused on offering more options to customers, such as higher flow rates and filter cut-offs – all centred on maximising performance and reduc-ing cost of ownership.’

Contact:

The Dow Chemical Co, Dow Water & Process Solutions,

Customer Information Center, PO Box 1206, Midland,

MI 48642-1206, USA. Tel: +1 989 636 9086,

www.dowwaterandprocess.com, www.dow.com,

www.cleanfiltration.com

Osmoflo ships desalination equipment to coal mine

Desalination company Osmoflo Pty Ltd recently started shipping

equipment to the Ulan coal mine in New South Wales, Australia.

A convoy of eleven trucks, including three low-bed trailers and escort vehicles, were used to carry the equipment from the firm’s manu-facturing facility, based at Burton in Adelaide’s northern suburbs, to the mine. The vehicles carried a range of components – including racks of reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, pumps and piping – which, following assem-bly on-site, will form part of a new water treatment facility at the Ulan coal mine, locat-ed some 200 km (124 miles) north of Orange. The mine is operated by global resources giant Glencore.

The new Osmoflo system will treat up to 21 megalitres (5.5 million gallons) of water per day, generated through coal production. This will enable around 10 megalitres (2.6 million gallons) per day of desalinated water to be returned to the local streams and rivers.

Designed and built at Burton it includes an advanced oxidation process as part of a filter-based pretreatment system to remove dissolved elements which could otherwise foul the RO desalination membranes – reducing their efficiency.

Burton is also home to the company’s remote control centre which is used to provide around-the-clock monitoring of plants located any-where in the world.

Contact:

Osmoflo Pty Ltd, 382 Diment Road, Burton, 5110,

South Australia, Australia. Tel: +61 8 8282 9700,

www.osmoflo.com

MBR helps Queensland plant increase wastewater treatment capacity

General Electric Co’s LEAPmbr membrane bioreactor (MBR)

wastewater treatment technology has been used to upgrade Unitywater’s Maleny sewage treatment plant in Queensland, Australia, enabling the facility to double the amount of water that is treated per day.

New environmental regulations and expected population growth led Unitywater to expand the existing sewage treatment plant in Maleny. The LEAPmbr technology is helping the business to meet environmental guidelines for safe, high-quality water in a recreational area, which is also upstream of a water supply catchment. Maleny’s ecotourism and recrea-tional activities on the Obi Obi Creek and in the Mary Cairncross reserve conservation park make it a popular destination for locals and tourists alike.

‘By upgrading our plant we are able to treat more wastewater to meet the needs of a grow-ing population, whilst also meeting stringent environmental regulations and minimising costs,’ explained Simon Taylor, Executive Manager, Infrastructure Planning and Capital Delivery, Unitywater.

GE provided the technology to Monadelphous, the Australian engineering, construction, maintenance and industrial ser-vices company that upgraded the plant.

‘Unitywater’s upgraded Maleny plant uses LEAPmbr technology and ZeeWeed 500 mem-branes to increase treatment capacity in a com-pact footprint. The added wastewater treatment capacity will help Maleny keep up with the tourist region’s expected population growth over the next decade,’ said Ish Hakim, GE Power & Water’s sales manager for Australia and New Zealand.

For this project GE supplied LEAPmbr and ZeeWeed 500D MBR technology, including modules, cassettes, blowers, permeate pumps and turbidity meters.

Contacts:

GE Water & Process Technologies, 4636 Somerton

Road, Trevose, PA 19053-6783, USA. Tel: +1 215 355

3300, www.gewater.com

Unitywater, 33 King Street, Caboolture QLD 4510,

Australia. Tel: +61 1300 086 489,

www.unitywater.com

Membrane Technology March 2014