Technology
Technology

The Water Industry has been embracing several changes arising of rapid urbanisation, severe climate changes, rising customer demands, emerging digital technologies and growing statutory compliances. These changes will present businesses with a complex set of challenges that could be worth addressing in order to stay competitive within the industry. Can such challenges be turned into opportunities that benefit businesses, customers and the environment? We think yes and we strive forward to address them through technologies that can make a lasting positive impact.

The activated sludge process is one of the most commonly used for secondary wastewater treatment. As a suspended-growth biological treatment process, activated sludge utilizes a dense microbial culture in suspension to biodegrade organic material under aerobic conditions and form a biological floc for solid separation in the settling units. Diffused or mechanical aeration maintains the aerobic environment in the reactor. Typical retention times are 5-14 hours in conventional units rising to 24-72 in low rate systems (Gray, 1999).

The sequencing batch reactor (SBR) is a fill-and- draw activated sludge system for wastewater treatment. In this system, wastewater is added to a single “batch” reactor, treated to remove undesirable components, and then discharged. Equalization, aeration, and clarification can all be achieved using a single batch reactor. To optimize the performance of the system, two or more batch reactors are used in a predetermined sequence of operations. SBR systems have been successfully used to treat both municipal and industrial wastewater. They are uniquely suited for wastewater treatment applications characterized by low or intermittent flow conditions.

The Extended Aeration Process, a modification of the Activated Sludge Process, effectively treats the contaminants in wastewater. The standard basis of design includes an aeration system, providing a 24-hour detention time and a final settling tank, with an effective 4-hour detention time. Diffused air is introduced into the aeration tank, this provides the proper environment for the development of aerobic bacteria. These bacteria thrive on the materials contained in the wastewater. The prolonged period of aeration, in addition, oxidizes a portion of the solids in the system. Oxygenation by diffused aeration provides operating flexibility and standby reserve to meet the demanding requirements of varied package plant applications

The upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor has been recognized as an important wastewater treatment technology among anaerobic treatment methods. The merits are performance, green energy generation, minimal space requirement, and low capital, operation, and maintenance costs.

These advantages are
Its ability to treat high COD loads and withstand fluctuation in the influent,
Biogas formation, and
Effective treatment of wastewater in a short period of time
Anaerobic reactors reduce pollution load and provide good stabilization of solids.
such as sugar, pulp and paper, dairy, chemical, potato starch, bean balancing, soft drinks, fish processing, noodle processing, yeast production, slaughterhouse, and coffee processing industries. It is primarily used for the treatment of highly concentrated industrial wastewaters, however, it can also be used for the treatment of low strength wastewater such as municipal wastewater with relatively lower contaminant strength. including plain design, uncomplicated construction and maintenance, small land requirement, low construction and operating cost, low excess sludge production, robustness in terms of COD removal efficiency, ability to cope with fluctuations in temperature, pH and influent concentration, quick biomass recovery after shutdown, and energy generation in the form of biogas or hydrogen These characteristics make UASB a popular wastewater treatment option.
The UASB technology has been found to be very effective for the treatment of wastewater with a high content of carbohydrates. Carbohydrate rich organic wastewater, such as starch or canning industry wastewater is easily digested by microbes and is thus a nutrient-rich starting material for anaerobic hydrogen production. Upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor has therefore turned out to be one of the most popular designs for the treatment of wastewaters from food processing industries. Anaerobic reactors have the ability to withstand variations in wastewater quality and complete shutdown of reactor in off season
Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) have demonstrated remarkable aptitude in water purification and wastewater treatment, containing naturally occurring toxins, organic, and inorganic contaminants, pesticides, and other deleterious contaminants like nanomaterials.
AOPs are expedient processes for degradation and detoxifying contaminants in water systems. Moreover, AOPs are more effective than single oxidation processes. Therefore the combination of systems such as UV radiation with ozone, hydrogen peroxide, and ferrous and titanium oxide are used for micro-pollutant removal [50]. These systems are used for treating drinking water containing organic pollutants and show active degradation. AOPs are potent oxidizing agents of the hydroxyl group formed by the combination of free radicals. The UV-based AOP process removes MPs in two ways
Reverse osmosis is a membrane separation process in which feed water flows along the membrane surface under pressure. Purified water permeates the membrane and is collected, while the concentrated water, containing dissolved and undissolved material that does not flow through the membrane, is discharged to the drain / further processing.
Water filtered through RO process have many applications across countless industries and has the potential to cut costs at any stage of industrial or commercial production for many different applications.
RO treated water is not just for providing safe drinking water but for diverse industrial applications that include treatments such as raw water , waste water, effluent water, DM water for recycling and reuse thus conserving water.
The water quality offered by mixed-bed ion exchangers is much higher than the dual-bed units. The highlight of these units is that they use a mix of multiple ion exchange resins. This mixture is kept in a single ion-exchange column. When the unit is used to treat a stream, the anion and cation exchange reactions occur simultaneously. This unique working procedure of the DM water plant addresses the issue of sodium leakage effectively.
Here, you must note that while DM plants equipped with mixed-bed ion exchangers produce water of extremely high quality, they also use a more complex resin generation procedure and however with the greater advantages of easy maintenance lower operational costs.
Ultrafiltration is a low-pressure membrane process used to separate bacteria, viruses, and high molecular weight compounds colloidal and particulate matters and suspended solids from a feed stream. Ultrafiltration has larger pores and high permeability with less osmotic effects that allows ultrafiltration to operate at relatively lower pressure than nanofiltration and reverse osmosis and is therefore it is least costly to operate.
Ultrafiltration is widely used in industry as pre-treatment for other forms of purification such as ion exchange and reverse osmosis, gelatin and protein concentration in the pharmaceutical industry, sugar clarification in the food and beverage industry, cheese and whey concentration, production of ultra pure water, clarification of juice, downstream processing, membrane bioreactors, treatment of bleach plant effluents, and recovery of lignin compounds in the pulp and paper industry. Ultrafiltration can be used to reject virus, bacteria, pyrogens, endotoxins, and particulates but not ionic species.