Sumita Sreedharan Today Online 26 Mar 12;
SINGAPORE - A new way to process waste water in Singapore will be piloted this year, and it may produce more NEWater, use less energy in the process and make it cheaper.
Today has learnt that Israeli-based water treatment company Desalitech is embarking on the project with national water agency PUB, and the test bed will be at the Kranji NEWater Factory.
In reply to queries, a Desalitech spokesperson said the discussions started "early last summer" and came about because PUB's "existing reverse osmosis has historically had problems with fouling, and fouling resistance is an advantage our technology offers".
Fouling happens when there is accumulation of unwanted material on the surfaces of the membranes that filter out material, such as wastewater or seawater, to make purified drinking water. This affects their function.
Also in reply to queries, a PUB spokesperson told Today, "fouling is typical in any membrane system in water plants across the world, so through this test-bedding project, we're trying to see if we can do things more efficiently." She added: "The objective of this test-bedding project is to validate the merits of the Closed Circuit Desalination (CCD) technology."
The project is based on the company's CCD technology, which is touted to be able to extract more usable water from waste water.
The project will also use reverse osmosis (RO) water treatment, but PUB hopes that the technology will help to "increase the overall flow in the RO system so as to produce more NEWater from the treated used water".
According to Desalitech, the project would affordably increase the overall recovery of an existing water reuse plant "from 75 per cent to 90 per cent or more and reduce operations costs".
Another plus of the technology is that it requires lower energy consumption. The demonstration unit is under construction and is expected to be installed and fully operational in December. The pilot will take place over a period of 18 months.
PUB said the project is part of the Environment and Water Industry Programme Office's efforts to grow Singapore into a water technologies and research hub.
PUB offers opportunities for water companies to test-bed their new technologies and solutions at its facilities under actual site conditions, and there are currently more than 30 such ongoing projects with both local and international water companies.
Desalitech chief executive officer Nadav Efraty said that his company was "proud to be working in Singapore, a nation that is a global leader in water reuse".
"Highly efficient and reliable production of clean, useful water from wastewater is a matter great global interest," he added.
