- Email: [email protected]
System for solar water purification uses RO technology
NEWS/IN BRIEF will have an initial capacity of 38 000 m3 (10 million gallons) a day and will employ the company’s FiberFlex skids, which enable the interchangeability between different types of UF membrane modules. The system will treat surface water using a total of six trains. The first four are for primary treatment of the surface water, whilst the other two produce drinking water from the backwash water generated from the first four trains. This process will maximise the overall recovery of the plant. H2O Innovation continues to enhance its presence in Texas, USA, with the addition of the Possum Kingdom project for the city of Abilene. This reverse osmosis (RO) system – designed, manufactured and commissioned by the company – has an ultimate capacity of 41 600 m3 (11.0 million gallons) a day, and will treat surface water post microfiltration. For this municipality, the implementation of such a treatment process is part of its strategy to use available water sources to alleviate the current drought, and to provide for future demands. As part of another project in the USA, the firm will design, manufacture and commission an RO system with a total capacity of 11 355 m3 (3.0 million gallons) a day to treat brackish water for the community of Craven County located in North Carolina. In Western Canada, the company has been awarded two other projects. The first one involves the design, manufacture and commissioning of three integrated UF and nanofiltration systems (UF–NF), also using H2O Innovation’s FiberFlex skid. These systems for the Northern Alberta Water Treatment Plants in John D’Or Prairie, Boyer River and Meander River will have a nominal capacity of 980 m3 (0.26 million gallons), 416 m3 (0.1 million gallons) and 438 m3 (0.1 million gallons) a day, respectively. The use of these skids will enable extra production capacity to be added to each of these systems when it is needed. The project completing this set of new contracts is for the tertiary treatment of mining effluent at a site located in northern British Columbia. This contract covers the rental – for a minimum six-month period – of four insulated containerised media filtration units that can handle a flow of 2721 m3 (720 000 gallons) per day. ‘We are pleased to see our water treatment systems backlog being renewed and maintained at such a high level. The efforts undertaken by our sales team to cover new territories in Canada and the USA, and to maintain our presence in municipal and industrial sectors, enables us to continue our growth trajectory, commented Frédéric Dugré, President and CEO, H2O Innovation.
March 2015
‘Investments in infrastructure, especially those for the treatment of water, are becoming the main drivers to revitalise or maintain regional economies. We are positioned better than ever to respond to the growing demand for municipal water projects in Canada and the USA.’ In addition, H2O Innovation has announced the implementation, for a period of three years, of its System Performance Monitoring Center (SPMC) – proprietary remote monitoring technology – at a municipality located in Florida, USA. Contact: H2O Innovation Inc, 420 Boulevard Charest Est, Suite 240, Québec City, Québec, Canada G1K 8M4. Tel: +1 418 688 0170, www.h2oinnovation.com
System for solar water purification uses RO technology
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egaCell Engineering Srl, an Italian company that designs components and systems for the renewable energy industry – specifically the photovoltaic (PV) sector – has launched the recently patented Smart Solar Desalination (SSD) system, a new product incorporating reverse osmosis (RO) technology for solar water purification. SSD has been specially designed and optimised for off-grid configuration. It uses bifacial high-efficiency photovoltaic modules produced by MegaCell and installed on a single-axis tracker. According to the company, this design is particularly suited to desert areas where there is the likelihood of dust and sand deposition on the PV module surfaces. PV power generation is combined with a genset (generator) and small UPS for back-up. This guarantees that purified water is delivered continuously, and the system is adapted to different power requirements of the desalination process. Using SSD, the energy delivered to the desalination plant site is reduced from 2.98 kWhe/m3 to 0.37 kWhe/m3, and the total unit cost of water is reduced by more than 58%, compared with a standard RO system, claims the firm. The SSD system has been dimensioned for 48 m3/h of potable water, but, says MegaCell Engineering, scale-up is modular according to the formula n × 48 m3/h. Contact: MegaCell Engineering Srl, Via Provinciale 4, 35010 Carmignano di Brenta (PD), Italy. Tel: +39 049 9430926, www.megacellengineering.it
In Brief Xylem appoints senior vice president Anthony Milando has been appointed Senior Vice President, Continuous Improvement and Business Transformation, Xylem Inc – a global water technology company. In this newly created position Milando is responsible for driving operational excellence and process simplification across the organisation, and reports directly to Patrick Decker, President and CEO. He also serves as a member of the firm’s senior leadership team and is based at its global headquarters in Rye Brook, New York, USA. Mitsubishi Rayon changes name of its European subsidiary Japan’s Mitsubishi Rayon Co Ltd has announced that its consolidated subsidiary MRC Europe GmbH has changed its name to Mitsubishi Rayon Europe GmbH. Based in Düsseldorf, Germany, the firm specialises in the sale and marketing of water purifiers, coating resins, carbon fibres and composite materials. Aquarion Group relaunches S-Tec GmbH as an independent entity Global water treatment systems provider Aquarion Group, based in Baar, Switzerland, has followed its acquisition of S-Tec from SH + E Group with the relaunch of the company as an independent entity with the capability of designing and manufacturing water treatment plants and offering related services. S-Tec GmbH is now a stand-alone company based in Germany that specialises in modular water treatment plant construction. Called ModufleX, S-Tec’s new business model separates all elements of work required for plant construction into separate, selfcontained modules. ‘S-Tec GmbH is poised for continued growth with its new and successful business model, strong financial position and highly skilled staff, which we are pleased to have retained,’ commented Karl Michael Millauer, CEO, Aquarion Group. BluMetric appoints new chief financial officer Canadian cleantech company BluMetric Environmental Inc has announced that Ian Malone, its founding chief financial officer (CFO), has retired. At the same time it has appointed Ms Vivian Karaiskos as the incoming CFO. Roger Woeller, CEO, BluMetric Environmental, said: ‘On behalf of the BluMetric team I would like to thank Ian Malone for his invaluable contributions as BluMetric’s first CFO. With his extensive experience and broad range of contacts he has helped to shepherd the company through its RTO and first years as a public company.’
Membrane Technology
3
March 2015
‘Investments in infrastructure, especially those for the treatment of water, are becoming the main drivers to revitalise or maintain regional economies. We are positioned better than ever to respond to the growing demand for municipal water projects in Canada and the USA.’ In addition, H2O Innovation has announced the implementation, for a period of three years, of its System Performance Monitoring Center (SPMC) – proprietary remote monitoring technology – at a municipality located in Florida, USA. Contact: H2O Innovation Inc, 420 Boulevard Charest Est, Suite 240, Québec City, Québec, Canada G1K 8M4. Tel: +1 418 688 0170, www.h2oinnovation.com
System for solar water purification uses RO technology
M
egaCell Engineering Srl, an Italian company that designs components and systems for the renewable energy industry – specifically the photovoltaic (PV) sector – has launched the recently patented Smart Solar Desalination (SSD) system, a new product incorporating reverse osmosis (RO) technology for solar water purification. SSD has been specially designed and optimised for off-grid configuration. It uses bifacial high-efficiency photovoltaic modules produced by MegaCell and installed on a single-axis tracker. According to the company, this design is particularly suited to desert areas where there is the likelihood of dust and sand deposition on the PV module surfaces. PV power generation is combined with a genset (generator) and small UPS for back-up. This guarantees that purified water is delivered continuously, and the system is adapted to different power requirements of the desalination process. Using SSD, the energy delivered to the desalination plant site is reduced from 2.98 kWhe/m3 to 0.37 kWhe/m3, and the total unit cost of water is reduced by more than 58%, compared with a standard RO system, claims the firm. The SSD system has been dimensioned for 48 m3/h of potable water, but, says MegaCell Engineering, scale-up is modular according to the formula n × 48 m3/h. Contact: MegaCell Engineering Srl, Via Provinciale 4, 35010 Carmignano di Brenta (PD), Italy. Tel: +39 049 9430926, www.megacellengineering.it
In Brief Xylem appoints senior vice president Anthony Milando has been appointed Senior Vice President, Continuous Improvement and Business Transformation, Xylem Inc – a global water technology company. In this newly created position Milando is responsible for driving operational excellence and process simplification across the organisation, and reports directly to Patrick Decker, President and CEO. He also serves as a member of the firm’s senior leadership team and is based at its global headquarters in Rye Brook, New York, USA. Mitsubishi Rayon changes name of its European subsidiary Japan’s Mitsubishi Rayon Co Ltd has announced that its consolidated subsidiary MRC Europe GmbH has changed its name to Mitsubishi Rayon Europe GmbH. Based in Düsseldorf, Germany, the firm specialises in the sale and marketing of water purifiers, coating resins, carbon fibres and composite materials. Aquarion Group relaunches S-Tec GmbH as an independent entity Global water treatment systems provider Aquarion Group, based in Baar, Switzerland, has followed its acquisition of S-Tec from SH + E Group with the relaunch of the company as an independent entity with the capability of designing and manufacturing water treatment plants and offering related services. S-Tec GmbH is now a stand-alone company based in Germany that specialises in modular water treatment plant construction. Called ModufleX, S-Tec’s new business model separates all elements of work required for plant construction into separate, selfcontained modules. ‘S-Tec GmbH is poised for continued growth with its new and successful business model, strong financial position and highly skilled staff, which we are pleased to have retained,’ commented Karl Michael Millauer, CEO, Aquarion Group. BluMetric appoints new chief financial officer Canadian cleantech company BluMetric Environmental Inc has announced that Ian Malone, its founding chief financial officer (CFO), has retired. At the same time it has appointed Ms Vivian Karaiskos as the incoming CFO. Roger Woeller, CEO, BluMetric Environmental, said: ‘On behalf of the BluMetric team I would like to thank Ian Malone for his invaluable contributions as BluMetric’s first CFO. With his extensive experience and broad range of contacts he has helped to shepherd the company through its RTO and first years as a public company.’
Membrane Technology
3