Ingnierie

Aqua Technique Ingnierie uses polysulfone membranes developped by Polymem company

What to know about Ultra Filtration membranes
Story Under development since 1985 in order to face the new European Norms and more precisely to face the turbidity limits, a team of searchers was appointed at Toulouse to develop a membrane which could, simultaneously, be produced per tons of products, last at least one tenth of years, work at low water pressure, be hydrophilic to prevent from chemical washing. This ultra-filtration technology was first developed with the cellulose poly-acetate product, a development which cost more than 30 million from 1985 to 1990. The first ultra-filtration reference was the Amoncourt plant in 1988, where the first replacement of the modules happened only in 2004 (but the working conditions are quite good). Anyway, nowadays, we can confirm the very high interest of the water treatment companies in this elegant technology which, being not polluting, is perfectly adapted in the new trends of long term sustainable developments. The potential UF market is appearing to be huge as most of the calls for bids for drinking water treatment plants in France are now requesting Ultra-Filtration technology, at least as an option. This ultra-filtration technology is still being improving through the use of the polysulfone membranes, instead of cellulose poly-acetate. As a matter of fact polysulfone is very resistant to bacteriae and is consequently not biodegradable, thus requesting no particular care. Advantages of Ultra-filtration membranes versus sand filtration UF membranes were first applied to solve the problem raised by water tables located in karstic areas, water turbidity of which is generally good but which can vary suddenly a lot during storm showers due to direct accesses of the underground to the surface. It appears that this is the only one technology which allows to face sudden turbidity variations without any interferences with the crystal water quality obtained as a treated water, and also without any change in the chlorine and/or chemicals consumption. This is not the case when using conventional treatment like flocculation on sand filtration. The turbidity of the ultra-filtered water which can be guaranteed is, at least, several tens times better (< 0,1 NTU) than the one of the sand filtered water (< 5 NTU). This means that the amount of suspended matter, which is chlorine consuming, is much better than the one obtained in the sand filtered water. This involves to expect at least twice as less chlorine consumption in ultra-filtered water than it is necessary in sand filtered waters1. Likewise, ultra-filtration is used to treat surface waters or well waters which might be contaminated by all sorts of bacteriae coming from breeding areas. In addition, ultra-filtration appears to be the only one technology which can get rid of Giarda or Cryptosporidium cysts, responsible of gastro-intestinal diseases.

Refer to the attached comparative evaluation resulting from the pilot tests carried out at Pailles in July 2006

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The pores of the membranes are so small (< 0,01) than they can stop not only bacteriae, but also viruses. Therefore the use of this technology as a disinfecting treatment, prevents from any apparition of THM or chloramines giving rise to risks of bad taste, as it may often happen when using chlorination after conventional treatment like any sand filtration. Ultra-filtration units are manufactured under modular systems. This means that they are very easy to be enlarged by simple addition of modules in case of extension. On the other end, the backwashing effluents (which results in a corresponding loss of treated water) are less (5% to 8%) than the ones of the sand filters (approximately 10%). In addition, they do not contain any floculant which would be necessary to add to properly achieve a sand filtration of turbid raw waters and so they are not harmful for the environment. . Lastly, the maintenance staff required to look after such ultra-filtration units is reduced to a minimum. Advantages of the Polymem polysulfone membranes versus cellulose poly-acetate membranes Being neither really sensitive to the running conditions nor sensitive to the quality of the raw water since they are not bio-degradable, poly-sulfone membranes are now used, more and more and with a lot of success, for small drinking water plants in rural areas where a simple watch over is enough. A long term stand-by of the poly-sulfone membranes without chlorine is even not harmful (which, on the contrary, is not allowed when using cellulose poly-acetate membranes). The chemical cleanings of the membranes, which must be carried out only twice a year, need the use of Chlorine (under the hypochlorite or gas form) and caustic soda available everywhere (which, on the contrary, is not the case of cellulose poly-acetate membranes which need proprietary imported washing powder) Chemical cleanings effluents can easily be thrown away in the environment since they can be easily neutralised. On the contrary, this is not so in the case when using the poly-acetate membranes where cleanings are long to rinse and effluents are even foaming. In addition, Polymem has always been developing membranes constituted by hollow fibres having an external skin (which involves an external to internal flow), while cellulose polyacetate hollow fibres have internal skin. Such a characteristic confers to the Polymem modules a much better behaviour in turbid waters since the fibres cannot be clogged. Backwashings and cleanings are also easy, very efficient and less water consuming. Lastly, Polymem modules are very simple to install since they have only one inlet and one outlet, resulting from the energy saving dead end ultra-filtration process (versus the tangential process first developed with cellulose poly-acetate). Precautions to be taken when using filtration technology Since ultra-filtration plays its role at the limit between dissolved and particular matters, additional treatment might be necessary to remove Iron or manganese in excess (like aeration by pulverisation of raw water in the air through special nozzles), or to remove colour or pesticides (by means of active coal), as it is always the case in any filtration process. In addition, ultra-filtration process keeps unchanged the good drinking quality of minerals since it is not a desalination process.