Design, validation and costing of pressurised MF and UF membranes for recycled water
Annual Conference
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Our world is getting more and more thirsty for clean and safe water as the water cycle is squeezed on the demand side as well as on the supply side. Economic expansion and population growth require clean, reliable and uninterrupted water. Unfortunately, the sources of water have become either more polluted or increasingly more scarce due to climate change. Nowhere in the world have such realities been more exemplified than in Australia where extended droughts and lack of natural reservoirs have compounded the problem for many years.
Beyond conservation, new sources of water must be developed through the reuse or recycling of wastewater. Treatment technologies using advanced microfiltration (MF) and ultrafiltration (UF) membranes are well suited to a variety of wastewaters in providing new sources of water. This paper presents an overview of advanced pressurized-type membrane systems currently being used in Australia to produced Class A recycled water from wastewaters. Challenge tests with virus surrogates are presented for full-scale, membranes system validation to demonstrate regulatory compliance. Budgetary capital and operating costs of these membranes are given with respect to treatment capacity.