Water Planet introduced PolyCera, a membrane filtration technology based on polymeric materials. Available as flat sheets or in Water Planet’s proprietary spiral monolith elements, PolyCera membranes offer a ceramic-like combination of high hydrophilicity, permeability and robustness, but at a lower cost.
“PolyCera has the potential to revolutionize the membrane industry by setting a totally new benchmark for membrane performance and cost," said Water Planet CEO Eric Hoek. “Based on Nobel Prize winning chemistry that was further developed at UCLA and then Water Planet, PolyCera offers exceptional performance characteristics previously found only with ceramic membranes but with a dramatic economic advantage. We believe PolyCera is a true game-changer in the industry.”
Water Planet’s spiral monolith elements leverage PolyCera’s benefits in a cross-flow, back-washable filtration module. Water Planet’s testing to date shows OpEx savings up to 40% relative to commodity polymer membranes and 80% relative to ceramic membranes. The result is the first commercial membrane product with ceramic-like performance and polymer-like economics.
Water Planet recently completed a six-week pilot test of PolyCera BE-100-XB ultrafiltration (UF) modules to reclaim domestic wastewater for non-potable reuse at remote temporary work camps in south Texas. The testing validated that the PolyCera UF membranes were able to consistently polish wastewater to meet the standards for direct, non-potable reuse with filtrate water quality less than 1 mg/L TSS, 2 CFUs per 100 mL, and 0.1 NTU turbidity. Moreover, when compared with PVDF UF membranes, PolyCera maintained a high sustainable flux, and its permeability was recovered from fouling with half the backwashing and cleaning frequency.
PolyCera BE-100-XB UF modules are fouling-resistant, easy to clean, oleophobic, and exhibit pH, temperature and oxidant stability. They are suitable for a range of applications, including tertiary treatment of municipal wastewater; high COD/BOD industrial wastewater water treatment; conventional air and high-purity oxygen membrane bioreactors; chemical, pharmaceutical, biotech, dairy, food and beverage process separations; pre-filtration for brackish and ocean water desalination; and municipal-scale to point-of-use drinking water purification.
Source: Water Planet
