Health and safety of potable water users
To ensure safe drinking water for communities, hotel guests or mine employees.
Cost and reputational implications
Non-compliant drinking water quality can cause users to get sick and can be costly.
Compliance to outlet quality
In order to comply to SANS 241:2015 drinking water specifications, World Health Organisation (WHO) or local regulations.
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Packaged Potable Water Systems, Using Membrane Technology For Compliance To Drinking Water Specifications
What Is Required From A Packaged Potable Water System?
- It must provide quality drinking water consistently – Membrane technology (UF and RO) is ideal for treating challenging feed water streams to potable quality and results can be monitored onsite.
- It must be easy to operate – Our packaged plants do not require skilled personnel where typically, only one operator is required to do checks during the day.
- It must be easy to maintain – Typical equipment include pumps, blowers, and dosing pumps.
- It should reduce chemical consumption – Typical chemicals used are sodium hydroxide (for pH correction), anti -scalant (if reverse osmosis is required), Clean In Place (CIP) chemicals and sodium hypochlorite. Typical dose rates are very low.
- It must have low electrical consumption – less than 1.5 kWh/m 3 (excluding RO).
- It needs low operational costs.
- It must be easy to install – Our system is designed and fabricated to allow for “plug and play” installation and is completely containerised.
Suspended solids removal
(UF only)
Total dissolved solids reduction
(RO only)
Disinfection
Compliant drinking
water quality
We have worked on many remote sites, and have seen clients face challenges due to the selection of unreliable systems for treating potable water.
Typically, conventional treatment (sand filters etc) is used.
We have seen from experience that membrane technology offers a reliable and consistent treatment process that is easy to operate and maintain, with a superior outlet quality.
Learn More About Our Packaged Potable Units
Benefits of ultra filtration (UF) and reverse osmosis (RO)
Application
Technologies used
Typical contaminants
Benefits of ultra filtration (UF) and reverse osmosis (RO)
- UF membranes are an absolute barrier and can remove bacteria and some viruses.
- Easy to operate.
- Flexible in the treatment of water to the required specification.
- Can be containerized and mobile for the production of potable water in arid regions where no suitable potable water source is available.
- UF system is a membrane process that provides an absolute barrier to suspended solids, particulates, and most micro-organisms.
- UF units can handle total suspended solids (TSS) of up to 50 mg/l.
- Should an adverse condition arise where the TSS feed value is higher, the outlet of the UF will still be good, but the unit will then require more frequent backwashes and possible clean in place (CIP) regimes. For short durations this is manageable.
- UF technology is basically replacing the original conventional equipment typically offered (sand, carbon, and cartridge filters).
- The UF system has a particulate removal rating that can remove some viruses and bacteria.
- The UF backwash operation is fully automatic, and the frequency and duration can be adjusted on the HMI, to adapt to the feed water quality conditions, providing flexibility in operation.
- The UF unit will remove suspended solids (TSS) from the feed stream, without removing any dissolved solids (TDS). The removal of dissolved solids is only possible by adding a reverse osmosis step (RO).
If Reverse Osmosis (RO) is required as an additional process step:
- UF provides a physical barrier to particles, thereby giving consistently high quality and reliable filtered water, as feed to the RO unit.
- Good quality feed to RO means lower frequency of RO cleaning and therefore extended on-stream time.
- The lifespan of RO membranes is extended, lowering replacement costs.
- Lower requirements for chemical dosing and for RO cleaning, resulting in lower chemical costs.
- Lower environmental impact.
- Mobile water purification systems are custom built and containerized.
- Systems are completely assembled and tested in the factory, and the client signs off a complete factory acceptance test (FAT).
- Onsite installation and commissioning time is reduced. Systems are designed to treat any water source to South African drinking water specifications SANS 241.
Application
- Ideal for mining camps, hospitals, shopping centres, schools, holiday resorts, hostels and small communities.
Technologies used
- Ultra-filtration units (UF) to remove suspended solids (TSS).
- Reverse osmosis units, if required to reduce total dissolved solids (TDS).
- Disinfection with sodium hypochlorite dosing.
- Containerized 6 or 12 metre – “Plug and Play system”.
Typical contaminants
- Total Suspended solids (TSS)
- Organics – Colour, Total Organic Carbon (TOC), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and others
- Inorganics – Chlorides, Sodium (Highly brackish, high TDS)
- Heavy metals (Iron, Manganese, etc)
- Nitrates, Fluoride, Ammonia
- Microbiological contaminants
