With the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) giving the U.S. wastewater infrastructure a D+, the time is right for innovations to mitigate inherent challenges. According to the ASCE, the nation’s more than 16,000 wastewater treatment plants are functioning, on average, at 81% of their design capacities while 15% have reached or exceeded it.
Among the challenges: growing urban environments are placing greater wastewater demands on facilities. The cost is increasing to address operation and maintenance needs at treatment plants and collection networks near the end of their lifespans.
According to the ASCE, estimates indicate that utilities spent more than $3 billion in 2019 to replace almost 4,700 miles of pipeline nationwide. Asset management plans enable 62% of surveyed utilities to proactively manage wastewater infrastructure maintenance.
The wastewater sector is addressing current and future needs through resilience-related planning and innovations offered by manufacturers.
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Nanofiltration
Case in point: NX Filtration, a Netherlands-based global provider of direct nanofiltration technology designed for pure and affordable water, recently received the 2021 Frost & Sullivan Global New Product Innovation Award in the water and wastewater treatment membrane industry.
The award follows another given last year by GWI for ‘Breakthrough Technology Company of the Year.’
For the Frost & Sullivan award, NX Filtration was recognized for its direct nanofiltration membranes that remove in one step micropollutants—including pharmaceuticals, medicines, PFAS, and insecticides, color and selective salts as well as bacteria, viruses, and nanoplastics—from water while offering strong sustainability benefits.
NX Filtration was chosen by Frost & Sullivan’s global team of analysts among markets and companies on criteria related to new product attributes, including matching market needs, reliability, quality, positioning, and design. Other factors include its impact on the end user in terms of price and performance value; purchase, ownership and service experience; customer service experience; and brand equity.
“Both these awards emphasize the breakthrough character of our unique hollow fiber nanofiltration membranes,” said Michiel Staatsen, NX Filtration CEO.
The company’s technology removes micropollutants in a manner requiring less energy and fewer chemicals.
Resilient Membrane Materials
The base material for the company’s membranes is PolyEtherSulfone (PES), designed to provide an ideal chemical and thermal stability for use in robust filtration processes. PES enables the production of membranes with very small pore sizes and narrow pore size distribution. The headers are designed to enable a low footprint of the modules in a skid, utilizing standard connections when possible.
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Source: https://www.wwdmag.com/membrane-technology/innovations-membrane-technology