Design of a compact and easy to install filtration unit
In drinking water treatment the importance of utrafiltration is increasing constantly both for ground water and for surface water (river, lake) treatment. Likewise, in pretreatment of sea water prior to sea water desalination systems (e.g. reverse osmosis) ultrafiltration is becoming very popular.
Atec develops a compact and ready-to-install standard container, which contains all components of a complete ultrafiltration plant. The only thing to be provided by the customer is the concrete foundation and the connection of raw water, drinking water and wastewater as well as power supply.
Ceramic membranes instead of sand filters
Among other types of membranes, Atec focuses on ceramic flat sheet membranes for drinking water applications.
In the past the sand filter has been the most common technology for drinking water filtration. Due to their limitations regarding effluent quality and yield (= capacity / backwash wastewater), this is changing gradually. Compared with sand filters, ceramic flat sheet membranes show significant advantages:
- Higher yield, due to much less backwash water consumption
- Better permeate quality: small sized membrane pores remove by far more than a normal heterogenous sand filter bed
From certain capacity investment costs of both technologies are similar. This makes ultrafiltration with ceramic flat sheet membranes the better option.