Darco Water Technologies has signed a deal with Aquaporin Asia to pilot and testbed zero liquid discharge systems for industrial wastewater treatment under Aquaporin’s three-year forward osmosis project.
Under a memorandum of understanding Darco will collaborate with Aquaporin Asia to pilot the ZLD system based on the Aquaporin’s forward osmosis technology, Aquaporin Inside.
Darco said it will use its own wastewater treatment know-how to incorporate Aquaporin Asia’s forward osmosis membranes into its overall system as pilot plant scale test units for different industries. Darco said the deal will will position it as a “first mover” in the application of Aquaporin Inside forward osmosis technology.
Conventional ZLD systems via reverse osmosis would require high energy and incur higher operating costs, said Darco. In contrast, the ZLD system that it will be piloting with Aquaporin Asia based “requires relatively lower energy and operating costs,” it said.
Chief Operating Officer of Aquaporin, Mark Perry, said, “The Aquaporin Inside forward osmosis technology has great potential to lower the energy consumption in ZLD systems for industrial wastewater treatment. With Darco Water Technologies we have found a great partner for bringing our technology a big step closer to commercialization.”
Aquaporin Asia was incorporated as a joint venture between Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Ventures, DHI Water & Environment (S) and Aquaporin A/S in Singapore in early 2011. 80% of Aquaporin Asia is owned by Aquaporin A/S, a global Danish CleanTech company.
The project is funded by the Singapore National Research Foundation under its Environmental & Water Technologies Strategic Research Programme and administered by the Environment and Water Industry Programme Office of the PUB.