Desalitech has won a deal to supply a high-efficiency, ultrapure water treatment system for Novelis’ aluminium production facility in Changzhou, China to help comply with a regulatory requirement for zero-liquid discharge (ZLD) in applicable process wastewaters.
The Desalitech ReFlex reverse osmosis (RO) system will reduce wastewater generation by more than 70% compared to a traditional reverse osmosis system. This will reduce brine flow to the downstream evaporator and the evaporator’s cost.
“As freshwater resources across the globe are depleted, industries are being forced to evaluate and manage their water resources accordingly. China has set a high bar for water sustainability, regulating that new industrial facilities cannot discharge wastewater and must maintain ZLD operation. The Changzhou plant, is Novelis’ first aluminium automotive sheet manufacturing facility in China, is meeting this requirement with its new ZLD wastewater treatment installation,” said Desalitech.
Water is used in various processes throughout the Novelis plant, producing wastewater streams that are treated with biological, chemical and membrane filtration followed by RO. The two-pass ReFlex reverse osmosis system is designed to operate at 90% recovery on the first pass and 95% recovery on the second pass, sending the permeate to an ultrapure process water and to cooling towers.
“Novelis’s new ReFlex reverse osmosis system is guaranteed to operate at the maximum recovery relative to the feed source, and provide greater resistance to the fouling and scaling that typically plague RO systems in wastewater applications,” said Desalitech.