Water Planet introduces "revolutionary" new polymeric membranes

Water Planet has launched its new membrane filtration product, PolyCera, which it claims outpaces the current range of polymeric membranes, and costs less.

A six-week pilot to test the PolyCera BE-110-XB ultrafiltration modules in reclaiming domestic wastewater for non-potable reuse, which took place at a remote work camp in south Texas, US, in 2016, demonstrated consistent polishing of wastewater to the relevant standards. The water produced was always less than one milligram total suspended solids per litre (mg/L TSS), two colony-forming units per 100 millilitres (CFUs/100mL), and 0.1 nephelometric turbidity units (NTUs).

PolyCera maintained a much higher sustainable flux, and permeability after fouling was recovered through half the amount of backwashing and cleaning, compared to polyvinylidine fluoride (PVDF) ultrafiltration membranes.

“PolyCera has the potential to revolutionise the membrane industry by setting a totally new benchmark for membrane performance and cost. Based on Nobel Prize winning chemistry that was further developed at University of California, Los Angeles, and then by Water Planet, PolyCera offers exceptional performance characteristics previously found only with ceramic membranes, but with a dramatic economic advantage,” said Water Planet chief executive Eric Hoek.

In PolyCera, Water Planet claims to have created a unique ceramic-like combination of high hydrophilicity, permeability, and robustness, at a price that is 10 to 20 times lower than ceramic solutions. Testing to date shows operational cost savings of up to 40 per cent compared to commodity polymer membranes, and 80 per cent against ceramic membranes.

PolyCera is available as flat sheets, or in Water Planet’s proprietary spiral monolith elements.

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