STW finishes brine concentrator project at Horizon, Texas

Water management firm, STW Resources, has completed a US$ 2.2 million contract for the design, engineering and construction of a reverse osmosis (RO) concentrator for the Texas city, Horizon.

STW Resources subsidiary, STW Water, was the manufacturer and technology integrator for the Horizon project and will maintain the system under a contract with Horizon City Municipal Utility District.

An existing municipal reverse osmosis plant in Horizon City is 13 years old and could produce processed water at only 28-36 Ml/d. The Texas Commission of Environmental Quality (TCEQ) recorded that the facility discharged brine effluent at about 4 Ml/d into evaporation ponds that failed to evaporate at their expected rate. And land costs made the construction more ponds an uneconomical option.

STW and its engineering partner, TRE & Associates, proposed, designed and subsequently built the reverse osmosis concentrator to deal with evaporation pond shortfall while allaying environmental concerns.
The new set up makes about 50% of the effluent usable with the concentrator reclaimng the rest back into the distribution system to be blended with permeate from the other reverse osmosis systems into the final tanks. The concentrator is therefor an economical option compared to buying land for additional ponds.

STW Resources said the concentrator RO trains were recovering fresh water from the concentrated brine stream of the existing reverse osmosis facility in Horizon City at 4Ml/d. It said the system was running at a rejection rate of 99%.

STW Water president Alan Murphy said the company was anticipating other projects in the US’s dry south west: “This is the second concentrator project in the state of Texas that I designed to recover the maximum amount of fresh water from brackish water. We look forward to continue to work with Horizon City and we are currently in negotiations with throughout Texas and California.”