GE Water & Process Technologies recently introduced a new, integrated ultrafiltration (UF) and reverse osmosis (RO) technology for water treatment in the production of beverages. Designed to process poor quality and challenging source water with optimal removal of particulates, microorganism and total dissolved solids (TDS), BEVPAK technology also reduces operators’ footprint and lowers costs.
BEVPAK also incorporates GE’s ZeeWeed 700B horizontal-designed, inside-out UF membranes alongside GE’s BEV Series RO technology, which offers beverage producers a distinctive product that provides quality, reliability and ease of operation, a smaller footprint, and simple installation and monitoring capabilities. BEVPAK is ideal for solids tolerance and ingredient water production, and it simplifies the process and removes equipment needed for air scouring.
“Our new BEVPAK solution is unique in its ability to handle the most challenging source water for our customers. By combining UF and RO on a single skid, BEVPAK reduces the footprint by up to 30 per cent compared to using those technologies separately,” Kevin Cassidy, global leader, engineered systems – GE Water & Process Technologies, said. “BEVPAK will give the beverage industry confidence that highly variable raw water can be treated to deliver the required product quality.”
Equipped with SevenBore* fibre technology, ZeeWeed 700B are blended polyethersulphone membranes, which allows the membrane to stay permanently hydrophilic and reduces the tendency to foul. When compared to granular filter media and cartridge filters, the ZeeWeed 700B membrane produces superior water quality and is virtually unaffected by variable raw water quality. GE’s BEV Series RO technology is specifically designed for production of ingredient water for carbonated soft drinks, juices, bottled water and non-carbonated beverages.
Other key features of GE’s new BEVPAK technology include a multibarrier process with NSF-certified membrane elements to meet required product specifications; a reduced chemical cleaning frequency and membrane replacement frequency caused by fouling; and internet connectivity allows remote monitoring, after-hours diagnostics and troubleshooting, among many others
BEVPAK is commercially available, and a few major beverage companies already have implemented the BEVPAK system at their facilities.
