Veolia has expanded its pilot testing programme based on NX Filtration’s hollow fibre nanofiltration membranes. In a series of two new pilot programmes, NX Filtration’s nanofiltration membranes will be tested for the reuse of effluent from a municipal wastewater treatment plant as well as for the treatment of surface water.
Over the last year, Veolia has been conducting lab-scale tests with NX Filtration’s hollow fibre nanofiltration technology for various applications in its scientific and technology expertise department (STED). Here, Veolia works with technologies to meet the global environmental challenges and help its customers move towards sustainable solutions. In addition, Veolia-STED has been piloting with NX Filtration’s Mexperience pilot system, which allowed for long-term testing on a specific wastewater treatment application. Based on the results of these tests, Veolia has decided to roll-out two larger full-scale Mexpert pilot projects.
The first pilot project seeks to test the use of hollow fiber nanofiltration membranes for the reuse of wastewater treatment plant effluent. Hollow fiber nanofiltration can serve as an alternative for the traditional combination of biological treatment, ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis to produce high quality water. The nanofiltration technology could be deployed to address water scarcity issues in regions of France challenged by summer droughts in combination with high water consumption during the holiday season.
The second pilot programme will focus on the production of drinking water from surface water. Here, Veolia is looking for an alternative technology to produce drinking water, avoiding the traditional multistage process – consisting of coagulation, clarification and filtration – and avoiding the use of chemicals.
Philippe Sauvignet, industrialisation manager at Veolia-DEST, commented: “Based on the results of our previous tests, we are excited to expand our pilot programme with NX Filtration’s hollow fiber nanofiltration technology. Deploying this technology in both wastewater and drinking water applications, we can achieve high quality water in a sustainable way.”
Erik Roesink, CTO and founder of NX Filtration, added: “We are proud to deploy our hollow fiber nanofiltration membranes for Veolia at two key applications for our technology: wastewater reuse and drinking water production from surface water. As we control membrane properties on a nanometer level, we have developed a highly effective way of removing contaminations, while containing minerals that are desirable in drinking water. Contrary to other filtration technologies, our nanofiltration membranes are capable of treating polluted waters in a simple one-step process, with lower energy usage and avoiding the use of chemicals in pretreatment.”
The pilot projects are expected to have a duration of approximately one year.
