지속가능한 물 분리 및 정화 기술 전문업체인 Dow Water & Process Solutions사가 매일 처리되는 물의 양은 그대로 유지한 채 수처리 기업이 담수화 과정에서 사용되는 에너지양을 줄이도록 도와줄 효과적이고 효율적인 방법을 만들어냈다. 나아가 Dow는 이러한 시설들이 식수 생산 과정에서의 에너지 소비를 줄이도록 돕고 있다.

이러한 의미에서 Dow는 해수담수화의 에너지 비용을 줄이고 더 많은 경제적 효율성을 취하고자 유럽과 중동 전역에 위치한 수많은 새로운 플랜트에 ‘DOW SEAMAXX™ 역삼투 원소’를 설치해 왔다. 이러한 RO 시스템은 담수를 생산하는 데 필요한 특정한 에너지 소모를 10%까지 줄임으로써 궁극적으로 에너지 사용을 가장 적합하게 만든다.

 

 

 

Dow Water & Process Solutions, a specialist in sustainable water separation and purification technologies, has created an effective and efficient way for water treatment companies to reduce the amount of energy used in desalination processes without decreasing the capacity of water processed daily. Further, the company is helping these utilities reduce energy consumption in the production of drinking water, making it more accessible to consumers across the globe.

 

In this sense, the company's DOW SEAMAXX™ reverse osmosis (RO) elements have been installed in many new plants across Europe and the Middle East, including Cyprus, Israel and Italy, for reducing the energy costs of seawater desalination and achieving greater economic efficiency. These RO systems ultimately optimize energy use by reducing the specific energy consumption (kWh/m3) needed to produce freshwater by up to 10 percent -- a major economic and ecological benefit.

 

The main feature of these membranes is their high permeability, which enables higher total production at the facility without increasing operating pressure, thereby reducing specific energy consumption. This high permeability, achieved by means of enhanced membrane chemistry, enables an RO production plant to operate at higher conversion rates at similar or even lower operating pressures than those required by existing RO membranes, therefore reducing the initial capital cost as well as operating costs.

 

DOW SEAMAXX has an optimized module design, with 40.88 m2 of active membrane surface and interlocking technology that maximizes the productivity of a desalinization system with low differential pressure, low cleaning frequency and high cleaning efficiency. The technology also has less fouling at high operating flux and has typically demonstrated success in producing 99.7-percent water purity. These elements make DOW SEAMAXX ideal for single, double-pass and interstaged desalinization systems treating medium to high total dissolved solids, brine treatment and high salinity brackish water.

 

Dow's latest innovation can also be operated at the same conversion rates as other conventional products. However, in this case, the feed pressure required and consequently the associated energy cost is reduced even more significantly. The company's Global Water Technology Center in the city of Tarragona, Spain, which opened in June 2011 following an investment of $15 million, was crucial to the development of DOW SEAMAXX. In fact, the experimental results to prove the efficiency and excellent performance of the product were obtained at the Tarragona center.

 

[출처 = Water World / 2015년 2월 2일]