Chemical Engineering September 2023 - 13

Newsfront
The Changing Face of
Water Treatment
Modern solutions help processors achieve water-related goals in a more proactive,
cost-effective way
A
lthough water reuse and recycling
began as a necessity
in regions where water scarcity
was a significant challenge,
the increasing cost of water
coupled with aggressive sustainability
goals has transformed water reuse/
recycling and related treatments into
an integral component of almost
every chemical process around the
world. Meanwhile, because water
treatment is not a one-size-fits-all
practice, a tailored combination of
updated solutions can help today's
processors achieve their water-related
goals in a more cost-effective,
proactive and sustainable way.
" There historically has been a significant
interest in water recycling/reuse
in
'water-challenged'
regions and
areas where domestic water needs
have increased, which reduced the
availability of water for industry, " says
Walter Kozlowski, senior director of
client sustainability solutions with
Evoqua Water Technologies, now
part of Xylem (Pittsburgh, Pa.; www.
evoqua.com). " However, interest
in recycling and reusing water now
extends to regions that typically do
not have significant water-availability
struggles due to increased emphasis
on sustainability goals in which
all of an organization's facilities need
to reduce their water footprint and
contribute to the broader goal. Also,
water costs are rising in all regions,
so recycle and reuse solutions are
becoming much more economically
feasible " (Figure 1).
However, because many of the
water-treatment practices employed
years ago are no longer the best fit
for current water-treatment needs,
processors and water-treatment
experts have begun to explore new
and often customized approaches
to achieve today's water goals,
says Pete Macios, director of research
with Veolia Water Technologies
& Solutions (Trevose, Pa.; www.
watertechnologies.com). " As the
economic, environmental and regulatory
climates change - for example,
phosphates, a common water
treatment chemistry of the past, are
now banned in many countries - we
are looking at alternative treatments
and chemistries, as well as combined
approaches and solutions, "
says Macios. " I'm confident in saying
that the treatments and chemistries
of 10 years ago don't meet current
needs, so if you haven't changed
your water-treatment methods in the
past decade, it's likely time for an update
using modern alternatives. "
Roi Zaken Porat, director of watertreatment
process at IDE Technologies
(Kadima, Israel; www.ide-tech.
com), agrees that there is an industrywide
trend toward more sustainable
water practices, including zero liquid
discharge (ZLD), minimal liquid discharge
(MLD), water reuse and recycling
and water planning, in an effort
to improve water efficiency, reduce
environmental impact, meet new
regulations and enhance resource
utilization. He adds that the newest
approach to achieving sustainable
water practices relies on the use of a
customized combination of modern
technologies, including treatments
such as advanced filtration and separation
(such as reverse osmosis (RO)
and membranes), biological treatment
processes for wastewater and
reuse, evaporation and crystallization
technologies and advanced water
monitoring and analytics systems for
efficient water management. But he
adds that the way in which these and
other technologies fit together differs
for every application.
Evoqua
FIGURE 1. Shown here is an Evoqua brine-recovery reverse-osmosis (RO) system installed as part of a
water reuse program
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SEPTEMBER 2023
Not one-size-fits all
" The chemical process industries
(CPI) comprise many different segments,
product categories and
needs, ranging from basic building
blocks like ethylene to complex
specialty materials for various
industrial end-user applications.
This requires each water-treatment
application to be tailored to meet
13
http://www.ide-tech.com http://www.watertechnologies.com http://www.evoqua.com http://www.evoqua.com http://WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
Chemical Engineering September 2023

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