OCEANSIDE, CA, March 24, 2005 -- Built in 1926, the Peele Dixie Water Treatment Plant has been making clean drinking water for the residents of Fort Lauderdale for over 65 years. The lime-softening plant is a noted local landmark, with distinctive roccoco architecture that has earned it an AWWA historic landmark designation from the American Water Works Association. Hydranautics has been selected to assist the Peele Dixie WTP usher in a new era of safe, clean potable water for the growing South Florida population.
Serving over 240,000 citizens, the 12-mgd plant, consisting of four trains at 3 mgd each, treats well water from the Biscayne aquifer served by the Dixie Well field. Over 1,865 of Hydranautics' ESPA4 membranes will be used in the first stage and part of the second stage along with 288 ESNA1-LF2 membranes. Extensive pilot testing by Hydranautics determined that the hybrid design was ideal for meeting the Peele Dixie's performance requirements. The membranes will be in place by mid-2006 helping to update the plant from an older lime-softening treatment system to modern reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF) technology.
Hydranautics' ESPA (energy saving polyamide) membranes operate at significantly lower pressures than most RO elements, providing considerable energy and cost savings. ESPA4 elements produce 12,000 gpd per element at 99.2% nominal salt rejection. The low fouling ESNA1-LF2 NF membranes that were selected for the second stage produce 7,800 GPD with a nominal salt rejection of 80%. The Peele Dixie WTP will join other successful ESNA1-LF NF projects such as the Deerfield Beach and Boca Raton plants in Florida. These plants represent 40 MGD of Hydranautics' installed softening/NF membrane technology with proven experience and performance.
Oceanside-based Hydranautics (www.hydranautics.com or www.membranes.com) is a world's leaders in the design and manufacture of high technology membranes for RO, NF, ultrafiltration and microfiltration applications. Its products are used worldwide for a variety of applications, from seawater desalination, to surface water treatment, to agricultural irrigation. The company, founded in 1963, is a subsidiary of Nitto Denko.
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