• Addresses the need for increased reuse of wastewater as water sources decrease in availability.
WARRENDALE, PA, Nov. 14, 2007 -- Mitsubishi Electric Power Products Inc., a full-service manufacturer of ozone systems for drinking water applications, now also provides systems for wastewater applications, including disinfection, color removal, odor control, and oxidation of compounds of emerging concern (CECs).
The move is in response to the increasing need for municipalities and industries to treat wastewater sufficiently as regulations grow more stringent, and also for re-use in irrigation and other applications, as water sources continue to decline due to drought, population growth and other causes.
Mitsubishi Electric has manufactured ozone systems for a variety of applications in Japan, including wastewater, since 1968. Its U.S. subsidiary, Mitsubishi Electric Power Products, has provided ozone systems for drinking water plants here since 2000. It manufactures ozone generators and other components; performs system design and installation; and continues service through maintenance contracts -- as a complete domestic-based operation.
The company here draws on special engineering resources for water applications that cover all generating and ancillary equipment and its automation, and the influence of related processes. To help assure reliable delivery of ozone, its generators feature patented technology designed to maximize continuity of operation.
Coincident with its entry to the wastewater market, the U.S. subsidiary has appointed Robert P. Kim, M.S., Env.Sci., as sales manager for its Ozone Systems Division. Early in his career, Kim served for two years as a water plant operator. He then worked for 22 years in technical service and business development positions for large and small manufacturers of ozone systems for a variety of water applications. He holds a B.S. in Biology from Pennsylvania State University, and an M.S. in Environmental Science from the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health.
"It's not a big stretch at all for this company to expand into wastewater," Kim said. "The systems required for some flow rates may be large in order to provide ozone in the concentrations required, and Mitsubishi Electric Power Products is the only U.S.-based manufacturer of large systems. What's especially important for WWTP operators is that they can now work with a major electronics products company with huge resources in industrial electro-technologies. We are not just a water treatment company."
"Ozone systems are primarily electronic, and what makes ozone work or not work for regulated water applications is reliability for continuous delivery, and optimized operating efficiency," he noted. "To get that reliability and cost control, WWTP operators need particularly good performance from ozone manufacturing cells, power supplies and input air drying equipment, which have been weak links for other manufacturers. Mitsubishi Electric has continuously improved reliability and efficiency for those components, including patented technology, and is now in position to effectively deliver our expertise here."
One wastewater application for ozone derives from the U.S. EPA's regulation of discharge of chlorine to surface water, which is often addressed through pre-discharge dechlorination processes that utilize a sulfide product.
Kim adds that a reliable ozone system can eliminate both the need for chlorine and the need to neutralize it, as well as the need to control regulated chlorine by-products, pathogenic microorganisms and compounds of emerging concern (CECs).
"Ozone doesn't leave a residual because it's a very unstable molecule that reverts back to oxygen after it's done its job," he explained. "It can also oxidize toxic organic compounds that filters can't remove, such as endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs), which are becoming of increasing concern to EPA."
Mitsubishi Electric Power Products' ozone generators feature patented technology designed to maximize efficiency and continuity of operation. The borosilicate glass dielectric is described as a durable design that resists thermal shock, and evenly distributes the applied electric charge over the entire dielectric surface without arcing.
Mitsubishi Electric Power Products Inc. (www.meppi.com) is based in Warrendale, PA.
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