OCEANSIDE, CA, Aug. 6, 2004 -- Hydranautics was chosen to supply over 15,700 ESPA2 membranes for the Orange County Water District's (OCWD) advanced water purification facility. The ESPA, or Energy Saving Polyamide, reverse osmosis (RO) membranes are known for high productivity and low salt passage, both factors crucial to the success of OCWD's new facility.
At full capacity, the 70 mgd RO plant will be the largest wastewater reclamation project in the United States. The elements, which are scheduled to be installed in late 2006, will reclaim microfiltered secondary effluent from the Orange County Sanitation District. Initially treating 80 mgd of wastewater, the RO system will produce either 64 mgd at 80% recovery or 70 mgd at 87.5% recovery. The flexible system design will treat varying feed water quality conditions. The RO permeate will be sent to the barrier wells and recharge basins.
Hydranautics' ESPA2 membranes operate at significantly lower pressures than most spiral wound elements (<150 psi as compared to 225 psi for typical brackish water membranes) offering considerable energy and cost savings. At standard test conditions the 400 ft2 ESPA2 membranes that will be used purify 9,000 gallons per day at a flux of 22.5 gfd.OCWD selected Hydranautics' ESPA2 membranes for this project "because of their excellent results from their 1-year performance test," stated Bruce Fraser, project manager for J. F. Shea Construction Co., the general contractor on the project. "In addition, we also have extensive experience with their ESPA2 membranes as 1,008 are currently installed in the 5-mgd Phase 1 of this project. This membrane was not only pilot tested and pre-qualified but it has been in operation on this site since late April of this year" Fraser continued. The current project is Phase 2 of ultimately four phases that will take the plant up to 119-130 mgd of RO permeate."
Hydranautics is a world's leaders in the design and manufacture of high technology membranes for RO, nanofiltration, ultrafiltration, and microfiltration applications. For more information, see the company website: www.membranes.com.
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