WILMINGTON, MA - (July 6, 2004) - Koch Membrane Systems, Inc. (KMS) announces the commissioning and start-up of a 10-million-gallonper-day (MGD) ultrafiltration plant for the Alameda County Water District (ACWD) in Fremont,California. This state-of-the-art plant is designed to treat both clarified and raw water from the South Bay Aqueduct. The plant was designed by Montgomery Watson Harza and is being constructed by C. Overaa & Co. A KMS team is on site for the commissioning of the plant. It is expected that the system will officially "start-up" and send water to distribution during early July.
ACWD will hold their opening ceremony later this summer. It is anticipated that members of Alameda County Water District, Montgomery Watson Harza, Koch Membrane Systems, and local officials will be present for the ceremony.
"Alameda County Water District is excited about the start-up of the new membrane plant. It has been and continues to be a positive experience working with the KMS team. We expect that this plant will provide a reliable supply of high quality drinking water to our customers for many years to come," said Robert Shaver, ACWD's Engineering Manager.
KMS was awarded the contract after a successful 6-month pilot test performed at the Mission San Jose WTP on raw and clarified water from the South Bay Aqueduct. During the pilot, ferric chloride, powdered activated carbon and various polymers were added to both raw and clarified water as part of the piloting pretreatment trials.
The KMS ultrafiltration membranes were selected in part due to their ability to achieve 4-log removal of Cryptosporidium, 4-log removal of Giardia and 4-log removal of viruses, as well as to meet Title 22 regulations on surface water treatment. The KMS PMPWTM membrane has been certified by the California DHS for 4-log removal of each of the above constituents when operating at up to 102 gfd, and 35 psi transmembrane pressure.
The system will use KMS 8-inch diameter by 72-inch long ultrafiltration cartridges and will consist of six HF-52 racks containing the cartridges. Each cartridge has over 500 square feet of the KMS PMPW membrane.
The membrane is a hollow fiber of 35 mil diameter with a 100,000 molecular weight cut-off (MWCO). The membrane plant is designed to operate under 8 different feed water conditions. During operation with clarified feed water, the plant is intended to operate in single pass mode. Under raw water conditions, if turbidity spikes occur or if the addition of powder activated carbon is required, the plant will automatically switch to recirculation mode. To help minimize operator interface with the plant, a high degree of system automation was requested by ACWD. This automation is extended to integrity testing as well as cleaning operations.
For more information about Koch Membrane Systems and its products for municipal water treatment, contact the company at either the Massachusetts or California facility, or visit www.kochmembrane.com
