Hydranautics membranes picked to help replenish Orange County groundwater

OCEANSIDE, CA, Sept. 23, 2004 -- Hydranautics, a global leader in membrane technology, was selected to supply over 15,700 ESPA2 membrane elements for Orange County Water District's (OCWD) advanced water purification facility. ESPA -- energy saving polyamide -- reverse osmosis (RO) membranes are known for both high productivity and low salt passage ¿ 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 Unite 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. This high quality water production coupled with low operating pressure makes it easy to understand why the J.F. Shea Construction Company selected Hydranautics' ESPA2 membranes for this milestone project.

OCWD selected Hydranautics' ESPA2 membranes "because of their excellent results from their 1-year performance test" stated Bruce Fraser, the project manager for J. F. Shea Construction. "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 4 Phases that will take the plant up to 119-130 mgd of RO permeate.

Hydranautics (www.membranes.com), a Nitto Denko company based in Oceanside, CA, is a global leaders in the design and manufacture of high technology membranes for reverse osmosis, nanofiltration, ultrafiltration, and microfiltration applications.

The groundbreaking for Orange County's Groundwater Replenishment System was held Sept. 21. For more information, see www.ocwd.com or www.gwrsystem.com.

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