The pending water shortage I thank you for the exciting editorial titled The pending water shortage in CE, June 2013 [p. 5]. I fully agree with you that voluntary efforts are needed immediately to do everything possible to drastically bring…
Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin (www.utexas.edu) and the University of Marburg (Germany; www.uni-marburg.de) are developing a process, called electrochemically mediated seawater desalination, that promises to be an inexpensive way to desalinate small volumes of water. The patent-pending…
Scaling, fouling and corrosion have long been the enemy of cooling-tower water. While these issues still present significant water-treatment hurdles, today’s processors are also dealing with “impaired” water streams and increasing restrictions affecting intake and discharge water, among other challenges.…
Last month at Aquatech China (Shanghai; June 5–7), this company introduced a new addition to its range of membrane-separation elements for reverse osmosis (RO)-based water treatment, namely, Low-Energy (LE) elements. Operating pressures of the LE elements are around 20 to…
There is an emerging crisis brewing for the chemical processing industries (CPI) in many regions of the world. Those regions include China, the world’s manufacturing powerhouse; swaths of the U.S., including large parts of its South; and chunks of Europe.…
Capacitive desalination, in which salt ions are electrically removed from saltwater, has been researched for decades as a potentially cheaper alternative to energy-intensive reverse osmosis (RO) and distillation, but so far its application has been limited to waters with very…
The Microdynamics Series OCS721 is a microwave-powered, open-channel ultraviolet (UV) system for water disinfection in municipal wastewater and water reuse applications. The device uses microwaves to energize low-pressure, high-output, electrode-less lamps to generate a UV wavelength output of 254 nm,…
Unlike fossil fuels or precious metals, phosphorus has no alternatives — we (and all other life forms on the planet) need phosphorus; it’s in our DNA, our bones and our energy-producing chemicals (ATP). We get it from our food —…
Non-chemical water treatment methods generally utilize electricity to prevent scale formation, mitigate corrosion and control microbial growth. When properly applied, non-chemical water-treatment technologies help plants reduce chemical consumption, minimize waste and possibly save water and energy. The following descriptions outline…
Proxitane WW-12 Peracetic Acid (PAA) is an environmentally compatible microbiocide that is used for biological control in municipal wastewaters. This U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-registered wastewater disinfectant is an alternative to halogenated disinfectants such as chlorine-based chemicals, and can have…