Veolia Water Technologies’ latest innovation is a game changer for multiple industrial markets. CaptuRO™is a high recovery reverse osmosis (RO) technology that has been designed specifically to extract purified water from industrial, brackish and wastewater sources. For clients, this means a guaranteed supply of the highest permeate water recovery — up to 98 percent — across numerous applications.
Over the past few decades, fresh water sources have become increasingly scarce throughout the world. At the same time, brine disposal options have become less available and increasingly more expensive due to environmental regulations and sustainability requirements. These ongoing trends have been drivers for municipalities and industries to utilize high recovery RO processes.
Robert Koch, Manager of industrial applications at Veolia Water Technologies, is part of the team that developed CaptuRO. He explains: “This technology is truly versatile. From food and beverage to chemical, petrochemical and healthcare, it is a perfect fit for all general manufacturing. From pre-treatment to wastewater reuse across all applications — we can recover water at an extremely high rate. For our customers, this means they get a sustainable solution that can lessen their reliance on the municipal water network to help ensure business continuity while also reducing overall water stress.”
CaptuRO is a semi-batch process which enables a higher water recovery rate. Separate system volume containers are systematically employed upstream of the membranes to ensure that concentration turn times are optimum. Koch adds: “This enables concentrated salts such as silica and calcium sulfate to be purged from the system before they have time to precipitate. It allows CaptuRO to run at higher water recovery rates while minimizing the potential for membrane scaling and fouling.”
The technology also minimizes the volume of brine generated, resulting in savings in liquid waste disposal costs. Along with this come energy savings and the potential to further optimize the use of antiscalants. Last but not least, the semi-batch process automatically adapts to changes in salt concentration in effluent reclaim applications, allowing it to run continuously at an optimum recovery rate.
When asked what drove this innovation, Koch points out: “The customer pain point was really about saving water. Many of our customers were relying on municipal water which comes with a high price tag and there can be a lot of risk in terms of supply. Our customers needed to ensure the resilience of their business and maintain operations, with the same amount of water resources but from alternative sources and at a lower cost. CaptuRO is our solution.”
Thanks to its huge potential for water reuse, CaptuRO helps protect local water resources and reduce water pollution discharges. It is also a great tool for industrials who need to vastly reduce their water consumption, often driven by a corporate environmental initiative or by a regulatory requirement.
A water reuse solution for Limelco in Belgium
Limelco is a dairy producer located in Zonhoven, Belgium. Its production capacity is expected to expand further in the coming years, notably to accommodate a new butter production line. The existing sewage treatment plant, which is obsolete and already heavily loaded, will not be able to handle the estimated 30% increase in effluent.
Veolia Water Technologies will work with Limelco to build a new wastewater treatment plant with a daily flow rate of 2,880 cubic meters. The treatment chain will include a CaptuRO system, allowing for a hydraulic recovery of more than 90 percent (compared with 70% with a conventional RO system).
- Meeting discharge standards
- Lowering water footprint and environmental impact
- Reducing concentrate disposal costs
- Saving chemicals
- Saving energy
