Aquatech was contracted by Nirma to design and supply the new 25 MLD SWRO system for the facility in water scarce Gujarat, India.

AQUATECH INSTALLS LOW ENERGY SWRO PLANT BASED ON LOWATTTM

NIRMA FACILITY, INDIA

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Project Profile

THE FACILITYNirma is a multi-sector FMCG brand, headquartered in Gujarat in western India. Nirma manufactures products ranging from cosmetics, soaps, detergents, salt, soda ash, LAB and injectables. It is not only the largest selling detergent brand in India but also number one in soda ash capacity in the world. Nirma has over 15,000 employees and a turnover of over USD 550 mln.

Gujarat is a water scarce region and Nirma wanted to treat seawater to augment water supply at their plant and reduce dependence on rain water. When Nirma expanded their facility to include a new soda ash plant and a new

power plant, they had an increased requirement for fresh water, and selected Aquatech to design and supply the new 25 MLD SWRO system. Aquatech was chosen because of its advanced technology with a focus on pretreatment, energy optimization, and overall water recovery. With over 30 years of experience in water and wastewater treatment, Aquatech has been progressively making strides in optimizing the lifecycle cost and increasing the reliability of SWRO installations. After studying the feed water quality and issues with the existing SWRO operation, Aquatech proposed its patented LoWatt TM technology for the new SWRO plant.

www.aquatech.com

AQUATECH INSTALLS LOW ENERGY SWRO PLANT BASED ON LOWATTTM

NIRMA FACILITY, INDIA

Project Profile

LoWattTM is a novel RO desalination process that focuses on achieving low energy consumption by reducing bio-fouling on the membrane and integrating it with a cleaning methodology that prevents buildup of any residual bio film on membrane surface; and sustained plant operation is possible at lower energy consumption with high plant availability. This is made possible by the following innovative process approach:

The pre-treatment includes ultrafiltration (UF) membranes, which gives more than 6 log reduction of bacteria and 1-2 log reduction of virus. The permeate of ultrafiltration provides an SDI of less than 3 and very often less than 2. The UF is able to remove the majority of suspended particles including those which are colloidal in nature, and it also removes some bio-foulants.

Further treatment happens through a bio-foulant removal step by removing the majority of organics like humic acids, polysaccharides, proteins, amino acids, carbohydrates, bacteria and virus and other potential contaminants which aid biofouling.

The SWRO membranes operate at a lower flux of around 7 GFD. At these levels of flux the energy consumption is optimum to handle a wide range of temperature with minimum variation in power.

To further augment the processes as described above and to stop build-up of bio-fouling, a unique methodology of cleaning is adopted. The method is based on natural osmotic pressure differential between reject and permeate water to dislodge the bio film which can then be flushed off.

Considering the high suspended solids in feed water and the operation knowhow acquired by the customer, Aquatech’s design has maintained the tube settler and media filtration as part of pretreatment before UF. www.aquatech.com

AQUATECH INSTALLS LOW ENERGY SWRO PLANT BASED ON LOWATTTM

NIRMA FACILITY, INDIA

Project Profile AQUATECH SOLUTION

DESIGN WATER ANALYSIS

Parameter Unit Inlet Seawater SWRO Permeate

pH value at 25°C 7.2-8.31 6-6.5

Temperature °C 25-40 25-40

TDS mg/l 29535-43858 Max 500

TSS ppm 12-200 -

Flow m3/hr 3017 214 X 5 = 1070

www.aquatech.com

AQUATECH INSTALLS LOW ENERGY SWRO PLANT BASED ON LOWATTTM

NIRMA FACILITY, INDIA

Project Profile

PROCESS FLOW DIAGRAM