Reuse of industrial wastewater at a low cost

As a result of water scarcity, many industries today are under increasing pressure from consumers, regulators and investors to shift towards a more sustainable use of water. One of the strategies is Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD), in which all wastewater is cleaned and reused within a factory. ZLD strategies for minimizing waste streams are already possible but extremely resource consuming.

By using forward osmosis, it is possible to extract very high quality water by only using a small fraction of the energy associated with evaporators and reduced Capex via the utilization of non-exotic materials for construction. This can, in some cases, lead to under 2 years payback.

The company Forward Water Technologies has developed an industrial wastewater treatment pilot plant, which uses Aquaporin Inside® forward osmosis membranes to clean and recycle water. Doing so has allowed them to demonstrate a wastewater volume reduction typically of 70 per cent and greater than 92 per cent in some applications.

The pilot plant is currently operating with streams from oil & gas production. However, the learnings from this application can be transferred to other industries – e.g. the textile industry, which is one of the most water consuming and polluting industries.

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