Siemens Water Technologies Announces Four New Innovations Focused on Sustainable Water Management
"The trends are clear. Unless as a society, we accept the severity of water scarcity and effectively manage water resources, our future water supply will not be sustainable. Innovation will be an important aspect for ensuring sustainable communities," said Siemens Water Technologies' President and CEO Chuck Gordon at the 81st Annual Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference (WEFTEC) in Chicago, Illinois.
"Although water treatment technologies exist today that can help communities and industry, forward-thinking, creative solutions are needed to support future water demands," Gordon continued. "Much of our research and technology development focuses on water reuse technologies, energy reduction, and biosolids management."
At WEFTEC, Siemens Water Technologies announced four new product line additions, which support water sustainability through new waste-to-energy technologies and developments in membrane bioreactor technologies for greater efficiency.
Biosolids management and energy recovery can effectively be leveraged and have increasingly become an important component of wastewater treatment operations. According to the U.S. EPA, public water utilities use about 4% of the power consumption in the United States.
"By harnessing the wastewater-generated solids and gases, communities are lowering energy costs, saving space in landfills and encouraging the use of nutrient-rich wastewater solids," said Gordon.
Siemens Water Technologies recently licensed the Crown sludge disintegration system, which expands the company's waste-to-energy product portfolio. The system is a cell lysing process, which is installed after the sludge thickeners but before the digester, eliminates digester foaming, increases methane gas production by up to 30%, and reduces solids for disposal by 20%. The Crown system complements Siemens' Dystor dual-membrane gas holder system that captures biogas produced by the anaerobic process.
Two Dystor gas holder systems will soon be operating at Rialto, Calif., as part of an upgrade to the city's wastewater treatment plant. Chevron Energy Solutions is also partnering with the city on the project. The Dystor systems will be used to store methane gas produced from treating municipal wastewater sludge and local restaurant kitchen grease. Increasing its biogas storage will help Rialto further reduce its energy costs, grow city revenues, and improve air quality.
Siemens also added a new Sludge Belt Dryer to its biosolids management portfolio this year. The new convective belt dryer comes in a one- or two-belt design that provides uniform evaporation and has an adjustable speed belt to vary residence times. The dryer offers low emissions, low dust, a granular final product, and a low thermal requirement with possible heat recovery from low temperature waste energy sources.
The third new product that Siemens is introducing at WEFTEC this year is another licensed technology, called the ELODE (Electro-Osmosis Dehydrator) device. The electro-dewatering device extracts both free and absorbed water from organic and inorganic residual materials. It can yield efficiencies greater than 40% dry solids, reducing typical municipal and industrial waste sludge volumes by at least half.
Gordon added, "Effective management of biosolids also drastically reduces operating costs and greenhouse gas emissions - yet more ways technology can help sustain our environment."
In addition to new biosolids and energy management technologies, Siemens Water Technologies announced developments in its water reuse product portfolio with a new MBR technology, originating from the company's R&D center in Singapore. The MemPulse MBR device introduces air and mixed liquor into the bottom of the membrane modules through an "airlift effect." This increases scouring effectiveness, decreases operation and maintenance costs, and reduces energy consumption.
"Water reuse and effective water management will be a cornerstone to the world's future water sustainability. We continue to see more and more communities looking at better ways to reuse wastewater and manage water supplies to support future growth and resource demands," said Gordon.
Technical experts will speak about all four of the new technologies on Monday and Tuesday in Siemens' booth (Booth # 28077 in Hall B). In addition, Gordon and Siemens' technical experts will give live presentations at the booth on water sustainability solutions, including the economics of water reuse, UV disinfection, waste reduction and water reuse technologies, as well as the importance of corporate responsibility in the water industry.
Further information about solutions for water treatment available at
http://www.siemens.com/water.
Crown is a registered trademark of Biogest AG and its affiliates in most countries. ELODE is a trademark of ACE Korea, Inc. and its affiliates in most countries. Dystor and MemPulse are trademarks of Siemens and its affiliates in most countries.
The Siemens Industry Sector (Erlangen, Germany) is the world's leading supplier of production, transportation and building systems. Integrated hardware and software technologies combined with comprehensive industry-specific solutions enable Siemens to enhance the productivity and efficiency of its customers in industry and infrastructure. The Sector comprises six Divisions: Building Technologies, Industry Automation, Industry Solutions, Mobility, Drive Technologies and Osram. In fiscal 2007 (ended September 30), Siemens Industry generated sales of approximately EUR40 billion (pro forma, unconsolidated) with around 209,000 employees worldwide. www.siemens.com/industry.
With the business activities of Siemens VAI Metal Technologies, (Linz, Austria), Siemens Water Technologies (Warrendale, Pa., U.S.A.), and Industry Technologies, (Erlangen, Germany), the Siemens Industry Solutions Division (Erlangen, Germany) is one of the world's leading solution and service providers for industrial and infrastructure facilities. Using its own products, systems and process technologies, Industry Solutions develops and builds plants for end customers, commissions them and provides support during their entire life cycle.
Further information and downloads at: www.siemens.com/industry-solutions
