dws-pwnt-south-west-water-pilot-770pxjpgPWN Technologies has been assigned by UK water utility South West Water to build their new North Plymouth water treatment works. The new facility will include PWN Technologies' Six-CeraMac process that combines ion-exchange and ceramic membranes for the non-chemical pre-treatment of surface water.

Consultancy firm Arcadis is the main design contractor, in partnership with consulting engineers Pell Frischmann. Together they will be responsible for all the design work outside of the key treatment process.

The new facility will be operational in 2018 and is to produce 90 million liter drinking water daily.

dws-pwnt-south-west-water-pilot-sww-350pxjpg  The pilot installation that was used by PWN Technologies and South West Water to fine tune the Six-CeraMac process.

Fine-tuned in pilot installation
South West Water requested PWN Technologies to prepare a design with H5O, its capital delivery alliance. The new treatment process was tested and fine-tuned in a pilot environment for a period of 18 months started in April 2013.

The new advanced water treatment facility uses ion exchange (Six), In line coagulation and adsorption (ILCA) and CeraMac, filtration by ceramic membranes.

In combination with conventional technologies, UV technology and activated carbon filtration, sustainable water treatment can be realized whilst reducing operational costs, consuming less resources and producing less waste.

High content of humic substances
The new plant will treat Burrator reservoir water and water from the rivers Tavy and Tamar. This water has a high content of humic substances.

The Suspended ion exchange (Six) process has been specially designed by PWN Technologies to remove dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from the water to improve membrane filtration performance. The process uses a resin to adsorb the DOC. The resin is completely regenerated and re-used.

The CeraMac process is based on ceramic membranes in a unique design. By combining up to 192 ceramic membrane elements into one vessel, the application of ceramic membranes becomes much more compact, and has a lower energy consumption, compared to conventional membranes processes.

dws-pwnt-south-west-water-vessels-andijk-350pxjpg The typical high pressure vessels designed by PWN Technologies to contain 192 ceramic membranes. Here seen at Andijk, the Netherlands.

Keeping customer bills down
Dr Stephen Bird, Managing Director of South West Water, endorses the advantages of the newly designed water treatment facility by PWN Technologies: "With this new plant, South West Water is able to provide good, safe drinking water, that has the trust of our customers, while keeping customer bills down and reducing our impact on the environment."

Jonathan Clement, CEO of PWN Technologies: "We have always been convinced of the advantages of our technologies and are proud that South West Water acknowledges the lower life cycle cost and water quality advantage of our technology and we are looking forward to implement our technology into South West Water’s new advanced water treatment facility.

First Six-CeraMac in the UK
It is the first time that the Six-CeraMac technology has been used in the UK. PWN Technologies build its first Six-CeraMac at the drinking water plant Andijk, the Netherlands.

PWN Technologies is currently designing a CeraMac plant for PUB Singapore.

This news item was originally published on the website of South West Water and PWN Technologies.

Read also on this website
● PUB selects PWNT ceramic membrane technology to upgrade Choa Chu Kang water works, Singapore, 30 October 2015
● PWN Technologies demonstrates world's first Six-CeraMac plant to international top audience, 14 May 2014
● PWN's Six-CeraMac drinking water pilot facility up and running at South West Water, Plymouth, UK, 26 June 2013

More information 
PWN Technologies 
Velserbroek, the Netherlands 
+31 23 541 3740 
www.pwntechnologies.nl