Water Treatment Technologies

Water Reuse Cycle: Ensuring Safe Potable Reuse Potable water reuse supplements traditional sources and must meet the same strict quality standards as drinking water. Wastewater undergoes advanced treatment—including reverse osmosis, advanced oxidation, and UV disinfection—to remove contaminants. Rigorous monitoring ensures safety, meeting or exceeding EPA and WHO standards. By adopting potable reuse, communities enhance water resilience, reduce dependence on freshwater, and promote sustainability. Public education is key to its acceptance. #water #wastewater #recycle

The Future of Water Reuse: Leveraging Technology for a Sustainable Tomorrow As the world grapples with water scarcity and environmental challenges, water reuse has emerged as a critical strategy for ensuring sustainable water resources. At Fluence, we're driving innovation in water and wastewater solutions. Here, we highlight some of the groundbreaking projects that showcase the potential of cutting-edge technologies in water reuse. 1. Advanced Treatment Technologies for Reuse Our Membrane Aerated Biofilm Reactor (MABR) technology transforms wastewater treatment by providing highly efficient nutrient removal with minimal energy consumption. This technology has been successfully implemented in numerous projects worldwide, enabling the production of high-quality reclaimed water that meets stringent reuse standards. For instance, our MABR technology has received California Title 22 certification, allowing it to meet the strictest water reuse requirements in the U.S. 2. Decentralized Water Reuse Solutions Decentralized treatment systems, such as our containerized water reuse plants, offer a cost-effective and efficient way to treat wastewater close to the point of use. This approach reduces the need for large infrastructure investments and minimizes environmental impact. Our containerized solutions, like the Nirobox WW model, utilize membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology to produce safe and reliable treated wastewater for various applications. 3. Case Study: Beverage Bottling Plant At FEMSA's Alcorta facility in Buenos Aires, we upgraded the wastewater treatment plant using membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology. This upgrade enabled the plant to handle higher sludge concentrations with a smaller footprint, producing treated wastewater suitable for reuse within the facility. This project showcases how innovative technologies can optimize water reuse in tight spaces. 4. Benefits of Water Reuse Preserve Freshwater Resources: By reusing treated wastewater, we can significantly reduce the demand on freshwater sources. Economic Benefits: Water reuse can postpone or eliminate the need for new water resource development, reducing long-term costs. Environmental Impact: Minimizes wastewater discharge and supports sustainable local ecosystems. Conclusion As we look to the future, leveraging cutting-edge technologies like MABR and decentralized treatment systems will be crucial for maximizing water reuse potential. At Fluence Corporation, we're committed to providing innovative solutions that address water scarcity and support sustainable economic growth. Join us in shaping a more sustainable tomorrow by embracing the power of water reuse. Please contact me to explore how Fluence's water reuse solutions can benefit your operations and contribute to a more sustainable future. ✉️ tjohnson@fluencecorp.com 📞 Phone: 484-757- 0005 📲 Water Sustainability Blog

As major parts of the US #freeze and energy usage increases for warming our homes, it's time to recycle the #energy that is consumed when we treat #wastewater. It's called sewage heat. And, no, the heat (gas) from sewers don't smell :) This fascinating BBC Future article (h/t Oji Udezue) shares how we can #sustainably heat our cities using the energy we already create in those underground spaces that we'd rather not see, #sewers :) - A functioning sewage heat recovery system in #Vancouver provides heating + hot water to ~6K neighborhood apartments. The system is expanding from 3MW to 9MW capacity. - The system captures heat before it escapes, uses heat pumps to concentrate it, and distributes it via pipes. - According to London South Bank University experts, the UK produces 16Bn liters of sewage wastewater/day. That's 20TWh of heat/year! Enough renewable heat energy for 1.6M UK homes! - #Denmark's treatment plants harness 600-700MW excess heat, enough to heat 20% of households in the country. - #US cities should take note. The technology is here. What US #cities require is the political will and policy #incentives to replicate these circular sewage heat solutions. Read the article below. https://lnkd.in/gsTE9qQ2

In a groundbreaking achievement from Germany, scientists have developed a revolutionary graphene-based water filter that turns toxic industrial wastewater into drinkable water within seconds. Using only gravity and a layer of graphene oxide just a few nanometers thick, the filter blocks heavy metals, dyes, and microplastics, allowing only pure water molecules to pass. This invention represents a major leap forward in clean water access, powered entirely by advanced nanotechnology. The key lies in the atomic structure of graphene. The filter has pores designed at the angstrom level, which are precisely sized to reject everything except water molecules. Its surface is hydrophilic, meaning it naturally attracts water without requiring pressure, power, or chemicals. Field tests conducted near a textile factory in Germany proved that even wastewater contaminated with chromium and dye could be instantly purified to meet World Health Organization drinking water standards. Because the system operates on passive flow alone, it is entirely off-grid and highly portable. It can be scaled for use in rural communities, emergency zones, and large industrial sites alike. The membrane is also resistant to fouling, as its electrostatic properties prevent buildup and allow easy restoration with a simple rinse. If implemented on a global scale, this German innovation could deliver safe, affordable water to over two billion people, using cutting-edge science to meet one of the planet’s oldest needs. #water #savetheplanet

Extracting critical minerals from mine wastewater. (NYTimes.com) Montana's former classic open pit Cu mine, the Berkeley Pit at Butte, is being exploited for critical minerals. The famous Berkeley Pit is now filled with 50 billion gallons of a highly acidic, toxic metalliferous brew. Montana Resources pipes liquid from the pit, enabling it to cascade onto piles of scrap iron. The iron becomes copper and is gathered for production at its Continental Pit mine. Among the other big waterborne prizes in the Berkeley pit next to the town of Butte are two light rare-earth elements, neodymium and praseodymium. They are vital for small, powerful magnets in electric vehicles, for medical technology and for defense purposes, such as precision-guided missiles and satellites. “We’re turning a giant liability into something that’s contributing to defense,” said Mark Thompson, vice president for environmental affairs at Montana Resources. “There’s some high-level metallurgy going on here." Paul Ziemkiewicz, director of the water research institute at West Virginia University, has researched the pit water in Butte for 25 years. He and a team of researchers from Virginia Tech and L3 Process Development, a chemical engineering firm, developed a method to extract critical metals from acid mine drainage in West Virginia’s coal mines, the same process now used in Butte. Large, densely woven plastic bags are filled with a sludge from the treatment plant. The water percolates out, leaving a preconcentrate of about 1% to 2% rare earths that need further refinement, with chemical processes. The final step in the patented process is an extraction with solvents that creates pure rare-earth elements. The Butte project is awaiting word on a Defense Department grant of $75 million to build a concentrator, the last step needed to refine the preconcentrate to rare earths and begin full-scale production. Zinc is also plentiful in the acid-mine-drainage mix here and, because it fetches a higher price, is important as a way to pay for the process. Nickel and cobalt are also extracted. The Berkeley Pit has been a festering sore since 1982, when, the Anaconda Copper Co. closed the open-pit mine, turned off the pumps and let water fill it. The water is so acidic from acid mine drainage that when tens of thousands of snow geese flew over it on their migration in 2016, many landed on the surface and were quickly poisoned. About 3,000 birds died. The Atlantic Richfield Co. and Montana Resources are required to treat the pit water in perpetuity to keep it from reaching levels that could contaminate the area groundwater. https://lnkd.in/gT-JtqAE https://lnkd.in/gQv-4-hr (Berkeley Pit (center) and Yankee Doodle Tailings Pond (upper left); the city of Butte is at lower right. NASA public domain image.)

Italy developed a plant that cleans polluted rivers by eating microplastics In a greenhouse outside Florence, Italian botanists have engineered a plant that behaves like a natural vacuum cleaner for polluted water. It’s not just a filter — it absorbs microplastics and heavy metals through its roots, locking them inside plant tissue and purifying rivers as it grows. The plant, called Pistia Magnifica, is a genetically enhanced version of water lettuce. Its roots are rich in lignin-modified enzymes that bind to synthetic particles like polyethylene and polystyrene — the two most common microplastics. As river water flows past, it traps these particles and draws them into its vascular system. Lab tests show one square meter of Pistia Magnifica can remove up to 92% of microplastics from 100 liters of river water in under an hour. The absorbed waste stays inside the plant’s structure, where it can later be harvested and safely incinerated — turning pollution into usable thermal energy. Unlike conventional cleanup systems, this green solution requires no machines, no power, and no infrastructure. It floats on the surface, grows rapidly, and multiplies naturally. Italian municipalities are now deploying it in canals, lakes, and irrigation ditches — especially near industrial zones where plastic runoff is highest. Environmental groups are calling it a “living cleanup crew,” one that could help restore biodiversity to plastic-choked waterways worldwide. The UN is already reviewing the tech as a solution for developing nations where river pollution has become catastrophic. Italy may have found a way to turn the world’s dirtiest water into drinkable streams — using nothing but sunlight and leaves.

💧 Texas Turns the Tide: Produced Water Is No Longer Waste, It’s Opportunity By: Troy Green While most states are stuck debating the risks, Texas is rewriting the rulebook for water reuse in one of the driest oil frontiers on Earth. In a bold regulatory shift, Texas lawmakers have passed new legislation that simplifies permitting, offers liability protections, and greenlights the industrial reuse of produced water (PW) — the briny byproduct of oil and gas extraction. And it’s not just for fracking anymore. Here’s why this matters — and what the rest of the world should be paying attention to: ⚖️ 1. From Legal Limbo to Legislative Clarity For decades, produced water has been treated as a liability: high in salts, metals, and sometimes radionuclides. But under Texas’ new law, PW can now be reused across industries — from agriculture and data centers to hydrogen and lithium extraction — with clear guidelines and environmental guardrails. 🛡 Liability protections mean companies no longer fear litigation for reusing treated PW if they follow defined treatment and disposal standards. 🔬 2. Innovation Is Scaling: From Pilots to Production Companies like Aquafortus, Aris Water Solutions, and Encore Green are racing ahead. Some highlights: • 💧 Over 20,000 barrels/day of treated PW already reused in pilot projects • 🚜 Reuse for irrigation of cotton, alfalfa, and pastureland is underway • 🌋 Integration with critical mineral extraction: lithium, strontium, iodine • 🌊 Ocean fertilization pilots to remediate dead zones using desalinated brine salts 📊 3. Economics Meet Environment Texas understands what few regulators dare admit: Produced water is an underutilized resource, not a liability. Reusing PW reduces: • Freshwater withdrawals in water-scarce basins • Brine injection volumes, lowering seismic risk • Infrastructure costs for new water supplies • Emissions tied to deep well transport and disposal 🌍 4. The Global Implication If Texas — the hydrocarbon capital of the world — can mainstream produced water reuse, other basins in the Middle East, Argentina, and China can follow. The Permian Basin is becoming a blueprint for integrating circular water strategies into fossil economies. 🚀 The Future Has Arrived. It’s Just Salty. Let’s stop asking if we can reuse produced water. Texas just showed us how. #Texas #ProducedWater #WaterPositive #WaterReuse #MiddleEast #SaudiArabia #Argentina #LatinAmerica

𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗠𝗼𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗿 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗴𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗣𝗙𝗔𝗦 𝗔𝗱𝘀𝗼𝗿𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 My first #PFAS remediation project was on selective adsorption. Fast-forward today, what still makes me personally excited is the rational adsorbent design at the molecular level. We, as a research community, are moving beyond simply tweaking existing materials. We're now actively engineering materials with tailored cavities, specific chemical affinities, and computationally predicted binding sites – essentially designing molecular recognition systems. This sophisticated 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝘄𝗼 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗰𝘁, 𝘃𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲𝘀 – ultra-sensitive 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 and high-capacity 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 – and it's fascinating to see how the design criteria diverge: 𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗦𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴: Precision is paramount. This is crucial for diagnostics. While highly valuable, challenges often arise when translating these sensitive systems from controlled lab settings to complex environmental samples where fouling or matrix effects can interfere. 𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: The challenge shifts. While selectivity against background competitors remains critical, treatment adsorbents face the complex task of capturing a broad spectrum of PFAS structures. In work developing remediation strategies, we often see that perfect selectivity for one compound isn't the whole answer if other PFAS persist. Here, the design focus balances broad-family PFAS affinity with high capacity, robust kinetics, and durability. 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄𝗹𝗲𝗱𝗴𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗹𝘆 𝗯𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹. The fundamental work required to create ultra-selective sensors – identifying key binding interactions and understanding the subtle interplay of forces – generates insights that certainly inspire remediation strategies. Even with molecular design guiding us, 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗵𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻: ▪️Scaling up novel materials cost-effectively and proving long-term stability under real-world conditions are universal challenges we collectively face. ▪️The regeneration/disposal issue remains a critical issue. Finding sustainable ways to handle spent adsorbents without creating secondary hazards is vital for the field. ▪️Transitioning sophisticated lab sensors into robust, field-deployable devices that maintain accuracy is the next major step. Leveraging advanced material design for both precise detection and efficient removal, informed by a constant dialogue between sensing and remediation research, is crucial for developing the comprehensive solutions our communities greatly need. Copies of all papers can be downloaded here: https://lnkd.in/eKbAEsf #PFAS #WaterTreatment #PFASSensing #Adsorption #SelectiveAdsorbents #MolecularDesign #MaterialsScience #EnvironmentalRemediation #WaterQuality #Innovation #Sustainability #SensorTechnology