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COMPREHENSIVE INDUSTRIAL
WATER TREATMENT SOLUTIONS

Advanced, integrated, end-to-end services and solutions that maximize water recovery and reuse across various industries.

What is Industrial Wastewater Treatment?

Industrial water treatment relates to a series of procedures for treating contaminated water in facilities, enabling safe water discharge, and reuse of industrial water to maximize wastewater recovery. As industries continue to generate huge amounts of wastewater and water becomes less accessible for industrial applications, there is a growing need for high-recovery solutions that help meet today’s challenging regulatory and sustainability water demands.

 

Wastewater treatment processes that remove contaminants and pollutants from the effluent can include physical/chemical treatment, biological treatment, membrane filtration treatment (RO,NF), and many others.

Disposal of industrial plant wastewater
can be a challenging task.

Common disposal options include: 

  • Direct Surface Discharge: releasing treated wastewater directly into surface water bodies.
  • Discharge to a Local Treatment Plant (WWTP): sendIng wastewater to a municipal facility for further treatment.
  • Deep Well Injections: injecting wastewater deep underground into porous rock formations.
  • Evaporation Ponds: large basins utilizing solar radiation for wastewater evaporation

As water scarcity intensifies and regulations become more stringent, industrial plants are increasingly focused on minimizing effluent disposal and maximizing water recycling and reuse within their processes.

We excel in maximizing recovery

IDE treats the most complex wastewater, offering the highest wastewater recovery rates in the industry. By combining our proprietary MAXH2O products with a wide range of water treatment technologies—each customized to meet the unique needs of different industries—we can effectively address even the most complex wastewater treatment challenges.

Understanding the chemistry of water

IDE’s expert engineers possess a deep understanding of the diverse mineral and organic chemistry of wastewater across various industries. This expertise enables us to develop tailored, optimal, and efficient wastewater treatment solutions for each specific application, ensuring superior performance and strict compliance with environmental standards.

 

Our industrial wastewater treatment solutions have been successfully implemented worldwide, with some systems in operation for decades. These solutions support numerous industries  including  Mining, Power, Refining & Petrochemicals,  Microelectronics & Semiconductors, and  Manufacturing tackle and overcome their wastewater treatment challenges.

Industry Challenges

Industries today face a complex set of interconnected challenges: water scarcity, stricter regulations for wastewater disposal, and the growing pressure to operate sustainably. 

Water scarcity
Freshwater availability is becoming a growing concern. Most industries rely heavily on water and are increasingly facing rising costs and the growing non-availability of freshwater sources.

Disposal regulations
Regulations around wastewater disposal are becoming stricter, with increased scrutiny on pollutants and proper treatment methods. This necessitates significant investments in advanced water treatment solutions.

Sustainability
Governmental regulatory bodies and investors are demanding more environmentally friendly practices. Industries must find ways to reduce their carbon footprint, minimize pollution, and incorporate renewable resources. The most effective solution to these challenges is to treat the wastewater effluent, enabling the reuse and recycling of water within the plant. This approach minimizes the demand for freshwater and reduces wastewater effluent discharge, promoting sustainability and cost-efficiency.

High Recovery Solutions for Industrial Wastewater Treatment

Our game-changing technology solutions and services transform your industrial wastewater treatment challenges into valuable water assets. We have developed economical, sustainable, and reliable thermal and membrane-based water treatment solutions that achieve the industry’s highest recovery rates.

Our innovative brine management solutions, based on our proprietary MAXH2O product line, minimize brine volume, reduce your disposal costs and meet regulatory requirements, and maximize fresh water recovery to help you meet your reuse potential.

MAXH2O Desalter

A Unique RO process that operates at a very high recovery rate without compromising the membranes’ service life.

The patented MAXH2O Desalter maxmizes the potential of RO to treat brine by eliminating the limitation of water chemistry. It operates by recirculating treated water through the RO system at high shear velocity, continuously precipitating supersaturated salts from the recirculated brine.

MAXH2O Pulse Flow RO (PFRO)

An innovative method for operating reverse osmosis water reuse systems that enables operation at high recovery and high flux.

Our proprietary patented Pulse Flow RO (PFRO) technology challenges conventional RO operation by discharging brine in a pulse flow regime withshort forceful surges. The frequently and rapidly changing osmotic and gauge pressure prevents the formation of biofouling and eliminates the need for chloramine dosing.

COOLING TOWER BLOWDOWN TREATMENT - IDE’s end-to-end solutions maximize the overall recovery and minimize the volume for disposal.

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Our full range of unique benefits for wastewater treatment:

  • High recovery technologies as an integrated part of our design to reuse and recycle as much of the water as possible.

  • End-to-end water treatment from pre-treatment, through membrane solutions up to ZLD with thermal technologies.

  • Reduced OPEX and CAPEX compared to conventional solutions.

  • Proven track record in EPC, turnkey, O&M, BOT and other business models.

  • Fully customizable to a variety of water sources and customer requirements.

  • Modular design capability with a short set-up time suitable for remote locations.

  • Global delivery
    capabilities.

Industrial Wastewater Treatment Solutions

PRE-TREATMENT

Physical filtration water pretreatment is a crucial step in safeguarding downstream processes. It effectively removes harmful pollutants and particulates, thereby protecting and enhancing the efficiency of other systems, such as dissolved solids removal (including reverse osmosis, ion exchangers, and EDI) and biological treatment systems. This essential process ensures the smooth operation and longevity of the entire water treatment infrastructure.

Learn more about IDE’s complete range of pre-treatment solutions.

BIOLOGICAL TREATMENT

Biological wastewater treatment is often used as a secondary treatment process to remove material remaining after primary treatment. Biological treatments rely on bacteria, nematodes, or other small organisms to break down organic waste using normal cellular processes.

Find out about IDE’s specialized bio-treatment solutions for various industries.

REVERSE OSMOSIS

Reverse Osmosis (RO) uses the principle of osmosis to remove salt and other impurities by transferring water through a series of semi-permeable membranes. As water desalination plants expand globally, they are required to meet sustainable development goals. 

Learn how IDE’s solutions alleviate water challenges while minimizing environmental impact and decreasing our customers’ energy and water footprints.

 

PERMEATE
POLISHING

The RO process removes over 99% of the dissolved solids from the feedwater, leaving approximately 1%, which is unacceptable for many applications. RO permeate is not considered of equal quality to demineralized or deionized water, nor is it considered ultrapure water. To achieve and maintain this level of purity, the RO permeate must be ‘polished.’

Read more about IDE’s two stages of permeate polishing.

ZLD (ZERO-LIQUID DISCHARGE)

MLD (Minimal Liquid Discharge) and ZLD (Zero Liquid Discharge) are advanced high recovery water treatment solutions designed to minimize or eliminate wastewater discharge from industrial processes.

MLD systems aim to significantly reduce the volume of liquid waste, typically achieving a reduction of 90-95%., while ZLD systems take the process further by ensuring that no liquid waste is discharged at all.

Discover how MLD and ZLD water treatment solutions provide significant benefits, helping industries achieve regulatory compliance, implement sustainable practices, and enhance operational efficiency.

HIGH RECOVERY & BRINE MINIMIZATION

IDE Water technologies has developed two innovative technologies for maximizing recovery and complying with regulatory requirements – MAXH2O Desalter and MAXH2O  PFRO.

The MAXH2O Desalter is a state-of-the-art RO solution that includes an integrated salt precipitation cycle for high recovery applications. MAXH2O  Desalter process enables pushing the RO water treatment ability to its limit while overcoming the challenging limitation of membrane scaling and fouling – all this while enabling brine minimization and achieving the industry’s highest recovery rates.

MAXH2O PFRO technology overcomes the challenges of conventional RO operation by discharging brine in a pulse flow regime through short, high-velocity surges. The frequently and rapidly changing osmotic and hydraulic conditions reduce biofouling and scaling tendency allowing to push the recovery of the RO to new heights. Additionally, PFRO simplifies the preventive maintenance approach, which increases the time between CIPs and prolongs the life duration of the membranes.

Treat the toughest water by utilizing a smart combination of our proprietary MAXH2O products with a wide range of additional brine minimization and water treatment technologies.

Download the webinar:

The Latest Thinking in Industrial Wastewater Treatment
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Meeting Industrial Wastewater
treatment regulations:

Wastewater treatment regulations are becoming ever more stringent, following worldwide recognition of the need to preserve the environment. Regulations are not limited only to the amounts you can discharge, but also address the levels of pollutants that can be discharged.

The Clean Water Act (CWA) establishes the basic structure for regulating discharges of pollutants into the waters of the United States, and regulating quality standards for surface waters. Under the umbrella of the CWA, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has developed national water quality criteria recommendations for pollutants in surface waters, as well as produced a comprehensive Guide for Industrial Waste Management, with the objective of providing facility managers and regulators with recommendations and tools to better address the management of the large quantities of waste generated by industrial water treatment facilities.

Federal water quality criteria define the maximum permissible levels of various pollutants that will ensure the protection of marine life and human health. Water quality standards are developed to maintain this quality of water, and the responsibility for these standards rests at State level.

The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit Program

The EPA develops national wastewater discharge standards – Effluent Guidelines – on an industry-by-industry basis. These are technology-based regulations and are intended to represent the greatest reductions of pollutants that are economically achievable for an industry.

The standards for direct dischargers are incorporated into National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits issued by States and EPA regional offices, and permits, or other control mechanisms for indirect dischargers

Preventing pollution requires a comprehensive, holistic approach; an approach that looks at an entire facility – from its physical design, through its production processes and products, with the aim of identifying how to mitigate and minimize environmental impacts across the facility. The Pollution Prevention Act of 1990, a national, 4-step policy calls for:

  • Examination of waste streams and technologies to identify opportunities for recycling and/or reusing wastewater
  • Reducing volume and contamination of waste prior to final disposal to reduce costs and comply with regulations
  • Minimum amount to authorized sites, MLD or ZLD are high priority
  • Any practice that reduces pollution prior to recycling/reusing treatment, and/or disposal. Proper maintenance of filters and membranes

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