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AS ONE of the world’s leading suppliers of products and solutions for water treatment and purification, LANXESS helps its customers use the world’s dwindling water resources efficiently. At this year’s IDA (International Desalination Association) World Congress, which is being held in Tianjin, China, from October 20 to 25, 2013, the specialty chemicals company is presenting the RO membrane elements in its Lewabrane series.
Jean-Marc Vesselle, head of the Liquid Purification Technologies business unit, says: “Our products meet the highest German and international production and quality standards. For quality assurance purposes, each individual Lewabrane element is checked before being delivered to the customers.”
The Liquid Purification Technologies (LPT) business unit is part of LANXESS’ Performance Chemicals segment.
Lewabrane grades made in Bitterfeld
The membrane elements for reverse osmosis (RO) are manufactured at LANXESS’ Bitterfeld site in Germany. The Lewabrane grades consist of spiral-wound polyamide composite membranes and are specially designed for industrial water treatment and the treatment of drinking water. The range currently includes products for the desalination of brackish and low-salinity waters. Main areas of application include the production of boiler feed water required in power stations, wastewater treatment and groundwater remediation and recharge. The technology is also used for demineralization and particle removal in microchip manufacture.
The Lewabrane product portfolio includes standard elements (HR and HF), low energy (LE) elements and fouling-resistant (FR) elements. All these membrane elements comply with the NSF/ANSI Standard 61 for health effects of drinking water system components. The U.S. National Sanitation Foundation (NSF International) has thus certified that all membrane elements currently offered by LANXESS are safe for use in the treatment of drinking water, a market with strong potential for growth.
The HR elements are designed to provide extremely low salt transport in normal operation, with more than 99.7% salt rejection measured under standard conditions. The high rejection for troublesome compounds such as silica is also remarkable. The HF elements boast high flow rates and water productivity.
Special membrane elements are now also available for water with strong fouling potential.
Dr. Jens Lipnizki, head of Technical Marketing Membranes at LPT, explains: “Our membrane elements are characterized by a high degree of polymerization and a low surface charge, which in itself reduces the formation of particle deposits. In addition, the fouling-resistant (FR) elements have been equipped with a special feedspacer to generate greater turbulence in the feedwater channel, meaning that less solids accumulate on the membrane surface.”
The membrane separation elements in LANXESS’ Lewabrane range comprise a polyamide composite membrane, wound in several layers to form a spiral wound element (Photo: LANXESS AG)
Low energy (LE) elements were added to the product range in mid-2013. Their operating pressures are arounPuma Rihanna