In CIRCULAR-WATER the feedwater is heated, separating the pure and impure components by differences in volatility. The micro-porous membrane is a key component to the process because it allows water vapor through, but not the impure liquid. The water vapours then condensed on a cooling plate. In this special configuration, an air-gap is left between the membrane and condensing plate to prevent heat loss and hence save thermal demand of the process.
It brings a well-researched, documented and tested new technology targeting both purification efficiency and cost reduction in water and wastewater purification.
The evaporation process occurs at low-temperature (commonly 60-90oC but can also work at lower temperatures) which is enough to produce water vapours. These processes of evaporation, filtration and condensation occur in a single module, making the equipment compact and easy to operate. Being modular enables the CIRCULAR-WATER to be infinitely scalable to meet diverse needs from a very small (few liters per day lab equipment) to a very large-scale (hundreds of thousands of cubic meters per day municipal facility)capacity installations.
The single module technology is extremely efficient (100%) in removing all types of non-volatile impurities from any types of sources, whereas a degasser is attached as an add-on when gaseous pollutants need to be removed from a particular wastewater.
With the ultimate goal of achieving closed loop water recovery systems, more and more stringent limitations are urging industries to use the best available wastewater purification technologies. The CWT-process uses waste heat to purify wastewater.
In cooperation with the KTH Royal Institute of Technology (in four Doctoral dissertations, more than six Masters Theses and many more research projects, this entirely new water recycling technology has been tested and proven. It meets the most stringent environmental regulations even at a very high content of pollutants.
Manufacture in 2020 of first series of test equipment for imec at PM Plast in Barkarby outside of Stockholm
Type of contamination | Amount | Method | Detection limit | Test by | Result |
Bacteria | 14 000 (after 7 days) | Membrane filter count | – | National Bacteriologic Laboratory, Stockholm | BDL |
Chlorine | 3.4 mg/l | Photometric analysis (Perkin Elmer) | < 0.01 mg/l | Water Protection Association of South West Finland | BDL |
Salt water | 31 000 ppm | Ion chromatography | < 1 ppm | VBB Viak Stockholm | BDL |
Trihalomethanes | 1 000 μg/l | Gas chromatography | < 1μg/l | University of Turku, Finland | BDL |
Radon | 380 Bq/l | Alfa detection | < 4 Bq/l | Swedish Radiation Protection Institute | BDL |
Cesium, Strontium, Plutonium, Radium | 2.4 Bq | Lithium Drifted Germanium Detector | < 0.1 Bq | Radiation Physics Department, University of Lund | BDL |
Arsenic +3 | 10 mg/l | AAS Graphite | < 0.003 mg/l | Analytica AB, Stockholm | BDL |
Arsenic +5 | 10 mg/l | AAS Graphite | < 0.003 mg/l | Analytica AB, Stockholm | BDL |
Ag nanoparticles | 3100 μg/l | HPLC | < 2 μg/l | IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute | BDL |
SiO2 | 10 000 μg/l | AAS | < 5 μg/l | Vattenfall AB, Stockholm | BDL |
Setralin and 20 other pharmaceutical residuals | 4 ng/l | HPLC | < 0.8 ng/l | IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute | BDL |