Ultra-filtration and Partial Softening in Water Treatment

December 6, 2022

Valve solutions for drinking water treatment

In a successful municipal water treatment application that treats 300m³ of water per minute, GEMÜ provides reliable valve solutions for ultra-filtration and partial softening processes.

Water treatment plant

Process Description

Ultra-filtration UF

After coarse filtration, the water is fed to the Ultra-filtration passing through porous membranes with a pressure drop of 0,1 – 0,8 bar. This retains the finest solids, turbidity and pollens, as well as bacteria from passing through the membrane. However, the water containing dissolved ingredients such as hardness components or minerals, and small

molecules can still pass through.

Ultra-filtration plant

Partial softening and regeneration

Ion exchange reduces the concentrations of hardness components (calcium and magnesium), and undesirable substances such as nitrates, sulphates and chlorides, by half from the sanitized water. Carbonic acid is generated as a by-product and dissolves into water and carbon dioxide (CO2). The pure-water degasifier then removes the excess CO2 before transferring the treated water to a pure-water container and feeding it into the municipal water supply following UV sterilization. This reduces the water hardness from a hard level (480 ppm CaCO3) to a medium level of 240 ppm CaCO3.

Raw water enriched with CO2 is used as a regenerating agent for the mixed-bed filter reversing the direction of the exchange process where high pressure dissolves CO2 to create carbonic acid. The carbonic acid is then fed in the counter current over the mixed-bed, regenerating the ion exchanger resin. About 95% of the CO2 required for regeneration can be recovered and fed back into the process.

Partial softening

GEMÜ products in use

All treatment processes for both raw and treated water distributions use GEMÜ 480 Victoria series butterfly valves (up to DN 400), GEMÜ D450 plastic butterfly valves range, GEMÜ 717 manual plastic ball valves and GEMÜ LSC limit switch box for quarter turn actuators.

GEMÜ butterfly valves in ultra-filtration plant

Why GEMÜ?

GEMÜ R481 pneumatic

GEMÜ offers the next generation of rubber lined butterfly valves, R480 Victoria series, as a direct replacement for the GEMÜ 480, offering multiple enhanced product features.

Thanks to its flow-optimized and sleek disc design, the R480 series achieves higher flow rate factors. This reduces the pressure loss, giving the butterfly valves greater energy efficiency. The PTFE-coated bushes reduce torques, not only allowing further savings through lower actuator costs, but also making the valves significantly more durable and therefore increasing longevity. Furthermore, the technical optimization of the liner improves tightness, which guarantees bubble tight sealing and resistance to slipping.

With its wide range of valves and accessories, as well as measurement and control instrumentation, GEMÜ provides an optimal solution from a single source, saving the customers time, effort and cost not only in logistics and installation but also in documentation.

In addition, plastic butterfly valves and ball valves used in this application are available in various actuator and material versions.

More information, click here.

Let’s check out our video tutorial on how to change the valve liner on GEMÜ R480 Butterfly Valve: