IntelliFlux artificial intelligence (AI)-based software developed by Water Planet, Inc., is being used in a pilot project in Wasco, Calif., to evaluate the performance and economics of treating produced water for agricultural reuse.
The project, which is being done with Sweetwater Tech Resources, utilizes Water Planet’s IMS-5000 integrated produced water treatment solution powered by IntelliFlux. The IMS-5000 technology used in the pilot is an integrated mechanical and membrane filtration system that incorporates ceramic membranes to filter the water. It was developed to perform in oil and gas-produced water treatment. As part of the project, Water Planet is also running a standard reverse osmosis unit to desalt the brackish water that is left after treatment by the ceramic ultrafiltration membranes.
“We are currently running a series of demonstrations using a range of waters provided by a consortium of California oil producers to evaluate treating produced water for potential use in agricultural irrigation. Our goals are to assess the water quality that can be achieved and the cost of doing so,” said Eric Hoek, CEO of Water Planet.
Preliminary results are expected to be available in May, and will be passed along to regulators.
IntelliFlux is a fully automated, self-adaptive filtration process control software developed to optimize the performance of filtration systems in the most challenging applications. IntelliFlux learns how the filter responds to the influent water quality to determine custom-optimized flux maintenance actions (i.e., backwash, CIP, regeneration, etc.). As influent quality and/or membranes change over time, IntelliFlux automatically adapts and adjusts flux maintenance protocols in real-time to ensure stable system performance with maximum water recovery, process uptime and filter media useful life.
For example, during periods of increased solids loading IntelliFlux instantaneously accelerates flux maintenance actions, thereby maintaining the target treated water throughput while protecting membranes from becoming fouled too quickly or filter media from being overloaded and passing critical contaminants. During periods of reduced solids loading, the system immediately spreads out flux maintenance actions, maximizing water recovery while minimizing chemical consumption and process downtime.
Membrane-agnostic, IntelliFlux can be used to control MF, UF, NF and RO membranes as well as virtually any other filtration media that requires periodic backwashing, cleaning or regeneration. It works in membrane systems designed to meet a wide array of applications including oil and gas-produced water treatment (conventional, EOR, fracking, offshore); chemical, pharmaceutical, biotech, food and beverage waste treatment; refining, power and other industrial water treatment/recycling/reuse; seawater desalination pre-treatment for algae bloom resilience; and critical filtration in aerospace, automotive and biomedical industrie
Source: Water Planet, Inc.
