Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM) has purchased and installed the Hydro-Optic (HOD) ultraviolet (UV) technology from Atlantium Technologies Ltd. to provide chemical-free disinfection and dechlorination of RO feedwater to the boiler that supports their cottonseed processing facility in Lubbock, Texas.
A package boiler supplies the steam required to facilitate cottonseed processing at ADM Lubbock. The boiler relies on reverse osmosis membrane filtration to provide high-purity feedwater for the boiler. The presence of biofouling can result in frequent membrane maintenance and replacement.
A HOD UV system with a flow rate capacity of 30 gpm was installed to disinfect and dechlorinate water prior to entering the plant’s newly commissioned RO system in order to protect the membrane elements from biological fouling and oxidation from chlorine. Municipal water with 4 ppm of chloramines is used as the source water for the packaged power plant.
“The HOD UV technology is unique in its ability to disinfect and dechlorinate in a single, chemical-free process,” said Mark Carroll, water resource engineer, Archer Daniels Midland. “The HOD system decomposes free chlorine and significantly reduces combined chlorine oxidants in process water to protect RO membranes. Additionally, the HOD technology provides disinfection to reduce the membrane biofouling potential by eliminating anaerobic and aerobic bacterial growth. The combination helps us to maintain high uptime on the RO and, in turn, the integrity of the boiler feedwater.”
Source: Archer Daniels Midland, Atlantium
