Desalitech was awarded a contract by Novelis, a company specializing in rolled aluminum products, to supply a high efficiency water treatment system for a production facility in Changzhou, China to help comply with a local ordinance requiring zero-liquid discharge (ZLD) for applicable process wastewaters. The Desalitech reverse osmosis system will reduce wastewater generation by over 70% compared to what a traditional reverse osmosis system would generate, minimizing brine flow to and the cost of the downstream evaporator.
As freshwater resources across the globe are depleted, industries are being forced to evaluate and manage their water resources accordingly. China has set a high bar for water sustainability, regulating that new industrial facilities cannot discharge wastewater and must maintain ZLD operation. The Changzhou plant, Novelis’ first aluminum automotive sheet manufacturing facility in China, is meeting this requirement with its new ZLD wastewater treatment installation.
The Novelis facility provides customers in China and abroad with automotive sheet for use in lightweight structures and body panels. Water is utilized in multiple processes throughout the manufacturing plant, producing wastewater streams that are collected and treated with biological, chemical and membrane filtration followed by reverse osmosis. Desalitech's two-pass reverse osmosis system is designed to operate at 90% recovery on the first pass and 95% recovery on the second pass, sending the permeate to an ultrapure process water and to cooling towers.
This water-saving initiative not only meets the Chinese discharge ordinance; it also aligns with Novelis’ sustainability strategy to reduce water use in their manufacturing processes.
Source: Desalitech
