ZeeWeed® Membrane Technology
GE’s ZeeWeed Ultrafiltration (UF) membrane is a pressure-driven barrier to suspended solids, bacteria, viruses, endotoxins and other pathogens used to produce water with very high purity and low silt density. It can serve as a treatment for surface water, ground water, and biologically treated municipal effluent (membrane bioreactor and tertiary treatment).
Environmental Benefit
GE’s ZeeWeed 500 and 1000 ultrafiltration (UF) membrane systems produce a water quality that meets stringent EPA drinking water standards while using less chemicals, reducing physical footprint land area, and producing less residual waste than a typical conventional potable water treatment system. In one instance, a ZeeWeed 1000 water treatment plant used approximately 60 percent less chemicals, 30 percent less land, and produced 35 percent less residual waste compared to a typical conventional potable water treatment plant of the same capacity.
Operating Benefit
GE’s ZeeWeed 500 membrane bioreactors (MBR) incorporate advanced membrane aeration controls that significantly reduce energy consumption compared to membranes without these controls. In one case, a 2.5 million gallon per day plant using GE’s ZeeWeed 500 MBR reduced its associated energy usage by more than 224,000 kWh per year, equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of approximately 20 average US households.
The environmental challenge
Providing wastewater services to homes and companies located outside the reach of municipal sewer lines is often a difficult and costly process. An efficient onsite wastewater treatment system is needed to eliminate the environmentally disruptive construction necessary to connect these homes and companies to municipal sewer lines.
GE’s innovative solution
ZeeWeed® state-of-the-art ultrafiltration membrane technology has revolutionized the water and wastewater treatment industries. ZeeWeed® ultrafiltration membranes are capable of providing water or wastewater treatment for plants of any size, in practically any application. These applications include: municipal, industrial, unserviced commercial developments, marine, military and even residential central water treatment.
ZeeWeed® ultrafiltration is an advanced technology, designed and manufactured by GE Water & Process Technologies, that uses immersed hollow-fiber membranes to separate particles from water. This technology produces superior quality drinking water by removing virtually all harmful pathogens and suspended solids. The ultrafiltration membranes can restore wastewater to such high quality that it can be safely discharged to the most sensitive environments, or reused in irrigation, industrial processes or groundwater recharge.
Operating under a low-pressure suction, ZeeWeed® ultrafiltration membranes draw clean water in through billions of microscopic pores, while rejecting virtually all particles at the surface. This outside-in flow path means that the membranes do not require a pressure vessel and can be immersed directly into process tanks. By incorporating this open-tank design, ZeeWeed® ultrafiltration systems have compact plant footprints, require fewer components than pressurized systems, and provide simple, trouble-free operation and maintenance.
Environmental impact
The unique design of ZeeWeed® ultrafiltration technology allows it to conserve both energy and precious water resources. The energy savings from a 2.5 million gallon per day ZeeWeed® membrane bioreactor plant with advanced process aeration controls is equivalent to the annual power usage for 21 American homes. Over 200 million gallons of wastewater per day are treated with ZeeWeed® systems and reused, the equivalent to the amount of water used by 2.5 million Americans each day.
Cutting costs
ZeeWeed® produces a quality of drinking water that meets stringent standards, while using up to 60 percent less chemicals, 30 percent less land, and producing 35 percent less residual waste than conventional potable water treatment systems. ZeeWeed® also offers up to an 11 percent reduction in capital and operating costs when used as a pretreatment to reverse osmosis for seawater desalination, brackish water treatment or industrial process water.
