Water technology company, Xylem, has launched wastewater treatment technology that combines ozone-treatment and a biologically active filtration system. The company claims it removes currently difficult-to-treat pollutants including pharmaceuticals and hormonally active compounds.
Xylem’s Leopold Oxelia optimises wastewater treatment for discharge into sensitive waters and direct potable reuse according to the Switzerland-based company. Xylem claims pollutants like personal care products, active pharmaceuticals and hormone disrupting compounds can be removed cost effectively from a water stream using Xylem’s Leopold Oxelia.
The company says this multi-barrier removal opens up more options for water reuse, including industrial use, groundwater recharge, agriculture and even direct potable reuse. The system uses ozone to oxidise organic pollutants to be digested by microorganisms in the filtration system. “Unlike other treatment systems, the compounds are not just concentrated in another waste stream – they are destroyed,” said product manager with Xylem Anton Callery.
Xylem claims the new system makes effluent suitable for direct discharge into the most sensitive aquatic ecosystems.
It claims also that ozone-enhanced, biologically active filtration has lower capital costs than reverse osmosis-based systems and, because the ozone technology do not produce another waste stream requiring further treatment, operations are simpler and more cost efficient.
Tightened regulations, such as Switzerland’s, recently imposed requirement through federal water protection laws of treatment of “contaminants of emerging concern” require advanced systems to reduce trace organics. Xylem says its latest product “can be used to upgrade existing wastewater treatment plants to meet new regulations.”
It says Leopold Oxelia is suitable for municipal wastewater tertiary applications of more than 5 Ml/d.