The Technology

Electrolytic processes are chemical-physical processes as redox reactions which can run continuously. They are cyclical, dynamic processes that due to constants as measured value such as pH, conductivity, temperature, redox-level, oxygen-content - voltage as well as current density are regulated and monitored. This leads into a process where concentrations of Oxygen Radicals Species (ORS) mineralize organic matter

to CO2 and H2O. Same electrochemical reactions occur in stirred and continuous reactors, which are also known as precipitation reaction, metal hydroxides in flake form, to bind the organic impurities. These metal hydroxides are formed by dehydration to metal-oxides with organic contaminates - recyclable so that no residues remain ("0" - waste). These wastewater treatment processes are capable of large mass flows to cope with some 100 m³ / h. They are not subject to any risk of impairment - like biological systems - but are suitable for fully automatic controlled processes. As a by-product, hydrogen is generated at 50 A / 3600s (h) only 0.01141 m³/h which is for recovery of electrical energy too low. 7 V/ 30 A is a standard for EC application (210 VAh) - about 0.78 KWh/m³ is used by Mg-electrodes to form Mg(NH4)PO4 out of waste water. In generall EC needs 1.5 - 2.0 kWh / m³ waste-water.
Electrolytic processes are further capable of salt loads in the sewage / process- water to reduce and selectively remove ions from the sewage. This is not possible in case of biological treatment. Other advantages are the compact design of reactors and a related small space requirement as plant surface. Electrolytic systems for disinfection and decontamination are economical for an investment, at low operating costs (electricity consumption).

APPLICATION

Often treatment steps like flotation, precipitation are not satisfactory in reducing high COD-Levels down to low numbers. In this case the AOP-Method is the choice as a second treatment step. This has been approved in several trails. We treated refinery waste water down to 70 mg/l COD-level.

Industrial electrodes in use for large volumes need large surfaces and special designs.
The reaction chambers (reactors) are made out of plastics often PVC and other material.
The design is optimized in relation to the HRT (hydraulic retention time) to guarantee a
minimum contact time for the advanced oxidation process.
Bioway filed several patents (most still patent pending) for hardness control in cooling
cycles and selective ion-reduction to remove for e.g. also NH4-N or SO4-- , Cl-,F-, NO2/
NO3- or PO4--. Also it is possible to reduce the salt content up to 50%. The list of different
applications is long.

Example for a coffee-extraction waste-water installation - for 5 m³/h throughput.

Desalination

A new process / technology for the purification of very highly contaminated saline water, which often occurs in the Middle East and the Gulf States is subject of this note - or in potash mining where high salt loads (for e.g. MgSO4, MgCl2, KCl, NaCl or others) result in wastewater which pollutes the rivers.

This water can also come from petroleum processing, in which case the groundwater is additionally contaminated. The process substitutes reverse osmosis (RO), which is a standard process for converting seawater / ocean water to drinking water, but cannot be used for very high salt contamination. Our technology kicks in when RO has given up, as high salt concentrations cannot be handled with RO. Moreover, the cost factor is much lower with the new technology. One can assume up to 50% of RO costs as operating costs, depending on the case. The total energy consumption for RO in kWh / m³ is about 50.5 according to literature. The costs for algicide addition / disinfection for the UF / MF are not included here! The total energy for the new technology is about 26.42 kWh / m³ water - which means approximately a third. The technology can be used for any salt or salt-mixture.

RO has about up to one third loss of water and the falling liquid retentate is waste and can only be processed with electrocoagulation (EC).

The process is newly patented and consists of two interlocking cycles that work more economically than reverse osmosis (RO). The technology can be classified under the title "Zero-Waste / Zero-Liquid-Discharge". There is no fraction in liquid form as retentate as with RO, but salt in solid form. Therefore, there is no water loss, which can often be up to one third with RO.

The operating costs are low - only an investment in the process equipment is necessary, which has to be made of stainless steel. The process can handle very high mass flows / volumes (m³/h) and already delivers drinking water quality in the process itself. It can therefore also be used on offshore islands in the shelf sea. Since water scarcity is likely to increase in the coming years, we consider this technology a key technology for drinking water production.