Industry & Commercial

Best Water Quality

Professional water treatment is guaranteed wherever BWT is involved – in building technology, hospitals, trade and industry and the supply of water to communities and cities.

Industry & Commercial

Best Water Quality

Professional water treatment is guaranteed wherever BWT is involved – in building technology, hospitals, trade and industry and the supply of water to communities and cities.

INDUSTRIAL COMMERCIAL
WATER TREATMENT

Market leaders in drinking and industrial water systems for commercial and industrial plants since 1965.

Hotels & Hospitality Industries.

Drinking Water, Process Water & Effluent Water.

pharma & biotech industry.

BWT | CWC Assures You Of:

Incomparable honest advice to save you millions from in-house, qualified, specialist engineers. With a large African footprint, our modular water treatment systems are ‘plug and play’ for a fast set up to clean water.

BWT will advise you, from the initial water analysis stage through, plant design and construction to commissioning and maintenance of your water treatment plant, based on your specific needs. All of our processes are carried out with maximum efficiency and commitment and implement all the legal, technical and commercial safeguards.

Industry Solutions

Owing to its quality, water that comes straight from the raw water source can rarely be directly used for drinking or commercial and production/manufacturing operations. Treatment of effluent or process water provides an opportunity to recover this valuable resource for reuse within operations.

Our research and development centres all over the world are therefore working on developing innovative technologies and processes for treating drinking water, boiler and cooling water, manufacturing and production operations and effluent treatment.

BWT offers specific solutions for a wide variety of industries, regardless of the existing water quality and the needs the water ultimately has to satisfy:

BWT Africa can assist you in the following ways:

Clarification

Water clarification is the process by which suspended solids and particulate matter are removed; often with help from flocculants and coagulants which increase settling. Clarification systems can be circular flowing from the centre outward or rectangular flowing from one end to another. Water clarification is used as a pre-treatment to further purification processes to treat industrial effluent, municipal wastewater and municipal drinking water.

A lamella clarifier or inclined plate settler (IPS) is a type of settler to remove particulates from liquids. Often used in industrial water and wastewater treatment, it uses a series of inclined plates to provide a large effective settling area for a small footprint. Feedwater is then dosed with coagulant and flocculent to encourage the formation of flocs prior to the settler.
The inlet stream is stilled upon entry into the clarifier. Solid particles then begin to settle on the plates and accumulate in collection hoppers at the bottom of the clarifier unit. The sludge is then drawn off at the bottom of the hoppers and the clarified liquid exits the unit at the top.

CASE STUDY

Frozen food processing facility - South Africa

Problem to be solved:

Production of an effluent with high suspended solids content, intermittent COD non-compliance and a low pH. Discharge of the water may lead to fines if left untreated as well as load the downstream constrained municipal wastewater treatment infrastructure.

Filtration

Filtration Process

At BWT Africa, we use various filtration methods to physically, mechanically and biologically separate solids from treated water. Once the clarification stage is complete, filtration takes place as an additional treatment to remove unsettled floc and the remainder of suspended particles. Typically, raw water flows down through a filter bed as the suspended particles are retained on the media surface and between media grains.

Our filtration methods are used to treat industrial effluent, process water, municipal wastewater and drinking water including in any water reuse applications. They are also used in the membrane filtration processes and desalination of seawater as pre-treatment steps.

The areas of application for filtration include raw water treatment, wastewater treatment, reverse osmosis (RO), ultrafiltration, cooling water treatment and boiler feed treatment.

BWT Africa makes use of reverse osmosis (RO), membrane separation, gravity filtration and activated carbon filtration. But we preferentially select AFM® filter media for suspended particle removal.

AFM® Activated Filter Media is manufactured from a type of glass and directly replaces sand, increasing the performance of sand filters and saving costs of any additional investments in infrastructure. AFM® resists biofouling, biocoagulation and transient wormhole channeling of unfiltered water without the need for replacing or recharging.
The AFM® is exposed to a 3-step activation process to increase its surface area by up to 300 times for superior mechanical and electro-static filtration performance.

The activated surface of AFM® is self-sterilizing preventing bacteria mud-balling, coagulation and channeling of unfiltered water through the filter bed. Activation increases the surface area by up to 300 times for catalysis and adsorption reactions. Similar to activated carbon, the surface nano-structure adsorbs pollutants from the water but unlike carbon, AFM® is recharged by just back-washing with water.

CASE STUDY

Copper mine - DRC

Problem to be solved:

Mine required borehole water treatment for domestic use. The following parameters are assumed to be outside of the drinking water standard (SANS 241), Suspended solids / Turbidity, Calcium and Magnesium.

BWT will advise you, from the initial water analysis stage through to commissioning and maintenance of your water treatment plant, based on your specific needs. All our processes are carried out with maximum efficiency and implement all the legal, technical and commercial safeguards.

Ultrafiltration and Reverse Osmosis

Membrane separation is a group of filtration processes whereby feed water is is forced through membrane (physical barrier with highly specialized characteristics or a semi-permeable carrier) at high pressure to separate specific materials from the solution. This barrier only allows for certain components in the feed stream to pass through. Membrane technology allows for the overall reduction in production costs and boosting product quality. Classified according to the pore size of their membrane, these processes include ( in order of increasing pore size).

Reverse osmosis uses the tightest possible membrane in liquid separation with water being the only material that can permeate the membrane. It is generally used to produce potable, ultrapure and process water. While nanofiltration permits small ions to pass through while excluding larger ions and most organic components like bacteria and spores. Nanofiltration uses membranes that are slightly more open than in RO. Ultrafiltration involves using membranes with larger pores with low pressure. Salts, sugars, organic acids and smaller peptides are allowed to pass, while proteins, fats and polysaccharides are not. And in microfiltration, suspended solids, bacteria and fat globules are normally the only substances not allowed to pass through. The crucial treatment stage of membrane separation in the following water treatment applications: Production of process and potable water, Seawater and brackish water desalination, polishing and demineralization of boiler feed water and pharmaceutical water, rehabilitation and recycling of wastewater.

CASE STUDY

Gold mine - Guinea

Problem to be solved:

Gold mine required 30 m³/h low TDS water for their operations. Feed water was unsuitable for direct use and required treatment.

Chemical dosing

Chemical dosing is mandatory for all water systems to achieve the desired availability, performance and equipment service life. BWT Africa specialises in chemical dosing systems specifically for water treatment and include, but are not limited to the following: Coagulation/flocculation, disinfection, pH adjustment and membrane pretreatment.

Dosing systems typically include a chemical holding tank and chemical delivery system, such as a dosing pump or venturi style system. Many are designed for fine control of dose rates via flow rate adjustment or control via and analytical instrument.

CASE STUDY

Property developer - South Africa

Problem to be solved:

Property developers required a 10 m³/h disinfection plant to render feed water safe for drinking.

Ion Exchange Ultra Pure Water

Ion exchange is a purification process whereby ions are exchanged between a solution and an ion exchange resin ( either cationic or anionic). This is a process that can be reversed and the resin can be regenerated for re-use.

Common applications of ion exchange include the demineralisation and deionisation of process and boiler feed-water and the production of pharmaceutical water. In the preparation of potable and process water, de-carbonation and softening are commonly used. With specialist ion exchange resins, applications such as metals recovery, arsenic removal and heavy metal removal are also possible.

A typical example of application is the preparation of high-purity water for power engineering, electronic and nuclear industries Purified water or technically pure water, is indispensable for the pharmaceutical industry, for laboratories and for various industrial production processes. Purified water ( unlike drinking water) is totally free of additives, including minerals, calcium and other impurities.

While not suitable to drink, it’s a key component in producing medicines, microelectronics, glass and beverages. High-quality purified water is used for cleaning and rinsing, particularly in laboratories, and also as a solvent and carrier medium. At BWT, we supply the right treatment solution for every requirement of BWT Purified Water, depending on the specific application.

CASE STUDY

Switchgear Manufacturer - South Africa

Problem to be solved:

The client was using costly and hazardous solvents to clean machined parts if switchgear production. They were looking for an alternative, safer system to wash components.

Water Softening

Water softening is the removal of calcium, magnesium, and certain other metal cations from hard water through ion exchange. Ions are exchanged with ions from dissolved sodium chloride salt (brine). Soft water not only extends the lifetime of plumbing by reducing or eliminating scale build-up in pipes and fittings and saves on soap usage as soap isn’t wasted by bonding with calcium ions. Ion Exchange is a process widely used for water softening in industrial and residential applications.

Hard water wreaks havoc in metal pipes through scaling and mineral deposition resulting in pipes bursting and subsequently damaged infrastructure. In laundries, hard water results in poor bubble formation and reduces the lifespan of fabrics and clothing. The use of industrial water softeners saves the day by ensuring water is non-scaling, the life expectancy of equipment is increased and maintenance costs are decreased.

Whether at a factory, hospital, mine or manufacturing plant; non-scaling water for operations and drinking water is essential and often required in large daily quantities. An industrial water softener can assist with this large demand to soften water and ensure it is suitable for its application. This can save the business extra costs on buying drinking water and minimise the effects of hard water in their processes. Scale buildup in faucets and appliances like coffee pots or dishwashers can also diminish the taste of your drinking water.

CASE STUDY

Meat processing facility - Botswana

Problem to be solved:

The water source available to the client had a hardness in excess of 300 mg/L. The water is used in meat processing and the hardness affected both the quality of the end product, as well as the waer circuit infrastructure.