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Abstract

New Logic International installed itsVibratory Shear Enhanced Processing(VSEP) Phase I system in July, 1997,and the Phase II system in August 1998at a major international electronic disk manufacturing facility at HokkaidoIsland located in Northern Japan. TheVSEP is used for treatment of river waterfor ultrapure water production at thisfacility. The VSEP system uses anultrafiltration membrane module and isable to treat river water in order toremove or reduce color, turbidity,permanganate consumption, and totaliron below the required limits. Theeconomics of installing this system arevery attractive. The application of VSEPmembrane technology to treat river waterfor ultrapure water production atelectronic disk fabrication facilities isfound to be an attractive economicalternative to conventional watertreatment technology.

Background

Shinko Pantec Company, Ltd., a major

Original Equipment Manufacturer(OEM) specialized in water andwastewater treatment in Kobe, Japan,was responsible for implementation of this project. A number of river watersin Northern Japan contain colored,natural, organic matters such as humicsubstances. For treatment of river wateras part of ultrapure water production,this electronic disk manufacturing plantconsidered two treatment schemes, asfollows:

Use traditional technologies, namelysand filtration and cross flow membranefiltration together with a coagulationprocess using poly aluminum chloride(PAC) to coagulate turbidity and naturalorganic matters. Use a VSEP TreatmentSystem, consisting of preheating,equalization/pH adjustment, VSEPunits, and heat recovery.

Traditional technologies such as sandfiltration can not sufficiently remove

color components in the water. Cross-flow membrane systems face substantialmembrane fouling when dealing withwater containing humic substances.

This project was designed to find anefficient ultrafiltration system to treatriver water for use in the electronic disk/

precision product manufacturingprocess as rinse water. The plantrequires reliable treated water qualityand quantity despite seasonalfluctuation in the quality of the riverwater. The river water has relatively lowturbidity but contains considerablehumic substances.

The use of VSEP system results insubstantial savings primarily because of increased resistance to membranefouling. Upon installation of the VSEP,

the clean water permeate has met alldesign requirements for rinse waterapplications at this disk manufacturingfacility. The concentrated wastewaterstream is discharged to the plant holdingponds and then discharged to the sewer.

The disk manufacturing facility wherethe VSEP is installed operates 24 hoursa day, 350 days per year. The maximumriver water flow rate to be treated in theprocess is approximately 460 gallonsper minute (gpm) or 105 m 3 /hr.

Using ultrafiltration membranes in theVSEP filter modules has been shownto be a commercially viable option fortreatment of river water at this facility.Nearly 85% of the feed river water isrecovered as clean water suitable as rinsewater at the facility, while 15% isdischarged as a concentrated stream.The permeate characteristics of TSS,color, turbidity, permanganateconsumption, and iron are reduced wellbelow the process design requirements.This project summary report describesthis application for the VSEP process,discusses the expected processperformance, and presents theeconomics of the process.

System Description

Figure 1 is a process block flow diagramshowing the integration of VSEP with

River Water Treatment forUltrapure Water ProductionA cost-effective and environmentally-sound solution

V SEP

Raw RiverWater460GPM

2 mg/L TSS1 mg/L Iron10-67 Color Units0-15 deg. C

Figure 1Integration of V SEP with Ultrapure WaterProduction at Electronic D isk Manufacturing Facility

Heat Exchanger(Stage I)

HeatExchanger(Stage II)

Steam

Steam Condensateto Drain

EqualizationTank

FeedTank

NaClO

TreatedWater Tank

Treated WaterPump

Feed Pumps(Three)

Treated Water to DiskManufacturing Facility400 GPM0 mg/L TSS0.02 mg/L Iron

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ultrapure water production at this disk fabrication facility. This diagram alsoincludes the overall material balance forthe river water treatment system andillustrates the performance of the VSEPunits.

The temperature of the river water variesfrom near 0 o C in winter to 15 o C in thesummer. As presented in Figure 1, riverwater is preheated in the Stage I heatexchanger with clean permeate waterfrom VSEP and at the same timepermeate water is cooled to 17 o C. Theriver water is then further heated with asteam-heated exchanger to a temperatureof 30 o C. The higher feed temperatureimproves permeate flux through theVSEP treatment units and provides theenergy drive for the first exchanger. Thepreheated water is introduced into theequalization tank where sulfuric acid isadded for pH adjustment and otherchemicals such as poly aluminumchloride (PAC) are injected to helpcoagulation. The equalization tank effluent is then transferred to the feedstorage tank where it is fed to the VSEPunits at a rate of 460 gpm (105 m3/hr).

Nine industrial scale VSEP unitsprocess the pretreated river water.

VSEP generates a permeate stream of about 400 gpm which is sent to the heatrecovery exchanger and then stored in

the treated water tank for furthertreatment and use at the disk manufacturing facility. The VSEPproduces a concentrated waste streamat a flow rate of 60 gpm which is routedto the holding ponds and then the sewer.

Table 1 shows a comparison of raw andtreated river water as well as thedesigned water quality when using theVSEP treatment system. Concentrationof the raw river water ranges from 1 to 2mg/L of TSS, 10 to 67 of color units,0.8 to 2 NTU of turbidity, and 1 mg/Lof iron. The permeate concentration isreduced to

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Table 1A comparison of Raw and Treated River Water Using VSEP

ParameterRawRiverWater

TreatedWater

DesignedWater

Quality

Temperatur e, oC 0 - 15 < 17 < 17 pH 7.1 6.0 - 6.7 5.8 - 6.9TSS, mg/L 2 < 1 < 1TS, mg/L 94 - 117 98 - 116 -Color, units 10 - 67

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a feed pressure of 140 psig. The morerecent data from actual installationindicate that flux varies from 200 GFDat the beginning of the cycle to 80 GFDat the end of that cycle and filtercleaning is only required once a monthfor each of the membrane modules.Figure 3 presents an actual installationphotograph for this projectdemonstrating the fully automatedVSEP system processing 460 gpm of river water and producing about 400gpm of treated water.

The concentrate level out of the VSEPunit is controlled by an automatic timedcontrol valve. This valve is set such thatthe concentration of the permeate fromthe VSEP is held at the desired level.Three multi-stage feed pumps supply thepreheated river water to the VSEP unitsat a total flow of 460 gpm at a pressureof 70 to 140 psig. A variable frequencyelectronic drive is used to set feedpressure through P.I.D. (Proportional-Integral-Derivative) control loop. Thiskind of drive acts to control therotational speed of the pump, thuscontrolling the flow rate.

Project Economics

The cost of installing and operating theVSEP system when compared with thealternative conventional treatment

technology have been calculated.

For the VSEP treatment system, theoperating costs are calculated based onthe power costs to operate the VSEPfilter units (90 HP), filter feed pumps(30 HP), filter cleaning cost, andmembrane replacement. The operationand maintenance (O&M) costs are alsopresented in Table 2.

VSEP Technology and ItsApplications

VSEP (Vibratory Shear EnhancedProcessing) technology is beingincorporated into the treatment schemesfor river water treatment for electronic

plant applications, product

concentration/dewatering, recycledeffluent and/or water/wastewatertreatment in various process industries.Developed by New Logic International,Inc. of Emeryville, California, a VSEPsystem can filter streams containing avariety of materials or contaminantswithout the fouling problems exhibitedby conventional membrane systems.The process not only filters suspendedsolids, but it also reduces or eliminatesBOD, COD and color bodies. The resultis a crystal clear, reusable water streamand a concentrated product stream orsludge.

VSEP reduces fouling by adding shearto the membrane surface throughvibration. This vibration produces shearwaves that propagate sinusoidally fromthe membranes surface. As a result,the stagnant boundary layer present inconventional membrane systems iseliminated thus increasing the filtrationrates.

As shown in Figure 4, the industrialVSEP machines contain many sheets of membrane which are arrayed as parallel

disks separated by gaskets. The disk

Figure 3

Figure 4Filter Pack Cross Section

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Table 2Estimated Construction, Operation, and Maintenance Costs

Item Costs Unit CostsEquipment/ Installation Cost

VSEP System, freight, filter cleaning system,feed pump, holding tanks, heat exchangers,

piping and control (a)

Operation and Maintenance Cost (b)Power Cost

104 KW @ $.04/KWhSystem Maintenance and Cleaning

Total O&M Costs

(a) The VSEP system is able to process 460 gpm of river water and producetreated water suitable for disk manufacturing facility. The plant operates 24 hours per day,350 days per year and thus processes 232 million gallons of river water per year.

(b) Operation and maintenance costs are based on a Northwestern U.S. setting.Costs for power and shipping need to be adjusted for other locations.(c) These costs were incurred at time of installation.(d) Current installed costs have dropped significantly since VSEP technology has been scaled up.

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stack is contained within a FiberglassReinforced Plastic (FRP) cylinder. Thisentire assembly is vibrated in torsionaloscillation similar to the agitation of awashing machine. The resulting shearis 150,000 inverse seconds, which is tentimes greater than the shear in traditionalcrossflow systems. High shear has beenshown to significantly reduce thefouling of many materials. Theresistance to fouling can be enhancedwith membrane selection wherematerials such as polypropylene,polysulphone, polyamide and Tefloncan be used.

Figure 5 presents a photograph of anindustrial scale Series i system. EachSeries i system contains up to 1600square feet of membrane filtrationarea. A single VSEP unit is capableof processing from 5 to 200 U.S.gallons per minute while producing acrystal clear filtrate and a concentrated

sludge in a single pass. This largethroughput capability can beaccomplished with a system whichoccupies only 20 square feet of floorspace and consumes between 5 and 20hp.

The VSEP system offers a veryeconomical solution to control waterand waste water streams within theelectronic disk manufacturing as well

as other electronic precision deviceproduction facilities. Traditionalmembrane separation capabilitiescoupled with the uniquecharacteristics of the VSEP, make itpossible to successfully treat raw riverwater streams and also handle avariety of contaminants at high fluxrates. Operational savings generallycan be attributed to the followingareas:

chemical treatment (reduction orelimination) retained BTU value reduction of fresh water usageand effluent flows improvement in filtrate quality pumping energy reduction reject concentrationimprovements eliminate fouling of heatexchangers & evaporators reduce BOD, COD,TSS, TDS and color

The major applications of New Logicsfiltration technology include:

Electronic Products

Manufacturing (e.g. raw river watertreatment, heavy metals recovery,wastewater treatment and recycling) Pulp and Paper (e.g.thermomechanical pulping effluent frommedium density fiber boardmanufacture, whitewater, bleach planteffluent, box plant effluent) PVC latex/ ChemicalManufacturing (e.g. productconcentration, raw water treatment) Industrial and InstitutionalLaundries (e.g. wastewater treatment

and water recycling) Chemicals Manufacturing (e.g.calcium carbonate washing andconcentration) Oil production and petroleumprocessing (e.g. produced waterfiltration) Paints and Pigments (e.g. paintand pigment concentration and washing) Inks and Dyes (e.g. flexographicinks and starch concentration)

References

Yamamoto, K., Fujii, T., and K. Takata, Removal of Humic Substances withVibratory Shear Enhanced Processing

Membrane Filtration, Shinko PantecCo., Ltd.

Takata, K., Yamamoto, K., Bian, R., andY. Watanabe, Removal of HumicSubstances with Vibratory Shear

Enhanced Processing MembraneFiltration, Presented at the Conferenceon Membranes in Drinking andIndustrial Water Production,Amsterdam, September 21-24, 1998.

Contact a New Logic representativeto develop an economic analysis and

justification for the VSEP in yoursystem. For additional informationand potential application of thistechnology to your process, visit NewLogics Website @ www.vsep.com orcontact:

New Logic1295 Sixty Seventh Street

Emeryville, CA 94608Phone: 510-655-7305Fax: 510-655-7307E-mail: info@vsep.com

Figure 5