Applications
Industry Wastewater Treatment
PCMFs are used in various industrial wastewater treatment processes across a wide spectrum such as automotive, mining, ore and steel processing, chemical, food, pharmaceutical and paper industries.
BOD Removal and Nitrification
As fixed bed biofilm systems, immersion disks are proven solutions in municipal and industrial wastewater treatment.
Combined Sewer Overflow
PCMF minimises the discharged suspended solids into the water bodies and contributes to the reduction of emissions.
Surface Water and Drinking Water Treatment
PCMF systems can be used as economical and efficient pre-filtration in surface water and drinking water treatment.
PCMF as Clarifier
PCMF after a biofilm process offers an effective alternative to conventional secondary sedimentation.
Phosphorus Removal
Coagulation, together with flocculation for advanced phosphorus removal to extremely low levels, is a standard application for PCMF technology.
Primary Filtration and Post Primary Filtration
With raw wastewater filtration, PCMF is an essential contribution to the energy self-sufficiency of the wastewater treatment plant.
Tertiary Filtration
PCMF is state of the art in the field of tertiary filtration. Here, PCMF fulfills a barrier function to ensure the effluent thresholds.
Micropollutant Removal
Organic micropollutants are removed by PCMF in combination with powdered activated carbon. Furthermore, PCMF technology brings operational safety to ozone or granulated activated carbon stages.
Road Runoff
For irregularly occurring road runoff with fluctuating quality and quantity, PCMF technology offers an ideal and effective solution.
Pre-Filtration Disinfection
The low-solids water quality provided by PCMF is predestined for disinfection applications as pre-filtration for UV or ozone processes.
Water Reuse
The need for water reuse will increase rapidly in the future and our systems provide an efficient and economical solution in pre-filtration.
Industry Wastewater Treatment
PCMFs are used in various industrial wastewater treatment processes across a wide spectrum such as automotive, mining, power and energy, ore and steel processing, chemical, food, pharmaceutical, textile and pulp and paper industries. From the removal residual coal to providing low solids cooling water as well as ferric chloride filtration, OptiFiber® pile cloth media are being used. OptiFiber® has established itself as an effective filter medium in the industrial sector. The entire PCMF family is used in industrial applications, both as disk and drum filters in various steel qualities as well as pressure drum filters made of polypropylene.
BOD Removal and Nitrification
Mecana RBC have been in use worldwide for over 50 years. Whether BOD removal and/or nitrification in municipal or industrial wastewater, our systems offer a low-energy and low-maintenance compact solution. Fixed bed biofilm systems adapt individually to the wastewater pollutants and lead to a customized biological treatment. The interaction between RBC and PCMF combines two compact systems into one optimal system solution for biological wastewater treatment with filtration.
Combined Sewer Overflow
A good surface water quality requires the minimisation of emissions from all urban sewer systems. Environmental pollution and climate change will increase the stress on combined sewer overflows. Combined sewer overflows can account for 20 – 60 % of emissions from urban sewer systems. PCMF minimises the discharged pollutants load into the water bodies and enables further treatment. The simple engaging of the PCMF enables unattended operation even at remote sites. In addition, the PCMF technology is designed for multiple purposes at once, such as tertiary filtration during dry weather and mixed water treatment during rainy weather, whereby a high effluent quality without the use of chemicals is possible using OptiFiber® Microfiber.
Surface Water and Drinking Water Treatment
A quarter of the world's population lives in regions with extreme water scarcity, with a rising tendency due to global warming in the near future, so that the need to obtain drinking water from surface water will also increase in (semi)humid areas. Similarly, the problem of algae and algae blooms in water is spreading due to climate change. PCMF systems can be used as an economical and efficient pre-filtration stage in the treatment of surface water for the production of drinking water (DW) or process water. OptiFiber® Microfiber (PES-14-DW) and OptiFiber® Ultrafiber (UFS-9-DW) are specially certified for drinking water applications and are able to remove suspended solids such as diatoms and small algae without the use of chemicals. PCMF systems thus contribute to securing permanent production capacity while at the same time keeping energy requirements low.
Read here the summary of an international research project from 2019, which we realised together with Thames Water.
PCMF as Clarifier
PCMF is a powerful addition to biofilm processes such as Mecana RBC, Trickling Filter and Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR) and serves as a replacement for or supplement to conventional sedimentation. Loads of up to 250 mg/L TSS and more are intercepted. With OptiFiber®, the efficient separation of biofilm residual, as well as suspended flocs, takes place, resulting in an improvement of effluent values in terms of biological and chemical oxygen demand, phosphorus and nitrogen without the use of chemicals. With OptiFiber® Standard Fiber, TSS < 10 mg/L and total phosphorus values ≤ 0.5 mg/L can be maintained
Phosphorus Removal
Coagulation, together with flocculation for advanced phosphorus removal to extremely low levels, is a standard application for the PCMF‑technology, along with tertiary filtration. More than 100 PCMFs have already been installed for advanced phosphorus removal. With OptiFiber®, solid/liquid-separation is achieved down to the depth of the pile cloth media, so that even microflocs are efficiently separated. With proper chemical phosphorus removal, OptiFiber® Microfiber (PES-14) achieves total phosphorus ≤ 200 μg/L and particulate phosphorus ≤ 50 – 70 μg/L, respectively. If the requirements change during the life of the PCMF, the filter media can be easily replaced to meet the new limits without changing the filter design.
Primary Filtration and Post Primary Filtration
Raw wastewater filtration reduces the organic load and leads to operational savings or increases the capacity in the biological stage. Furthermore, the energy-rich primary sludge contributes to the increase of gas production in the anaerobic digestion. The OptiFiber® pile cloth media (PF-14), specially developed for the application, provides a constant and high effluent quality without the use of chemicals, even with a high solids content in the raw sewage. PCMF thus represents an economical, space-saving and efficient alternative as primary filtration or supplement to conventional primary treatment as post-primary filtration.
PCMF technology also offers the possibility of dual use in the event of rainfall. Instead of the wastewater treatment plant effluent, the discharged mixed water is filtered to minimise water emissions. In addition, a combination of final filtration in dry weather conditions and mixed water or raw sewage filtration in rainy weather conditions is possible with the same PCMF technology.
Tertiary Filtration
PCMF is state of the art in the field of tertiary filtration. Here, PCMF fulfils a barrier function to ensure the effluent quality. With OptiFiber®, the solid/liquid‑separation takes place down to the depth of the pile layer, so that the total suspended solids are efficiently separated. The removal of the sludge flocs leads to an improvement of the effluent values in terms of biological and chemical oxygen demand, phosphorus and nitrogen without the use of chemicals. In addition, advanced removal of microplastics takes place as a side effect. OptiFiber® Standard or Microfiber is usually used for tertiary filtration. Depending on the pile cloth media, total suspended solids in the filtration effluent ≤ 5 – 10 mg/L or ≤ 2 – 3 mg/L are achieved.
As in the activated sludge process, PCMF is also used as tertiary filtration in processes with granulated biomass. As a supplier to Nereda®, PCMF‑technology is used here in tertiary filtration.
Micropollutant Removal
Organic micropollutants originate from pharmaceuticals, X-ray contrast media, household and industrial chemicals. Conventional wastewater treatment plants remove organic micropollutants only inadequately. Micropollutants are ubiquitously detectable and can be removed by adsorptive, oxidative or combinative processes. Applications with activated carbon and ozone are established in this context. PCMF is an essential component in most of these applications for the removal of micropollutants.
PCMF is part of the end-of-pipe solution for the removal of organic micropollutants and is already being operated in activated carbon applications since 2013. PCMF has established itself as a barrier function upstream of ozone treatment and activated carbon filters or for the removal of powdered activated carbon in downstream processes.
- Dosing of powdered activated carbon into the biological stage with downstream PCMF
- Dosing of powdered activated carbon before PCMF
- Dosing of powdered activated carbon with separate enrichment and downstream PCMF
- PCMF in front of conventional activated carbon filters
- PCMF before or/and after continuously operated activated carbon filters/activated carbon in a floating bed
- PCMF before ozone treatment
Road Runoff
Traffic on roads leaves behind pollution in form of soot, exhaust particles, tyre wear, brake wear and much more. By quantity, tyre abrasion is the largest emitting source of (micro)plastics into the environment.
During rainfall, considerable amounts of pollutants thus collect in the road runoff. The rainwater, which only accumulates for about 5 % of the time and can vary greatly in intensity, must therefore be stored and treated. Technical systems with PCMF technology are the ideal solution for irregularly occurring wastewater with fluctuating quality and quantity. The use of OptiFiber® Microfiber or Ultrafiber enables the minimisation of pollutants, including zinc and copper, before discharge into the water, thus protecting the environment without the use of chemicals. OptiFiber® pile cloth media offer a long service life of up to over 12 years.
Pre-Filtration Disinfection
Biologically treated wastewater still contains many pathogens. UV or ozone treatment have proven their effectiveness as disinfection processes to meet the microbiological thresholds of the EU Water Directive and more extensive requirements for national implementation. Because of the effectiveness, both processes require a water that is low in solids. PCMF as pre-filtration for UV or ozone applications is therefore an ideal solution for disinfection. OptiFiber® Microfiber provides a constant and high effluent quality with a low solids content ≤ 2 – 3 mg/L or turbidity ≤ 2 NTU.
Mecana also offers MECANAUV, a combination of PCMF and UV treatment, as a compact solution. Here, low-pressure UV-lamps are used downstream of filtration to disinfect the wastewater. MECANAUV delivers water that is low in solids according to the requirements for water reuse or bathing water despite the little space and energy requirement.
Water Reuse
Water reuse is increasingly gaining relevance. A quarter of the world's population lives in regions with acute and extreme water scarcity, which is rapidly increasing the need for water reuse. The use of biologically treated wastewater for agricultural irrigation or industrial processes, for example, makes a major contribution to meet the demand for fresh water. Here, requirements for solids content and microbiological thresholds have to be met. PCMF systems are used as an economical and efficient pre-filtration stage for disinfection processes or membrane processes for water reuse. OptiFiber® pile cloth media have been used in hundreds of applications and meet "Title 22" requirements with turbidity values < 1 – 2 NTU.
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