Mitsubishi Electric has launched a new water treatment technology for recycling industrial wastewater and sewage in a more cost-efficient manner.
Currently, the technology is under joint development with Yasushi Minamitani, an associate professor at Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Yamagata University.
Mitsubishi plans to commercialize an industrial wastewater reuse system by March 2019 for which this technology will be applied.
The technology helps to remove persistent organic substances in wastewater by using hydroxyl (OH) radicals generated by an electric discharge created at a gas/liquid interface.
The generation of OH radicals makes the treatment twice as efficient as conventional methods. Besides, the modularized structure of the discharge units makes the equipment more simple and cost effective.
(photo courtesy pollution issues)
Industrial Wastewater is the liquid discharge from manufacturing processes like soft drink and beer companies; sugar processing; metal processing and photo finishing.
It is important to remove pollutants from waste water to protect the environment and public health.
In a typical wastewater treatment process, the aim of primary, secondary and tertiary effluent treatment is to remove organic matter, solids, nutrients, micro- organisms and other pollutants from the treated wastewater before it is discharged to a body of water.
As growing population is always in demand for further drinking water, the importance of improving secondary water treatment has intensified with time.
ALSO READ   Applied CleanTech’s SRS technology for wastewater recycling
With the improvement of living standards, global need for wastewater reuse is expected to rise.
The western US, Singapore and other water-deficient regions have already begun the installation of water reuse systems.
According to a study conducted in 2013 by the European Commission, Germany was the largest EU exporter of water technologies.
The German Engineering Federation has also reported that the nation exported nearly 800 million euros ($1.1 billion) worth of water and wastewater technology in 2011.
This accounts for 33 percent of the EU export market.
Sabeena Wahid
[email protected]