Water technology company Ikusasa Water has commissioned South Africa’s first commercial-scale facility capable of producing ultrafiltration membranes for high-quality, 
potable water supply. 
The plant is based in Somerset West, in the Western Cape.

The technology, which can be deployed at small or large installations, has already been selected by Overberg Water, a Western Cape water board, for use in a 800-m3 water purification plant, which is currently under construction at Riviersonderend, near Swellendam.

Ikusasa marketing manager Dr Gerhard Offringa says that there is a strong global swing towards using ultrafiltration for the preparation of drinking water, as the purification can often be completed without the introduction of chemicals.

The quality of the product is determined by the membranes and does, therefore, not vary as the raw water quality varies. Offringa says that the membrane acts as a positive barrier to pathogens.

The membrane systems are modular, and Offringa says that the capacity of treatment units can easily be increased and systems can be fully automated, avoiding problems due to operator error.

Further, because the systems are locally 
produced, the capital costs are about the same as conventional treatment and operating costs are lower.

To date, ultrafiltration membranes used in South Africa have been imported at great cost. Therefore, a joint research project, funded by the Water Research Commission (WRC), was established in 1996 at the University of Stellenbosch to develop suitable and cost-
effective locally produced ultrafiltration membranes and filtration systems for use in water treatment and industrial water management.

The membranes and membrane systems were developed to suit local conditions and four patents were registered. Ikusasa Water has since obtained the licence from the WRC to further use these patents and is now manufacturing the ultrafiltration membranes in Somerset West.

The systems are custom-built from 200 ℓ/h 
units for smaller applications, such as rural water applications or bottling water, up to plants able to treat “many millions of litres a day”, says Offringa.

Water purification systems are also built to treat sea water or brackish borehole water to potable quality.

As part of the development at Stellenbosch University, the membranes and membrane 
systems were designed to be robust enough to also be employed in outlying areas for sustainable rural water supply, where conventional, flocculation-based package plants are not a sustainable option. This robust system can also incorporate a telemetry control system enabling remote operator control, thereby obviating the need to have constant operator supervision.