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Sasol, GE open water-treatment pilot plant

6th November 2013

By: Leandi Kolver

Creamer Media Deputy Editor

  

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Energy and chemicals company Sasol opened an anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) technology pilot plant on Wednesday at the Sasol One Site research and development campus, in Sasolburg, Free State.

This was the final step towards the commercialisation of the technology developed by electric services and capital company General Electric (GE).

The technology had the ability to clean wastewater, such as that produced in gas-to-liquids (GTL) Fischer-Tropsch (FT) processes, while also providing biogas as a by-product for power generation. AnMBR had been applied to other wastewater streams but Sasol would be the first to apply this technology in a GTL environment.

Speaking at the plant launch, Sasol New Energy MD Henri Loubser said Sasol used 4% of all the water allocated in the Vaal basin and, as South Africa was facing a water shortage and Sasol was a water-intensive company, it had to do more to save water.

“Using water efficiently is not enough on its own and we have to look further for opportunities to save water. Technology partnerships are an important part of this, as some of our challenges can only be solved through these partnerships,” he pointed out.

Currently, Sasol used aerobic microbes to treat GTL and coal-to-liquids effluents; however, the AnMBR technology involved anaerobic micro-organisms that were able to live in environments devoid of oxygen, such as sediment layers on floors of lakes, dams and the ocean.

Traditional aerobic-treatment technologies treated effluent produced in GTL processes by converting the organic materials into carbon dioxide; but, the AnMBR technology’s micro-organisms converted these organic materials into a methane-rich biogas for possible use in power generation, Sasol Technology MD Flip de Wet said. 

Benefits of the AnMBR technology, therefore, included overall efficiency improvement of the GTL process as the effluents were converted into a valuable product, the reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions and a reduction of up to 80% in waste biosolids produced.

Sasol entered into a joint development contract with GE in 2010 aimed at leveraging GE’s ZeeWeed 500 membrane and decades of membrane bioreactor experience, as well as Sasol’s expertise in biological treatment of FT-derived effluents.

GE CEO Tim Schweikert said the company had already developed the core membrane before entering into the partnership with Sasol, after which the company focused on the use of the technology for this specific application.

The pilot plant had a feed rate of between 350 ℓ/h and 1 000 ℓ/h, while a commercial-scale plant would potentially have a 20-million-litres-a-day capacity.

Over the course of the next year, the stability and reliability of the technology would be tested, after which, if it proved viable, it would go through Sasol’s approval process for installation at new GTL plants or for the retrofitting of existing plants, Sasol Technology's executive manager for research and technology Dr Sven Godorr said.

Schweikert added that GE would be involved in this testing period and provide Sasol with support to move towards commercialisation.

The technology was expected to be commercially ready in early 2015. Sasol would have exclusive rights to apply this technology to FT-process-based plants, while GE would have the right to market the technology for other industrial uses.

Schweikert said the technology had the potential to be used in various sectors, including food and beverage and fossil fuels.

He added that, should GE provide this technology to another sector, it would also be able to provide its customers with the generators needed to produce electricity from the biogas generated.

Edited by Tracy Hancock
Creamer Media Contributing Editor

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