Ipec Global, Inc. - Surface Finishes, Wastewater Treatment and Engineering

Wastewater Treatment - Pollution Control
ZERO DISCHARGE CLOSING THE LOOP

ZERO DISCHARGE / CLOSING THE LOOP
AFFORDABLE - PRACTICAL - ZERO Discharge of wastewaters to the sewer and closed loop recycling of dilute rinse waters has finally come of age. IPEC has spent over 20 years of investigation and has worked with dozens of companies in this field. We can now offer reliable, low cost and practical systems that can get you off and keep you off the sewer. Like everything else in our industry there are no black boxes or proprietary systems or even revolutionary patents out there. ZERO Discharge is a matter of common sense and applying waste minimization and proven treatment methods.

What you see below are some of the methods we use to close loop systems, your facility may not need all of them.

Waste Minimization
Point of Source Treatment
Evaporation
Ion Exchange
Water Polishing
Reverse Osmosis
Batch Treatment
Waste Segregation
Filter Presses

Come visit one of our customers and see for yourself!

Visit the IPEC ONLINE Store for many Products and Technical help that you will need to begin closing the loop at your facility!

ION EXCHANGE (IX)

Ion Exchange is often used in Closed Loop or Zero Discharge systems to recycle rinse waters and meet mil-spec and commercial needs. The big challanges in using Ion Exchange effectivly occur from poor design in the sizing of the resin beds and lack of proper waste minimization in the up-stream processes that produce the wastewater. Choosing the right vendor here is crucial. Improper application of IX can be very costly indeed.

There are two principle types of IX systems On-site regeneration and Mobile off-site regenration. On-site regeneration is becoming more impractical every year especially in the metal finishing industry because the initial costs are so high and the payback is low.

IPEC uses Ion Exchange regularly in metal finishing operations with great success, but Ion Exchange alone is not the answer. You must target your use of IX to specific pollutants and remove non-targeted pollutants before they foul the beds. Here the use of

Reverse Osmosis (RO), for Zero Discharge

IPEC has had significant success in applying RO to pre-treated waste streams in order to produce makeup and product waters in ZERO Discharge applications. Reverse Osmosis,(RO), has had limited success in directly treating some raw wastewaters because the volume of reject waters produced are so high and maintenance of membranes are a constant problem. However pay back in properly applied RO system can be very fast. IPEC is a pioneer in successful application of Reverse Osmosis to metal finishing and other difficult waste streams.

Batch Treatment for Zero Discharge

Batch treatment is perhaps the most efficient and cost effective method of dealing with concentrated liquid wastes and dilute rinse. Batch treated wastes are easier to evaporatate, purified by RO or Ion Exchange post-treatment operations. Batch treaters can be used as stand alone recycling systems for processes like tumbler deburr, cleaning operations and for difficult low volume concentrates that tend to foul IX, conventional filters and other treatment systems. Batch treaters are usually combined with a filter press or other dewatering device to remove solids.

Without question a quality Batch Treatment system is central to a successful Zero Discharge / Closed Loop system.

Pump & Lift Stations

Quality Lift and Pumping Stations are essential in any effective water treatment system. Lift stations are used to segregate incompatible waste streams, and to pump them to holding tanks or other pieces of treatment equipment and systems. This photo shows automated pump and lift stations, (IPEC Series 500), in secondary containment vaults which are double lined with fiberglass.

Visit the IPEC ONLINE Store for a complete line of pumps and lifting stations.

Filter Press

Filter presses are one of the work horses of treatment operatations. Simply put a filter press is used to dewater sludge that is generated when using chemical operations such as precipitation systems for removing metals from wastewater. Other uses for filter presses can be large scale carbon treatment of wastewater, filtration of concentrated cleaning chemicals, separation of liquid generated products as in wineries and food plants. Facility and sump cleanups along with many other operations use filter presses.

The IPEC ONLINE Store will give you information and pricing for many kinds of Filter Presses.

Evaporation

An evaporator can be used to reduce the volume of waste that is to be hauled off, allowing significantly more time between haulings, and at a lower cost. Typically we do not evaporate untreated wastewater or concentrates. This tends to destroy even the finest evaporators and causes problems with air emissions. Rather we batch treat concentrates and dilute rinses before evaporation. Also we filter press all solids to avoid sludge buildup which reduce efficiency in evaporators. Evaporators can be heated or atmospheric depending upon volumes and geographic location.

Our ONLINE Store has several examples of evaporators to choose from.