The Growing Demand for Lamella Clarifiers in Industrial Water Recycling

The Growing Demand for Lamella Clarifiers in Industrial Water Recycling

With increasingly tough environmental standards, water restrictions becoming more critical, and water scarcity issues becoming more acute in many countries around the world, achieving water reuse in industrial applications is being identified as a key value for the plant. With so many recycling efforts underway, Lamella clarifiers are now essential pieces of equipment to achieve effective solid-liquid separation in a small space. As one of the most experienced environmental protection equipment designers and fabricators for more than 30 years, Qingdao Yimei Environment Project Co., Ltd. has seen the rise in more and more industrial fields using lamella clarifiers.

Water Scarcity and Regulatory Pressure

Water stress is affecting the world and prompting industries to reassess the way they use it. There are a wide range of water-scarce areas and water-saving technologies are increasingly being demanded from industrial plants to help save freshwater resources and limit the amount of wastewater discharged. To counter this, legislation is also toughening up resulting in increased treatment standards, and reduced emission levels in discharge permits.

In addition to complying with the regulations, recycling industrial water also helps minimize the costs of acquiring water and disposing of wastewater. The economic incentive to recycle has now become a strong one for many facilities. The Lamella clarifier is one of the key components of such re-use systems that allows to achieve an efficient removal of solids, also necessary for the efficient functioning of the subsequent stages of the treatment, including filtration, membrane separation and disinfection.

In comparison with other types of water settling tanks, lamella clarifiers are especially advantageous in industrial water recycle equipment due to their ability to produce high-quality effluent with small footprint, or for retrofitting into existing equipment.

Compact Footprint and Space Efficiency

The advantages of using sedimentation basins using traditional methods are substantial surface areas for effective solids removal to be created. However, these basins may not be feasible or economical to build in the specific circumstances at the site of an industrial facility that is located in an urban area or where land is limited.

The challenge to Lamella clarifiers can be met by their inclined plate design which increases settling area in a smaller, more vertical structure. The very large number of settling surfaces, together with the relatively high hydraulic loading rates, provides the lamella clarifiers with hydraulic loading rates much higher than standard clarifiers, for a significantly lower land surface.

Considering this space saving property, lamella clarifiers are most preferred in installation of water recycling for industrial use where each square meter should provide the maximum benefit. The clarification can be installed in previously used production facilities, or can even be built between buildings allowing water to be re-used without extensive civil work. Also, a smaller footprint implies development/installation costs and development time reduction.

Versatility Across Industrial Sectors

Lamella clarifiers are extremely flexible and can be employed in many industrial operations. Acids and electroplating processes that create heavy metal precipitates that pollute the rinse water from finishing and plating processes, they are effectively utilized to remove them so water may be reused in the production process. In the food and beverage processing industry they act as a clarifying agent for the wastewater that has solids, oils, and fats in it, preparing it for biological treatment and re-use.

Lamella clarifiers are used in the mining & mineral processing sector for process water recovery and tailing management. They are used in the desulfurization water and blow down water of cooling towers in power generation industries. A lamella clarifier can adjust its treatment goals, hydraulic loads and solids characteristics for different applications with variable but tunable operating parameters and configurations of its plates.

Designed to cope with the specific requirements of such sectors, Lamella Clarifiers from Yimei ensure reliable solids removal to facilitate water recycling targets. The company manufactures over 130 types of treatment machinery, and provides solutions to meet the application requirements.

Integration with Advanced Treatment Technologies

Lamella clarifiers are not likely to be used in water recycling operations as a single treatment step. These are usually used as a pre-treatment/primary clarification step to prevent high solids loading in downstream treatment equipment.

For membrane-f based recycling technologies (e.g. DAF, UF, RO). To prevent fouling of the membrane and to increase the life of the membrane in a membrane based recycling system, effective pretreatment is essential. With a Lamella clarifier the suspended solids which then would load the membranes, resulting in shorter inter-cleaning periods and savings in operating costs, are not present.

Lamella clarifiers used in conjunction with chemical precipitation processes can remove any dissolved forms of metal, phosphorous and other contaminants that can be precipitated as particles. The clarified effluent flows into the filtration, carbon adsorption or disinfection process and then is returned for reuse. Combining these lamella clarifiers with advanced treatment systems leads to highly effective and trouble free systems that provide the required water quality.

Conclusion

These advantages of lamella clarifiers make them increasingly desirable for use in an industrial water recycling system where water is scarce, regulatory demands are increasing, space is at a premium and a versatile, reliable solids removal system is required. The design of these small, effective clarifiers allows them to be used in a wide range of industries to treat and re-use their water, further cutting down on freshwater intake and waste water emissions. Given its own background, wide range of products, and strong experience, Qingdao Yimei Environment Project Co., Ltd supplies Lamella Clarifier industry solutions to help the sustainable water administration in industrial field. Contact us to learn how our Lamella Clarifiers and Screw Dehydrators can improve your water recycling program.