The technologies applied have been successfully tested for many years and lots of investments have been made into research of new chemical products to be dosed.

Chemical products (coagulants and flocculants) are normally added to the water to be treated. They agglomerate the substances present, first of all in the micro-flakes and subsequently in real flakes of suitable dimensions that can be precipitated (the sedimentation process) or brought to the surface (the flotation process) of in order to create clarified effluent (if necessary it will be refined in subsequent filtration sections or other post-treatment sections).

In most of cases the process is carried out by controlling and regulating the pH value.

Uses

• Superficial water conditioning
• Pre-treatment in Filtration, Reverse Osmosis in civil and/or industrial fields
• Waste water treatment in industrial and civil fields
• Waste water post-treatment in industrial and civil fields

This allows us to operate the modules without any brine injection or concentrate recycle.
Additionally, the ion-exchange resins are used to ‘polish’ the purified water stream by removing minute quantities of silica, carbon dioxide and other contaminants. The ion-exchange resins are continually being regenerated by the dissociated hydrogen and hydroxylions that have been created by the electric current. Electrodeionization utilizes no chimica regenerants and creates no hazard ouswastes.

If turbidity is also determined by a modest quantity of fine colloidal substances (almost always present in surface water courses), the filters offer excellent performance if used after an in-line flocculation treatment, envisaging the direct dosage into the filter delivery lines of a specific product that aids the agglomeration of the substances dispersed into micro-flakes.

If used with in-line pre-flocculation, sometimes multilayer filters can reduce drastically, heat and the bacterial charge in water. The choice of the filter bed has been studied to allow a volume filtration with high filtration speeds, and enabling long running cycles.

Periodic filter washing (back-washing with water and final washing) enables the expulsion of the retained impurities and clearing of the filter bed.

The upper section of the filter bed is made of selected anthracite with very high chemical-physical and mechanical properties, suitable to favour flocculation reactions. It holds the flocculation and it also filter the large impurities so that the lower section can retain the finer impurities.

The lower section is made of extremely pure quartzite with a selected particle size. Under the filter bed there are one or more layers of inert materials (quartziferous sand) with pre-set piece size and layer depht.

They are also used to complete the biological phase of some purification plants for sewage water treatment and for industrial process.

Uses

• Water primary treatment for civil and industrial use
• Pre-treatment for plants with ionic exchange or Reverse Osmosis
• Refining of clarified water deriving from Clariflocculation stations

If water presents a modest quantity of non ionic surface active agents, the filters guarantee a rather high percentage of removal if sized, in order to assure a sufficient contact period.

They can also be used to remove/ adsorb chlorine derivatives following the ammonia oxidation process through chlorination at break-point.

The filter bed is made of a layer of extremely porous active carbon and a high active surface. These properties confer a very high power of adsorption.

Carbon granulometric composition is studied in order to favour the kinetics of the adsorption mechanisms, optimizing the contact times requested. Below the filter bed there are one or more layers of inert material (quartziferous sand) with pre set piece size and layer depth.

Uses

• De-chlorination
• Removal of residual ozone or generally oxidants
• At the bottom of a deferrizer filter to remove the residual oxidizing substances.
• Adsorption of surface active agents and solvents
• Adsorption of pesticides and organic micro-pollutants
• Removal of nasty smells and tastes
• Adsorption of chlorine derivatives achieved from the ammonia oxidation (chlorination process at break-point)
• Adsorption of pollutant substances in protracted industrial effluents
• Pre-treatment for Reverse Osmosis
• Post treatment in civil waste water purification process

The filters are normally used as regards to a preliminary oxidation treatment with air or, more frequently, with sodium hypochlorite or other oxidizing agents (for example, potassium permanganate).

In the presence of iron, the phase of initial oxidation allows the oxidation from Fe²⁺ to Fe³⁺ that precipitates as hydroxide. The removal of manganese is through a catalytic process following an in-line chlorination. Oxidation of soluble manganese is through free chlorine by the catalytic action performed by the mineral granules in the filter bed. At the bottom of filter, the active carbon filter (ACF) is normally used to remove the exceeding residual chlorine.

The choice of the filtering bed, composed by a mixture of catalytic acting minerals and of inert of a suitable size, has been adopted in order to guarantee the contact time required for an efficient removal of iron and manganese.

Periodic filter washing (backwashing with water and final washing) enable the expulsion of the retained impurities and clearing of the filtering bed. NOVACQUE manufactures standardized filters from 1 to 50 m3/h, with specific materials according to demands of use and application.

The filtration batteries (several parallel filters) can treat total capacities exceeding 5000 m³/h

Uses

• Pre treatments for resine plants
• Treatment in industrial field and in conditioning for civil use

It can be carried out in different ways, the most common one includes additive application of chlorine in the water to be disinfected. A residual chlorine value at the point of use is requested by current Italian regulations.

For some waters chlorine disinfection can lead to the creation of chlorine derived elements that can damage health and must be eliminated through active carbon filtration systems.

Other disinfection systems (chlorine dioxide, ozone, UV ray sterilizers etc.) must be studied each time, togheter with pre-treatment sections too (coagulation-filtration) and post treatments according to the general quality of the water to be treated and to the size of the hydraulic capacity.

It is always recommended to create chlorination at the break-point.
In some applications when ammonia is present, disinfection with micro-ultra filtration membranes is recommended in some applications.

Uses

• Water conditioning plants pre-treatment
• Disinfection post-treatment

In its different applications, the ultra-filtration membranes achieve the following advantages:

• Flexibility of operation in the presence of turbid peaks and suspended solids too.
• A fast replacement of the membranes due to the effect of its high modularity
• Modularity of the system with a minimum request for additional spaces, whereas a capacity increase is required
• Energy savings
• Lower production of sludge (flocculation products are often added to the flocculation system)
• Sterilisation of the water produced without requirements of disinfectants

Thanks to the experience acquired in the application of ultra-filtration technologies, NOVACQUE can now carry on reliable civil waste water refining plants, pre-treated with fibre membranes for which NOVACQUE owns an exclusive patent for re-use in irrigation or in industries.

Uses

• Superficial water treatment and/or pre-treatment, sterilization
• Sea water Pre-treatment, sterilisation of sea water
• Civil waste water purification
• Industrial waste water purification
• Effluent refining for reuse in irrigation

The hardness of water is responsible for the formation of encrustation on piping or on the equipment crossed by the water (heat exchangers, boilers, cooling towers etc.).

The softeners work independently. The regeneration is allowed by a turbine calibrated for a specific cyclic capacity according to the hardness of the water to be treated and to other parameters or, if requested, by a timer.

When the resin can no longer exchange Sodium salts with Calcium salts, it means that its exchange capacity runs out. The resin is regenerated by an unsaturated solution (brine) of sodium chloride. Depending on the regeneration level provided for (grams of NaCl for each litre of resin) the resin has different exchange capacities: higher is the regeneration level, higher will be the exchange capacity. But the increase of the exchange capacity isn’t directly proportional to the increase of the chosen regenerative level.

The softeners work pairs (Duplex) with exchange operation, while one softener is working the other one is being regenerated or is on standby. They are kinds of equipment that guarantee reliability, safety, duration and most importantly their simplicity and proven application.

NOTE: Sometimes it may be best to carry out softening using the reverse osmosis process.

Uses

• Water softening
• Softening of well water
• In industrial fields (laundries, supply to steam generators, supply to cooling towers etc)
• In civil fields (conditioning, powering of large condominium boilers supply)
• In hospital fields (power to the thermal power station supply etc.)

It uses the properties of specific membranes characterized by a very high saline rejection (semi-permeable membranes) which, powered by a more or less brackish water in specific conditions of pressure (exceeding the osmotic pressure of the water to be treated), allows the passing of large amount of water with a high salt content (permeate) to pass through, while the most of the salts contained are withheld in the external fluid of the membranes (concentrate) and are therefore discharged.

A modest consumption of chemical products is often required, suggested to insure a long life of the membranes.

Reverse osmosis allows an economic savings compared to the other kinds of water treatments. It represents, also, a clean technology compared with ion exchange resins filters which also create problems for the disposal-treatment of the regeneration of the eluates).

NOVACQUE produces standardizes plants and guarantees optimization of the quality of the materials used and the quality of the water produced.

NOVACQUE develops and carries on turn-key plants based on specific projects for potentials up to 10.000 m³/days

Uses

• Demineralization of well or tap water for industrial use
• Well water potabilization
• Brackish water desalinization to create drinking, irrigation or industrial water
• Sea water desalinization-potabilization