Ultrafiltration Plant

Vertex Hydropore specialises in the design and manufacture of skid mounted Ultra Filtration (UF) plant across a wide range of commercial and industrial applications. Our range of skid mounted UF systems start with a production rate as low as 1,500 litres per hour right up to volumes of 50,000 litres per hour or larger, with a large selection of sizes in between.

Ultrafiltration (UF) is a membrane separation process that removes suspended solids including particles, colloids, cysts, bacteria, viruses and large molecular weight organic compounds based on pore size. It does not reduce the mineral salts that are measured as Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and electrical conductivity (EC).

Ultrafiltration membranes are available in various configurations including Flat Sheet, Hollow Fibre and Tubular. Modern water supply plants predominantly use Hollow Fibre membranes. These are available in two flow configurations, either Inside to Out or Outside to In.

Inside to Out – feed water travels down the bore of the fibre and passes through the wall to the outside where it is collected as treated water (filtrate). Outside to In – feed water is on the outside of the fibre and passes through the wall to the inside. Outside to In membranes are often used for waste waters with very high suspended solids in membrane bioreactors. Air scouring is often required as part of the cleaning cycle. Inside to Out membranes require lower volumes of water for flushing and backwashing. They are therefore more efficient for applications with lower levels of suspended solids such as well and surface water. Air scouring with its additional equipment is usually not required.

Both Inside to Out and Outside to In membranes may be operated in either a dead end or cross flow mode. Depending on the quality of the feedwater either mode may be enhanced with the use of a combination of flush, backwash and chemical cleaning cycles.

Vertex Hydropore has many years experience in determining the best membrane and operating mode for specific applications.

Ultrafiltration is usually used as part of a more extensive water treatment process. Pre-treatment may include coarse filtration to less than 100 microns and coagulant injection. Post treatment may include activated carbon filtration and disinfection. Ultrafiltration is often used as pre-treatment to reverse osmosis for the treatment of surface water such as rivers and dams.

Ultrafiltration systems can be supplied in a skid mounted component form for installation in a plant room. Alternatively, the Plant can be supplied in an ISO shipping container for ease of transport and minimal site installation time.

Our Containerised Ultrafiltration units feature:

• ISO High cube containers upgraded with sandwich panel insulation and split system air-conditioners
• All stainless steel frames and wetted parts
• Quality label components such as Burkert, Lowara, Grundfos & Georg Fischer
• Local design & assembly to exceed Australia Standards
• Full Factory Acceptance Testing prior to shippingInnovative designs that offer flexible optional extras while maintaining ease of service

Our containerised plants are designed with maximum water efficiency and minimum waste in mind with recovery rates as high as 95% depending on the quality of the feed water. Excess salinity or silica amongst other things will limit the recovery rate of the system. An accurate estimation of the final Ultrafiltration system water recovery can be provided after receiving your feed water analysis and upon completion of the system design.

The containerised plant will include all components of the pre-treatment, the UF unit and any optional post treatment components all plumbed, wired and tested within the container itself. This approach greatly reduces the cost of onsite installation as the system is ready to go upon arrival at site and only need be connected up to water and power. This also provides the added advantage of making it much easier to relocated, something that comes in handy when the system is to be used on multiple sequential projects.

Following the UF plant, there are a number of options for tailoring the product water to different applications. Reverse Osmosis, Sterilisation, Remineralisation and Resin Polishing are all examples of post UF plant processes that can be employed to make sure the system product water meets your specification.

It is quite common, but not necessary for the UF water to go through one of more post treatment processes prior to use and further information is available on this site. Sterilisation is one of the most commonly used types of post-treatment.

Once you’ve had a good look over our site and are ready to get started, or even if you simply have a few questions for which you are unsure, contact our friendly staff and have a chat. We’re always happy to help and can handle most Ultrafiltration requirements and if we can’t we’ll point you in the right direction.