The 12 GE membrane trains, which are a two-stack design, will be retrofitted into existing sand filter basins. The project will incorporate a partial siphon design, which will save the municipality permeate pumping costs. The plant will operate at 96.3% recovery.
Manatee County decided to upgrade the plant as its multimedia filters in the surface water treatment trains were approaching the end of their useful life. The county selected ultrafiltration technology to retrofit within the footprint of its existing media filters.
“We continually look for ways to improve our level of service, and the value of those services, to our customers. Harnessing ultrafiltration technology for this repair and replacement project will ensure we can meet current filtration requirements under the most challenging conditions experienced in Lake Manatee and positions us to meet even more stringent proposed requirements,” said Mark Simpson, water manager, Manatee County.
The Lake Manatee upgrade will be GE’s largest conversion of multimedia filtration to a membrane system.
The facility purifies drinking water for more than 350 000 residents and has the capacity to process 52 million gallons of water per day from the existing conventional surface water treatment plant.
