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Image Credit: DuPont Water Solutions
INTERVIEW | WATER
Improving water security With communities on every continent running out of water, desalination and effective re-use of waste water can offer ways of providing drinkable supplies. y 2030, demand for drinking water is projected to exceed supply by trillions of cubic metres, making latest desalination and water re-use techniques critical in helping meet demands. DuPont Water Solutions offers one of the most complete portfolio of products in this sector to customers around the globe and in Africa. Tim Guest, for African Review, spoke with the company’s regional commercial manager, SSA (sub-Saharan Africa), Semano Sekatle, to find out more.
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African Review: How long has DuPont been active in re-use and desalination operations? Semano Sekatle: DuPont Water Solutions has been supporting communities and businesses across the globe, including Africa, for more than 70 years, blending innovative technology and application expertise to develop solutions to the most complex water challenges; 95mn litres of water are processed every minute globally using DuPont technology. As advancing technology continues to drive costs down and freshwater continues to become scarcer and
more expensive, more cities are looking to seawater conversion as a way to meet this demand. Investing in seawater reverse osmosis desalination makes long-term sense. Water Authority projections show the cost of this technology becoming more and more competitive and where desalination is the best option for municipalities, costs have been reduced with the help of technological developments. AR: Could you discuss DuPont’s recent FilmTec Dry Seawater Reverse Osmosis development and the new Integrated Ultrafiltration process? SS: Our Dry Seawater Reverse Osmosis is a unique solution to reduce the weight of membrane elements used for desalination. Conventionally, these membranes are factory tested and then shipped in a storage fluid. But this weighs an extra 4 kg per element. By creating a dry testing and storage capability, we save 4 kg of weight per element, meaning a significantly smaller carbon footprint of the sometimes-distant transportation to the point-of-use
and eliminating the need to dispose of the chemical storage liquid. DuPont has taken a technological leap forward by becoming the first to successfully manufacture seawater membrane elements that can be shipped and stored without wet testing or wet storage. In March 2021, we collaborated with Waterise to provide seawater reverse osmosis membranes for their subsea desalination plants. Subsea desal reduces energy requirements by 40% and presents a more sustainable and economical way to turn seawater to freshwater by leveraging the natural hydrostatic pressure found at the depths of the sea. It also requires up to 80% less coastal land than land-based plants. As for ultrafiltration, this is an excellent separation technology for desalination pre-treatment, reverse osmosis pre-treatment, and wastewater reclamation, as well as for producing potable water. One of the most recent incorporations to our product portfolio is Integrated Ultrafiltration (iUF). This newgeneration technology, which has been co-developed with engineering specialist Fluytec, combines the
Semano Sekatle, regional commercial manager, SSA, DuPont Water Solutions.
screening and UF stages in a single pressure vessel and also minimises plant requirements. AR: Where are DuPont desalination and re-use systems used in Africa? SS: DuPont Water Solutions is involved in many African projects to solve urgent water needs. Our UF and RO membranes are in use at several industrial wastewater re-use plants in ‘Minimum Liquid Discharge Operations’ at petrochemical plants in South Africa; mining operations in South Africa, Ghana, and Namibia; and at food and beverage applications across the whole of SSA. They are also used in municipal wastewater re-use applications at several municipalities in South Africa. Between freshwater systems optimisations, wastewater re-use and re-purposing, as well as seawater desalination, an holistic approach is required. A balanced coexistence and application between all these will ensure sustainable water supply – this is what nations in Africa need to be looking at via collaborations between governments and private sector. ■
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AUGUST 2022 | AFRICAN REVIEW OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY
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