Innovation and Technology
Technology and innovation are at the heart of our water treatment solutions
Innovation has been deeply embedded in our culture for over 30 years.
Our approach is built on the innovation, knowledge and experience of our long – serving, high performing staff, effective training, and a deeply embedded culture of striving for ‘out of the box’ thinking to creatively solve problems and develop new ways of doing things.
More than 30 years developing solutions for our customers across industries and geographies, we have truly become a specialist in difficult to treat water - how to do that more efficiently, reliably and cost effectively is what a large proportion of our R&D effort is focussed on.
Advancing membrane integrity testing for safer water
ClearPathogen™ is an Australian research project developing an innovative approach to membrane integrity testing.
The technology uses safe, biodegradable fluorescent nanoparticles designed to mimic relevant characteristics of viruses. By monitoring these particles before and after membrane treatment, the technology is being investigated as a way to rapidly assess membrane performance and identify changes in membrane integrity.
How ClearPathogen™ works
Raw water
Raw water enters the treatment process.
ClearPathogen™ challenge particles
Safe fluorescent biodegradable particles designed to mimic harmful pathogens are introduced to the raw water supply
Membrane integrity verified with particles
Effective membranes stop the pathogen-like fluorescent particles from passing.
Real-time fluorescence monitoring
Fluorescence is measured before and after the membrane to assess performance in real time.
Performance verification
Immediate confirmation of membrane integrity and treatment performance.
Testing the technology in the field
Following laboratory and bench-scale development, ClearPathogen™ is now being evaluated through pilot-scale trials with Australian water utilities. The trials will test the technology using feedwater from participating treatment plants and assess its performance across both UF and RO membrane systems.
Osmoflo Brine Squeezer and Brine Management.
Starting in the 2000’s, Osmoflo recognised there was a need to minimise concentrate and brine production from desalination plants. We went on to develop and patent the Osmoflo Brine Squeezer which has since been fully commercialised to become one of the most successful and well proven non-thermal brine concentration technologies available in the market today with several full-scale plants now having been built and operated for many years.
With the capacity to economically minimise waste streams to as low as 5% on brackish water applications, significant economies can be made downstream to reduce the size of inland evaporation lagoons or thermal brine concentrators. This is also conducive to using these traditional ‘waste streams’ to recover rare critical materials using membranes as the world moves towards more circular approaches for resource recovery.
Osmoflo Brine Squeezer and Brine Management.
Starting in the 2000’s, Osmoflo recognised there was a need to minimise concentrate and brine production from desalination plants. We went on to develop and patent the Osmoflo Brine Squeezer which has since been fully commercialised to become one of the most successful and well proven non-thermal brine concentration technologies available in the market today with several full-scale plants now having been built and operated for many years.
With the capacity to economically minimise waste streams to as low as 5% on brackish water applications, significant economies can be made downstream to reduce the size of inland evaporation lagoons or thermal brine concentrators. This is also conducive to using these traditional ‘waste streams’ to recover rare critical materials using membranes as the world moves towards more circular approaches for resource recovery.
Osmoflo has designed and built over 600 plants across the globe, including remote locations with very challenging feed water characteristics.
With such a wide diversity of feed water quality and operating conditions over the past 30 years, there’s not much that we haven’t seen before. We do everything from concept/preliminary design through to detailed design, fabrication, construction, commissioning and long term operation and maintenance and asset renewal.
Developed a membrane-based system to treat acid mine drainage water.
Based on the principles of the Osmoflo Brine Squeezer, we’ve successfully developed a membrane-based process to treat acid mine drainage water – a process that operates reliably on feed waters with pH levels as low as 2, and with extreme calcium and sulphate levels that most other membrane processes simply cannot deal with.
R&D to create a sustainable water future
Osmoflo has been actively utilising Machine Learning (ML), a component of Artificial Intelligence (AI), to help our Operators continually improve and optimise the way we run our water treatment facilities. With a combination of the best expertise available and in-house capability, we have used our cloud-based Plant Connect communications system to transfer operating data to a central processor for training.
In return, ML and AI algorithms have been utilised to feedback advice to Operators to allow optimisation on critical process set points, dosing rates and cleaning frequency.
Using these techniques, we have demonstrated and achieved tangible reductions in energy and chemical consumption as well as substantial improvements to membrane life.
From our graduate program to our involvement in universities both here and abroad, we are strongly committed to the foundational experience we provide to tomorrows young water professionals.
We also partner with several leading organisations, research institutions and industry associations that support our endeavours of ‘testing the boundaries’ of water and resource recovery, and how we can collectively create a circular economy through the world’s most precious resource.
Innovative solutions
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Other Osmoflo solutions
Customised project solutions
Complete in-house solution providing the design, build and commission of fully-customised plants.
Emergency water - rental
Minimise downtime for your critical projects with proven solutions and support deployed when you need it.
Operations and maintenance
Tailored O&M solutions based on innovative technologies and systems that optimises long term performance and reliability, and delivers lowest lifetime operating costs for your water treatment plant.
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