Project References

Cooling Tower Water Treatment

Remove

Silica & Sulphates
Hardness
Chlorides
TDS & Others

Benefits

Less Mineral - Avoid acidic water, reduce piping corrosion

Dye Desalination

comparison before & after filtration

The 3ENF membrane demonstrates significant COD interception and decolorization effects on printing and dyeing wastewater, effectively improving wastewater treatment efficiency and water quality. The 3ENF-10 and 3ENF-20 membranes are loose nanofiltration membranes with a divalent salt removal rate of only 10-20%, making them specifically designed for dye desalination applications.

COD rejection performance

Flux performance comparison

Cooling Tower Blowdown Water Recycle On Site Changi Airport T4 & NTU

1) Feed and Permeate Water Quality Parameters During Pilot Stage

- The 3E-NF60 membrane achieves a turbidity removal rate of over 98%.
- It reduces hardness by 40-50%, effectively minimizing scaling and corrosion risks in cooling systems.
- The membrane demonstrates strong CODcr retention, with an average removal rate exceeding 50%, significantly lowering organic pollutant content.

2) Operating Cost

During the period from January 20 to January 24, 2025 (5 days), the total power consumption was 13.92 kWh. The system operated under the following conditions:

- - Operating Pressure: 3 bar
  - Daily Runtime: ˜8 hours
  - Permeate Production: 12.0 m³/day (excluding backwash, only air scouring)

The electricity cost per cubic meter of produced water is calculated as:

The estimated chemical cost is 0.04 SGD/m³

The total cost per cubic meter of produced water: 0.253 + 0.04 = 0.257 SGD

Comparing Singapore’s current water price (2.94 SGD/m³) with the treatment cost of the 3ENF-60 nanofiltration (NF) membrane (0.257 SGD/m³), the economic benefits are evident. By enabling water reuse at just 10% of municipal water costs, the 3ENF-60 NF membrane effectively converts low-quality cooling tower blowdown into a stable and reliable water source for industrial cooling.

For an industrial cooling system processing 100,000 m³ of water annually, this translates into potential water savings of 250,500 SGD per year, significantly reducing operational expenses and shortening the investment payback period to just 2-3 years.

Furthermore, the 3ENF-60 NF membrane ensures compliance with Singapore’s stringent water quality standards (SS <5 mg/L, COD <30 mg/L), supporting businesses in establishing a sustainable water cycle that integrates water conservation, cost reduction, and regulatory compliance. This makes it an ideal solution for water-intensive industries such as electronics and chemicals.

Application In Seawater

Direct replacement of Ultrafiltration membranes

Benefits of adopting our membrane:

Prevent RO Algae and Barnacle Fouling
Resistant to free chlorine and therefore no neutralization with SMBS is needed
Reduce Salinity & Scaling
Extent lifespan of the RO membrane element by min.1 year

Seawater Fish Farm Waste Water recycle

3E-NF20 HF membrane system aims to retain salt concentration while remove organics and ammonia

Singapore is the world's largest exporter of ornamental fish. Direct discharge of aquaculture wastewater will create adverse effect on the ecosystem. Singapore government is rolling out a plan to move all outdoor fish farms to indoor multi-storey fish farms. In order to achieve this goal, the government encourages the adoption of new technologies to reduce the cost of aquaculture wastewater reuse, which can reduce the water consumption and the cost of indoor fish farming.

Aquarium Iwarna Marine Ornamental Fish used 3E-NF20 to recycle its aquaculture wastewater. This project was supported by Enterprise Singapore, Ngee Ann Polytechnic and Singapore Fish Culture Association.

System Parameters:

Feed: 38,000.0 ppm
Flux: 0.4±0.5L/hour
Salt rejection: 20.0±0.3%（2000ppm MgSO₄）
Operational pressure: 2.0 Bar

Benefits of using our membranes:

Low pressure used in operation: 2 bar for our membrane compared to 10-100 bar for conventional RO
Retention of salt concentration: our membrane does not remove salts from the seawater, whereas the conventional RO process used excessive high pressure to remove the salts during treatment. The filtered water needs to be topped up with salt before being used for aquaculture purpose
Low requirement on feedwater pre-treatment: our membrane adopts a hollow fibre configuration that minimizes clogging happens in conventional RO process. It also allows for better cleaning strategy

Laundry Wastewater Recycling

3E-NF60 membrane system aims to remove surfactants from wastewater

Laundry water accounts for at least 20% of portable water consumption. Laundry wastewater from large-scale laundry factories could cause problems for wastewater treatment plants when directly discharged into sewer. Many European and American countries stipulate that laundry wastewater cannot be directly discharged, and have formulated the reuse index of laundry wastewater.

3E worked with Hydrasyst - a well-known industrial wastewater treatment company in Europe and America, to supply our membranes for a laundry wastewater treatment and reuse project.

System Parameters:

Processing capacity: 4.0 ± 1 T / hour
Influent TDS:2400ppm
Salt rejection: 60.0% ± 0.3%（2000ppm MgSO₄）
Operational pressure: 2.5 Bar
Maximum working pressure: 3.0 Bar

Benefits of using our membranes:

Lower pressure used: our operational pressure is 2.5 bar, whereas the conventional RO process is 10 – 100 bar
Simplified system: allows for reliable and easy-to-operate laundry wastewater recycling
Lower fouling propensity: Our surface is compact and not easy to be polluted. Therefore, it has long lifespan even when subject to substantial organic concentration.

Secondary Effluent Recycling for Cooling Tower Makeup

3E-200NF10A membrane system aims to remove organics from secondary effluent while achieve high recovery rate

While water scarcity becomes a pressing issue, there is a huge demand to recycle wastewater into process water. Secondary effluent is a potential source for water recycling after removing organics and salt. Water recovery is often limited by UF’s capability of removing organics and therefore severe biofouling in RO, which in turn impairs the economical feasibility of water recycling projects.

Shandong Kytoland Watertech used our membrane as a pre-treatment to RO membranes.

System Parameters:

Effective membrane area: 61.0 m²
Water flow rate: 128 ±0.5 Ton/day per bar
Operation pressure: Max. 3.0bar
Salt rejection 2000ppm MgSO₄: 10±1%
Max Free-chloride resistance: 1000.0 ppm

Benefits of using our membranes:

Higher rejection of organics and hardness to safeguard the downstream RO process: most of the existing pre-treatment of RO process adopts loose ultrafiltration with molecular weight rejection rate higher than 5000Da. This type of membrane cannot remove the hardness and organics in water.
Higher flux compared to other NF membranes: 3E high flux nanofiltration membrane has a flux close to that of UF
Lower fouling propensity: Our surface is compact and not easy to be polluted. Therefore, it has long lifespan even when subject to substantial organic concentration.

Drinking Water Filtration

Remove

Heavy Metal
Bacteria
Virus
Suspended Solids

Benefits

Mineral in Treated Water - Good For Health

Dye Wastewater Treatment (Secondary Effluent Recycling)

Remove

Soluble Dye
Divalent Salts
Organic Compounds

Benefits

Monovalent Salt - Water recycle to reduce the salt usage

Cooling Tower Water Treatment

Remove

Silica & Sulphates
Hardness
Chlorides
TDS & Others

Benefits

Less Mineral - Avoid acidic water, reduce piping corrosion

Seawater Desalination

Remove

Hardness
Organic Matters
Chlorides
TDS & Others

Benefits

High Recovery
Less Energy Consumption
Less Scaling & Fouling

Extraction of Plant Material

Remove

Colour
Enzyme
Heavy Metal
Virus& Bacteria
SS

Benefits

Solvent Recycle
Less Heat
No Chemical
Pure natural

Secondary Effluent Recycling For Coiling Tower Makeup

Seawater Fish Farm Waste Water Recycle

Laundry Wastewater Recycling

Application in Seawater

Cooling Tower Blowdown Water Recycle

Dye Desalination

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