Developing solutions for water treatment
Developing efficient and economical processes to meet the growing demand for drinking water is one of the major challenges of the Arkema group for the 21st century.
As a result of the increasing world population, greater and greater amounts of water will need to be treated and purified. Given the present and future difficulties of access to drinking water, effective management of this resource is as crucial as that of oil.
The key is to develop efficient and optimized processes for the elimination of pollutants, bacteria and viruses.
A Global Challenge
In 2050, the world’s population will rise above 9 billion individuals compared to 2.5 billion in 1950.
In 2050, 60% of the world’s population may not have access to drinking water compared to 20% today.
New technologies
Over the last ten years, significant progress has been made thanks to membrane technology: nanofiltration, microfiltration, ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis.
The principle is to circulate the water to be treated through porous, polymer membranes. However, these technologies do have some disadvantages:
- complex processes,
- limited efficiency over time,
- high levels of energy consumption,
- treatment and maintenance cost.
Developing more efficient solutions
The Arkema group is aware of its responsibility towards sustainable development as a specialist in chemistry, and as such has made water treatment one of the priorities of its research.
The development of nanomaterials has made it possible to design more efficient filtration membranes and has brought new opportunities in this field.
The aim is to develop solutions which are:
- efficient and sustainable,
- economical and environmentally-friendly,
- competitive and easy to implement.
Complementary products
Using its expertise in fluorinated polymers and nanostructured materials as well as the high performance products of its subsidiary CECA, the Arkema group has developed new solutions for water treatment:
- hydrophylic membranes nanostructured in Kynar® PVDF, which increase the flows of treated water and reduce the amount of energy required for filtration.
- Acticarbone® activated carbons, which eliminate toxic micropollutants and undesirable tastes and odors.