Your Dependable Ultrafiltration Skid Manufacturer

NEWater Ultrafiltration Skids

The ultrafiltration skid is a product designed and manufactured by NEWater for the automated operation of water treatment. Ultrafiltration (UF) membrane is a pressure-driven membrane separation process. In the pretreatment stage, the wastewater passes through the ultrafiltration membrane at high speed through the membrane module to achieve filtration. The pores of the ultrafiltration membrane are very small, some macromolecular substances will stay in the membrane, and the treated water will flow out through the membrane.

Through ultrafiltration, a compact and refined filtration method, the water obtained can be used for drinking water and tertiary wastewater reuse applications, which improves the benefit of water resources. NEWater’s ultrafiltration semi-permeable membrane can remove solids as small as 0.01 microns, including sludge and viruses. At the same time, it can also reduce the taste, odor, lead, and metal trace elements in the source water.

All our products have a one-year warranty. The NEWater ultrafiltration membrane can be used continuously for about 3 years, which greatly saves you part of the maintenance cost.

The Ultimate FAQ Guide for Ultrafiltration Skids

Global warming continues to deprive the earth’s ecosystem and its inhabitants of fresh water. Efforts to remedy water scarcity in dry areas have inadvertently led to an increase in the use of water treatment systems. Dating back to the 1960s, ultrafiltration skids have been deployed to eliminate undesired pollutants from raw water.

Contemporary UF systems are endowed with innovation that makes them more energy-efficient, highly efficient, and adequately low maintenance. NEWater ventured into the production of ultrafiltration systems 2 decades ago and is currently a world-leading manufacturer of water treatment systems.

➣What is Ultrafiltration?

Ultrafiltration is a water treatment method that relies on a semi-permeable membrane to alienate suspended solids from feed water. Solutes with high molecular weight are left on the retentate side of the membrane while solutes with a low molecular weight including water pass through the membrane to the permeate side.

Typically, ultrafiltration has an impurity rejection rate ranging from 90% to 100% hence its popularity in wastewater, well water, and brackish water treatment. It is particularly effective in eradicating viruses, bacteria, and organic molecules.

➣What is an UF Skid?

An UF skid refers to an ultrafiltration unit assembled on a self-supporting metal structure for compactness and portability. To purify or disinfect feed water, ultrafiltration skids utilize the process of ultrafiltration, which relies on pressure to filter out organic molecules and microorganisms.

The 0.002 to 0.1 micron-sized UF membranes endow ultrafiltration systems with high purification rates (90% to 100%). Ultrafiltration equipments operate on relatively low pressure, which consequently results in low energy consumption.

➣How do Ultrafiltration Skids Function?

The functioning of ultrafiltration is primarily founded on the use of pressure to force-feed water through a UF membrane for filtration. The ultrafiltration membranes are semi-permeable meaning they filter out macromolecules based on the concentration gradient.

Feedwater is injected into the inner shell or lumen of the membrane’s hollow fibers, which capture high molecular weight solutes and suspended solids. Water and solutes with a low molecular weight are allowed passage through the UF membrane ultimately resulting in the collection of potable water.

The side of the UF membrane that holds the high molecular weight solutes and suspended solids is referred to as the retentate. On the other hand, the treated water passes to the permeate side of the membrane.

➣What are the Advantages of Using Ultrafiltration Skids?

The deployment of ultrafiltration skids in varying water treatment projects bears various far-reaching rewards. To begin with, they generate high-quality product water by eliminating close to 100% of particulates, bacteria, viruses, and macromolecules present in feed water.  The quality of potable water generated via ultrafiltration can be measured using the silt density index (SDI) or turbidity (NTU).

Additionally, they rarely necessitate the need for pretreatment chemicals hence they are inexpensive to operate and maintain.  Ultrafiltration skids have a comparatively smaller footprint and their weight is relatively low meaning they are quite portable.

When deployed as a pretreatment mechanism for RO systems, ultrafiltration skids lower operational expenses by saving on chemical dosing and permitting the deployment of fewer RO membranes.

➣What are the Applications of Ultrafiltration Skids?

The alarming scarcity of freshwater across the globe is chiefly responsible for the proliferation in the adoption of water treatment systems. Ultrafiltration is currently one of the most reliable water treatment technologies being utilized in homes, industries, and commercial entities.

Principally, UF skids are utilized as the primary water filtration/disinfection method or as a pretreatment measure in reverse osmosis systems. Underneath, we look at the various industries deriving high-quality potable water via ultrafiltration.

• Treatment of wastewater and industrial effluent.
• Standalone units to generate fresh potable water.
• Used in households to disinfect drinking water.
• Softening hard water.
• Food and beverages.

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➣What Factors Should I Consider When Buying an Ultrafiltration Skid?

The chances of acquiring an UF skid that perfectly matches the demands of your project are higher if you have some background information on ultrafiltration systems. Misinformed choices could have catastrophic implications for your project. As a company dedicated to ensuring absolute customer satisfaction, NEWater has summarized key factors that should aid your purchase of an ultrafiltration skid.

Desired water quality.

Different ultrafiltration systems produce varying qualities of potable water. The impurity rejection rate of ultrafiltration systems ranges from 90% to 100% meaning you can select one that delivers your preferred water quality.

Production rate and capacity.

You probably have a production target for your imminent ultrafiltration system. Your preferred ultrafiltration skid should possess the capacity to comfortably meet your daily or rough targets. Excessive capacities could result in higher operational costs while insufficient capacities could result in a potable water shortage.

Additional factors for your consideration include the concentration of feed water, your budget, the nature of your application, and the system’s expected operational costs.

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➣How Much Does an UF Skid Cost?

Just like other water treatment systems, the all-inclusive cost of ultrafiltration skids is a culmination of the purchasing price, installation fees, labor expenses, maintenance, and power charges. The purchasing price is quite difficult to estimate given the instability of various key factors such as size, membrane number, and customization details.

The operational costs of ultrafiltration skids are significantly lower compared to other water treatment systems like RO units. This is mainly because ultrafiltration operates on low pressure and hence has a lower energy consumption rate and installation charges low since the system is already assembled on a skid.

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➣What is the Capacity of Ultrafiltration Skids?

The demand for treated water varies from small to enormous depending on the scale of application. To accommodate small, medium, and large demands for potable water, NEWater manufactures ultrafiltration systems with varying capacities and flow rates. We have standard ultrafiltration skids with capacities exclusively suitable for personal, industrial, and commercial applications.

Our available ultrafiltration equipments have capacities ranging from 2.3m3/hr to 50m3/hr.  Moreover, we manufacture customized ultrafiltration skids considering your capacity specifications.

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➣Can Ultrafiltration be Used to Supplement Reverse Osmosis?

Yes. Ultrafiltration is one of the most effective pretreatment processes for reverse osmosis systems. When deployed as a pretreatment mechanism, ultrafiltration mitigates the fouling of RO membranes by eradicating turbidity, colloids, and other constituents with high molecular weights. In fact, ultrafiltration is impressively economical when utilized to pre-treat low-quality feed water.

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➣What Types of Ultrafiltration Systems do You Provide?

Technically, there are two main types of ultrafiltration systems, cross-flow ultrafiltration systems, and dead-end flow ultrafiltration systems.

Dead-end flow UF skid.

In this system, the course of feed water drifts vertically to the surface of the ultrafiltration membrane. Suspended solids with high molecular weight are denied passage by the membrane hence they accumulate on its surface. The low molecular solutes and water are small enough to pass through the membrane pores hence they move to the permeate side. Dead-end systems are revered for their low energy consumption, small footprint, and minimal recirculation.

Cross-flow ultrafiltration skids.

Unlike dead-end flow systems, cross-flow skids have the raw water flowing parallel to the membrane’s surface. They have a higher impurity removal rate, the membranes last longer, and the tangential flow of water prompts shear force, which in turn cleans the surface of the membrane.

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➣What are the basic features of Ultrafiltration Skids?

The primary feature that characterizes ultrafiltration skids is their self-supportive skid-mount structure. Nonetheless, ultrafiltration systems have various components and features, each responsible for certain actions, that enable them to function optimally. Below we briefly look at the basic features of equipments.

• The ultrafiltration membranes are made of hollow fiber and the pores vary in size ranging from 0.002 to 0.1 microns.
• They have an operating pressure ranging from 30psi to 100psi.
• They can operate at temperatures ranging from 4 to 45 degrees.
• They can support turbidity levels of up to 300 NTU in feed water.

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➣What is the Size of the UF Membrane Pores?

Ultrafiltration functions by filtering out suspended solids from raw water via ultrafiltration membranes. For higher impurity removal rates, the UF membranes are extremely small-sized. Typical UF membrane pores are 0.002 to 0.1 microns in size. Presently, the effectiveness of ultrafiltration membranes is measured by their molecular weight cut-off (MWCO). UF membranes used in ultrafiltration skids have MWCO rates ranging from 10,000 Daltons to 100,000 Daltons.

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➣What Contaminants are Eliminated by Ultrafiltration Systems?

Ideally, ultrafiltration systems alienate suspended particulates and macromolecules bigger than 0.025 microns from feed water thereby producing high-grade potable water. Pollutants filtered out by ultrafiltration membranes include:

• Viruses and bacteria.
• Inorganic solids and colloids.

They are however limited in the contaminants they can remove. Unlike reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration is not good at filtering out dissolved ions and minerals.

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➣What Type of Water can be Treated by Ultrafiltration Skids?

Ultrafiltration is an effective and cost-efficient treatment method for both surface and groundwater. The utilization of ultrafiltration skids in water treatment is particularly geared to eliminate suspended solids, bacteria, and viruses.

This means that ultrafiltration can effectively remove the above-mentioned constituents from seawater, brackish water, tap water, and groundwater. In seawater desalination by reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration is used to pretreat the seawater. For optimum results or high-grade purified water, ultrafiltration is deployed in conjunction with other water treatment processes.

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➣How are Ultrafiltration Systems Different From Reverse Osmosis Systems?

Chiefly, the outstanding difference between reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration is the composition of pollutants eradicated. Ultrafiltration is renowned for its effectiveness in eradicating suspended particulates and macromolecules while reverse osmosis is particularly effective in eliminating dissolved solids like salts.

Ultrafiltration membrane pores are approximately 0.02 microns in size whereas reverse osmosis membrane pores are approximately 0.0001 microns. UF does not necessitate storage reservoirs while reverse osmosis has storage containers. In addition, reverse osmosis has a higher operating pressure (100psi-800psi) compared to ultrafiltration (100psi).

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➣How Effective are UF Skids?

When it comes to the removal of suspended solids, viruses, and bacteria, there are not as many water treatment processes with the impurity removal rate of ultrafiltration. Typically, ultrafiltration skids eradicate approximately 90% to 100% of suspended particulates and macromolecules present in feed water.

In addition, ultrafiltration has a recovery rate ranging between 90% and 95%. The small-sized UF membrane pores facilitate the high impurity rejection rates exhibited by ultrafiltration skids.

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➣How are Ultrafiltration Skids Used in Wastewater Treatment?

Ultrafiltration systems are deployed in industries with the objective of recycling or reusing the wastewater generated from various industrial processes. Ultrafiltration is principally deployed to eradicate physical solids, viruses, bacteria, and other macromolecules from wastewater.

The suspended elements are captured by the perforated UF membrane and retained in the retentate with only small-sized molecules and water being permitted to pass the membrane pores. Moreover, wastewater treatment plants utilize ultrafiltration to pretreat the raw water before deploying reverse osmosis.

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➣Do You Customize Ultrafiltration Skids?

NEWater supplements its broad line of standard devices with customized units. For a customized ultrafiltration system, you only need to provide our engineers with the following data.

• Your anticipated production rate (per hour) and production capacity.
• Your region’s prevalent voltage and frequency options (220V-480V, 50-60Hz).
• The type of raw water you intend to treat (surface or groundwater).
• Your projected potable water grade.

For accuracy in customization, we utilize three-dimensional computer modeling to design samples of the system. We also seek your approval by sending you video samples prior to manufacturing the ultrafiltration skid. To place your order or to seek further information about customized UF skids, contact our specialists.

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➣Can I Get a Commercial Ultrafiltration System?

Commercial entities have enormous demand for potable water and with the current freshwater shortage, some are forced to solely or partially rely on treating raw water. To aid commercial enterprises overcome the water scarcity phenomena, NEWater offers an extensive list of commercial water treatment systems including commercial ultrafiltration skids.

Our commercial ultrafiltration skids are intelligently designed to facilitate heavy and continuous treatment of raw water. They are further endowed with varying capacities to adequately accommodate large and small businesses.

Presently, NEWater supplies hundreds of ultrafiltration systems to food and beverages enterprises, office buildings, and hotels among others. To place your order, simply contact our engineers.

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➣Can Ultrafiltration Generate Water Fit for Human Consumption?

Yes. Ultrafiltration is highly resourceful in eradicating viruses, bacteria, and other disease-causing microorganisms present in raw water. As a matter of fact, ultrafiltration can eject up to 99.9% of suspended solids and microorganisms present in water thereby supplying fresh healthy water.

Unlike reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration does not eliminate most minerals meaning the drinking water generated contains key minerals like calcium, which are essential for the human body. In Northern China, for instance, there is a 48 m² ultrafiltration system used to generate fresh drinking water from raw water.

Potable water generated by the plant has a turbidity level of approximately 0.2 NTU and is free of over 40% COD and DOC. The subsequent potable water has an impurity concentration of 15ml compared to 12000 ml exhibited by the feed water.

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➣Are There Industrial Ultrafiltration Skids?

For industrial water treatment, NEWater manufactures industrial ultrafiltration skids with PVC ultrafiltration modules and backwash pumps made of stainless steel. Our industrial ultrafiltration systems are suitable for diverse applications including pretreatment of reverse osmosis systems, industrial wastewater recycling, and treatment of greywater.

NEWater’s industrial ultrafiltration skids have surface water capacities ranging from 10,000GPD to 400,000GPD, seawater capacity ranging from 15,000GPD to 600,000GPD, and groundwater capacities ranging from 25,000GPD.

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➣What Powers Ultrafiltration Skids?

Comparatively, ultrafiltration skids are power-efficient water treatment systems. Mainly, the power needed to power ultrafiltration systems is derived from electrical supply lines and in some instances renewable energy such as solar.

Energy consumption in ultrafiltration is roughly 0.2 kWh/m. This is a result of their optimum operation under low pressure, unlike reverse osmosis. Similarly, power consumption costs in ultrafiltration skids account for a very small percentage of the total operational expenses.

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➣How Do I Install my UF Skid?

The installation of ultrafiltration skids is very easy given that the components are readily assembled inside the metal skid. Small-sized ultrafiltration systems are uncomplicated to set up and this is particularly made easier by our precise installation manuals.

NEWater offers a team of experts to aid the on-site installation of enormous ultrafiltration systems at affordable rates. Additionally, we provide remote installation guidance via video tutorials and video calls. For guidance on installation, get in touch with our engineers via email at info@newater.com.

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➣What are the Disadvantages of Ultrafiltration Systems?

The benefits reaped from the use of ultrafiltration systems are quite visible and far-reaching. But their application comes at certain costs. Essentially, ultrafiltration skids capture colloids and other suspended particulates on the retentate side of the UF membrane and this often leads to clogging of the semi-permeable membranes.

Furthermore, the process of ultrafiltration does not eradicate contaminants with small molecular weights such as dissolved salts and unwanted minerals. Nonetheless, UF skids tend to make up for their inefficiencies by effectively removing suspended solids and macromolecules.

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➣Do You Ship Ultrafiltration Skids Abroad?

As a local and global manufacturer/ supplier of water treatment equipment, NEWater delivers your system right to your doorstep. By collaborating with renowned transport service providers, we have managed to expand our delivery routes to over 200 countries.

For quick turnaround times and safe transport of your systems, we exploit various shipment methods including air transport, sea shipping, road, and rail transport. Shipment via air transport facilitates quicker deliveries of small-sized skids, often ranging from 3 to 7 days. Larger systems, however, utilize sea shipping and hence have a longer delivery period ranging from 2-3 months.

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➣Where Can I Get the Ideal Ultrafiltration Skid?

If you are looking for high-quality ultrafiltration equipment for commercial, domestic, or industrial applications, NEWater is your perfect fit. For over 20 years, we have been manufacturing high-grade water treatment systems like ultrafiltration units.  Our systems are competitively priced despite being of superior quality.

Moreover, NEWater’s ultrafiltration systems are intelligently designed to offer cost-efficiency and energy conservation. They are available in distinct capacity ranges, flow rates, and designs thereby accommodating diverse applications.

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➣Where Can I Get High-quality Repair Components for Ultrafiltration Systems?

Procuring high-quality accessories for your ultrafiltration system can be equally as difficult as acquiring the system. This is chiefly because of the low-quality components availed by unscrupulous manufacturers and dealers. With NEWater, you no longer have to worry about the quality of accessories you order for your ultrafiltration system.

To ensure we regulate the quality of our spare parts, we manufacture a majority of the components ourselves and outsource only from reputable manufacturers. We provide hollow fiber UF membranes, carbon blocks, automatic user interfaces, and other related UF components.

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➣Do Ultrafiltration Skids Have Warranty Protection?

To many consumers, warranty protection is a show of the product’s quality hence NEWater’s operational policy stipulates that all our products bear 12 months of warranty protection. For the warranted 12 months, NEWater will undertake all repairs necessitated by the technical malfunctions in your ultrafiltration skid.

NEWater’s warranty policy emphatically states that defects resulting from human error are not viable for warranty-related repairs.

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➣What is the Lifespan of UF Skids?

They are generally long-lasting investments with low operational costs. The average life expectancy of ultrafiltration membranes is roughly three to 7 years. With proper maintenance, it is possible to significantly prolong the lifespan of your ultrafiltration membranes and system in general.

Owing to their sufficiently long lifespan, ultrafiltration skids are a smart investment for households, businesses, and industries. Returns on the invested capital are quick and the asset depreciation rate is quite low.

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➣What Other Water Treatment Systems do You Provide?

NEWater gives you unlimited access to water treatment solutions and systems. By constantly investing in water treatment research, we have developed numerous water treatment systems for industries, commercial enterprises, and household applications. We manufacture standard systems and process customized orders. NEWater’s comprehensive water treatment systems include:

• Reverse osmosis systems.
• Seawater desalination units.
• Water filling machines.
• Nanofiltration systems.
• Purified water generation systems.

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