Economic and Sustainable Optimization of Washing and Degreasing Agents

An economical and quality-assuring process bath maintenance is essential to prevent residual dirt on surfaces and to minimize operating and disposal costs.

At a renowned, globally active metal processor with plants in Hesse, part cleaning was carried out until 2014 using a fully automatic multi-chamber washing and degreasing system in a flow-through process with cascade control. The existing filtration systems proved to be inadequate, so a solution was sought for the filtration problem to:

- Reduce the contamination of the medium with emulsified oils, hydrocarbons, suspended solids, and particulate impurities.
- Significantly increase the service life of the medium, as constant water changes caused extremely high costs and led to production downtime.
- Tending the reject rate towards 0%.

Attempts with various conventional ultrafiltration systems were unsuccessful in the past because the high media load did not allow for satisfactory operation, too many surfactants were carried out, a high waste volume was generated, and the systems themselves incurred high operating costs.

During the search for an economical solution, the customer became aware of AQON’s rotation technology in October 2013.

Initial practical tests with a rental system on-site were so convincing that since July 2014, a permanently installed — purchased — rotation ultrafiltration system has been used to treat process water at significantly lower costs than conventional UF systems.

“Thanks to the rotation technology, pressure and overpressure of the membrane can be set independently of each other. The filtration process itself runs at much lower pressure. Lower connection power, fewer mechanical wear parts, cost-effective flat membranes, and a high concentration factor of up to 15 ensure outstanding economic efficiency,” says Marian Wilk, CEO of AQON.

For the customer, the investment pays off in the shortest time because a recirculation of the washing and degreasing medium was made possible — service life > 1 year — the wastewater volume has accordingly decreased, and the surfactant and cleaner concentrations could be reduced by approximately 50% — while simultaneously improving quality.

Features of the rotation filter technology:

- Achievable high cross-flow
- No membrane surface blocking
- High filtration yield through high concentration
- Low energy input into process water
- Cost-effective flat membranes

Performance and design features:

- Cost-effective flat membranes
- Variable separation limits with different membranes per system
- Manual, semi-automatic, or fully automatic variants
- Filtration capacity 100 L/h to 500 L/h (depending on medium and type)
- Extremely small footprint
- Energy-saving flow technology
- Control cabinet with Siemens PLC, touch display, interface for GLT/ZLT
- Low power consumption — from 1.5 kW/h