Marine Scrubber Wastewater Treatment Case


Marine Scrubber Wastewater System

The water treatment solution from LiqTech secures compliance with environmental requirements and reduces handling costs of scrubber sludge

The Case

Ships trading in designated emission control areas will have to either use fuel oil with a sulfur content of less than 0.10% (MGO) or to comply with the SOx requirements by using an exhaust gas cleaning system, or “scrubber.” There is a significant cost difference between low sulfur fuel and the cheaper conventional fuel (heavy fuel). By installing scrubber systems, vessel owners can comply with the new IMO requirements and at the same time benefit from the cost advantage of using conventional heavy fuel.

LiqTech has delivered numerous scrubber wastewater treatment systems to be integrated with scrubber towers. The combined scrubber and wastewater treatment solution reduces sulfur emissions in the exhaust gas and turbidity together with polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in the discharged wastewater.

Marine Scrubber Wastewater Solution
Marine Scrubber Wastewater System

System Design

LiqTech SiC membrane system for 6 m³/h or 26 GPM scrubber wastewater.

LiqTech System Design

The advantages of a LiqTech wastewater treatment solution

The scrubber wastewater is treated by mechanical separation - size exclusion, which results in an improved and consistent quality compared to gravity separation based on density differences. In addition to improved quality of the discharge water, the combination of membrane technology with filter press dewatering greatly reduces the volume of scrubber sludge compared to gravity-based separation solutions.

The wastewater treatment package

LiqTech offers complete wastewater treatment solutions consisting of:

  1. Coarse pre-filtration
  2. Fully automated SiC membrane system
  3. Module for dewatering of membrane reject

Wastewater from the scrubber process tank is pumped to the membrane system, which removes soot particles, heavy metals, and unburned fuel residues. The treated water is discharged while monitoring selected parameters. The concentrate of particles from the membrane system is dewatered by a filter press in order to reduce the final volume of scrubber sludge. The solution is monitored and controlled by PLC. 

Materials and Components

The SiC ceramic membranes from LiqTech have proven to be extremely robust and offer high capacity with a very small footprint. Further, the membranes are chemically inert and very temperature resistant. Membrane housings are made of glass fiber reinforced plastics (GRP) and polypropylene piping, or duplex steel. The modular design and material selection are based on marine requirements and standards.

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