Energy Recovery has won two contracts to supply its PX® Pressure Exchanger® (PX) energy recovery devices and an array of pumps to support industrial wastewater treatment operations at a battery-grade lithium carbonate manufacturing facility in Tibet, China and a textile wastewater treatment facility in Rajasthan, India.
Both projects will utilize Energy Recovery’s flagship PX in the seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination portion of their industrial wastewater treatment operations.
The textile wastewater treatment facility in India will utilize a combination of Energy Recovery’s PXs, turbochargers, and boosters to maximize efficiency. The operation in China is at one of the largest salt lakes in the world and will produce lithium carbonate, a crucial ingredient in lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles. Energy Recovery’s PXs will help make treating industrial wastewater associated with lithium mining operations more energy efficient.
“Energy Recovery’s technology has always accelerated the environmental sustainability of critical industrial processes,” said Robert Mao, Energy Recovery’s President and CEO. “Our products continue to bring affordable, drinkable water to communities around the world. Today, by making wastewater treatment more energy efficient, our products are also making industrial operations like textile manufacturing and lithium mining into cleaner, greener processes.”
The emissions and cost savings of the PX will enable industrial producers to better align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
More regions are prioritizing sustainable wastewater treatment as the world faces dwindling freshwater resources, and regulatory pressure to reduce pollution from industrial operations increases. The opportunity for industrial wastewater treatment is vast – more than 16%of global freshwater withdrawals end up as industrial wastewater, flowing back into the world’s aquatic ecosystems without being treated.
“The need to efficiently and sustainably treat wastewater is truly a global issue,” said Rodney Clemente, Energy Recovery’s Senior Vice President of Water. “Particularly in fast-developing countries that have embraced industry and manufacturing – like much of South Asia – wastewater treatment will no longer be a nice-to-have, but a must-have. With Energy Recovery’s state-of-the-art technology, wastewater treatment can also be an energy efficient, economical, and more environmentally friendly process.”
The emissions and cost savings of the PX will enable industrial producers to better align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which include targets that seek to improve water quality by reducing pollution and halving the proportion of untreated wastewater globally. Reducing the energy usage and emissions associated with wastewater treatment will be an essential step for a more sustainable future – according to estimates by the International Energy Agency, total energy consumption for the water treatment industry is expected to increase by 130% through 2040.
