#what is RO EDI Plants?

[swjalprocess]

RO EDI Plants

An RO EDI plant is a state-of-the-art solution for industries that require ultra-pure water. By integrating Reverse Osmosis (RO) and Electrodeionization (EDI), these systems efficiently remove impurities, dissolved salts, and ions. This article delves into the details of RO EDI technology, its applications, benefits, and operational best practices.

What is an RO EDI Plant?

An RO EDI plant combines two advanced technologies to deliver high-purity water:

Reverse Osmosis (RO):

Utilizes semi-permeable membranes to remove up to 99% of dissolved solids, bacteria, and organic matter.

Acts as a pre-treatment stage, ensuring that water entering the EDI system is free from significant impurities.

Electrodeionization (EDI):

Uses ion-exchange resins and an electric current to polish the RO-treated water.

Eliminates residual ions without requiring regeneration chemicals, making the process environmentally friendly.This combination ensures a continuous supply of deionized water with a resistivity of up to 18 MΩ.cm, meeting the stringent requirements of critical industries.

Applications of RO EDI Systems

RO EDI plants are indispensable in industries where water purity impacts product quality and operational efficiency:

Pharmaceutical Manufacturing: Ensures compliance with global water quality standards such as USP, EP, and JP. The system produces purified water for drug formulation, equipment cleaning, and injection solutions.

Power Generation: Provides ultra-pure water for boiler feed, reducing the risks of scaling and corrosion, which can compromise power plant efficiency.

Semiconductor and Electronics: Supplies ultra-pure water for chip manufacturing, where even trace contaminants can disrupt production.

Food and Beverage: Delivers clean water for production, ingredient mixing, and cleaning-in-place (CIP) processes, ensuring hygiene and taste consistency.

Features and Benefits

1. High Purity Output: The combination of RO and EDI ensures the removal of both dissolved solids and ionic contaminants, achieving water purity suitable for sensitive applications.

2. Environmentally Friendly: EDI eliminates the need for regeneration chemicals, reducing environmental impact and operational hazards.

3. Continuous Operation: Unlike traditional ion-exchange systems, EDI does not require downtime for resin regeneration, ensuring uninterrupted production.

4. Energy Efficiency: Modern RO EDI plants are equipped with energy-saving components, including low-energy membranes and optimized EDI cells, to minimize operational costs.

5. Modular and Compact Design: RO EDI systems are designed to fit into limited spaces, making them ideal for facilities with spatial constraints.

Operational and Maintenance Best PracticesTo maximize efficiency and prolong the lifespan of an RO EDI plant, the following steps are recommended:

Pre-Treatment Care:

Use pre-filtration systems like multimedia filters or activated carbon filters to protect RO membranes from fouling.

Ensure proper softening of feed water if hardness levels are high.

Regular Monitoring:

Conduct routine checks for conductivity, flow rates, and operating pressures.

Monitor the performance of membranes and EDI modules to detect early signs of fouling or scaling.

Scheduled Cleaning:

Perform periodic cleaning of RO membranes using approved cleaning chemicals to maintain their efficiency.

Clean EDI stacks as needed to prevent performance degradation.

Operator Training:

Train personnel on system operation, troubleshooting, and maintenance to minimize downtime and ensure consistent output.

Why Choose RO EDI Systems?

RO EDI plants provide a seamless, chemical-free solution for producing ultra-pure water. Their ability to meet demanding purity standards, coupled with operational efficiency and environmental benefits, makes them the preferred choice for industries worldwide.Investing in an RO EDI system ensures long-term benefits, including cost savings, environmental compliance, and product quality enhancement. Whether in pharmaceuticals, power plants, or electronics, these plants deliver unmatched performance, supporting industrial excellence.

[hinada-china]

Distinctive Uses and Benefits of PVDF Ultrafiltration Membrane

PVDF ultrafiltration (UF) membranes are vital to ensuring the availability of safe and clean water. However, what precisely are these membranes, and what makes them so significant? Jump right in!

What is a PVDF Ultrafiltration (UF) Membrane?

PVDF ultrafiltration membranes are a durable, chemically resistant, and semi-permeable water filtration technology that effectively removes particles, bacteria, and viruses from water.

Advantages of PVDF Ultrafiltration Membranes

PVDF UF membranes offer several distinct advantages over other membrane technologies:

High Pore Size: With pore sizes ranging from 0.01-0.1 microns, PVDF UF membranes may efficiently eliminate diverse contaminants comprising viruses, bacteria, and colloids.

Chemical Resistance: These membranes are incredibly resistant to various chemicals. Their resilience makes them perfect for use in even the harshest conditions.

Long Lifespan: PVDF UF membranes have a long lifespan, typically lasting 2-4 years, depending on the quality of the inlet water.

Easy to Clean: Maintenance is a breeze with PVDF UF membranes, as they are easy to clean, ensuring consistent, long-term performance.

High Tolerance to Influent: These membranes are efficient and cost-effective due to their ability to handle high influent turbidity up to 50 NTU, reducing the need for complex pretreatment processes.

Applications of PVDF Ultrafiltration Membranes

PVDF UF membranes find their application in a wide array of fields:

Drinking Water Production: They produce high-quality drinking water from various sources, including surface water, groundwater, and spring water.

Seawater Desalination: PVDF UF membranes act as pretreatment in seawater desalination plants alongside reverse osmosis (RO) treatment.

Food and Beverage Processing: These membranes clarify, concentrate, and purify food and beverage products, such as juice and milk.

Pharmaceutical Manufacturing: In the pharmaceutical industry, PVDF UF membranes assist in sterilizing and purifying pharmaceutical products.

Industrial Water Treatment: They remove impurities from industrial wastewater and produce high-quality process water.

In conclusion, PVDF ultrafiltration membranes are essential tools in the quest for clean and safe water. They offer durability, efficiency, and versatility, making them a preferred choice for various applications.

For more information about PVDF ultrafiltration membranes and other water treatment solutions, visit hinada.com. You can also contact them at +8613922297496 or via email at jeff@hinada.com.

Keywords Tag: ultrafiltration systems water treatment, wastewater treatment equipment, edi electrodeionization, ultra filtration system, electrodeionization system, pvdf ultrafiltration membrane, UF System, hollow fiber uf membrane

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China Pure Water System suppliers

China Pure Water System suppliers What is Reverse Osmosis? Reverse Osmosis commonly knowns as RO, is a technology to remove dissolved solids and impurities from water by a semi-permeable membrane which allows the water passing through but reject the majority of other contaminants. The RO membranes require water to be under high pressure (greater than osmotic pressure) to achieve the goal. The water that passes through the RO membrane is called "permeate" and the dissolved salts that are rejected by the RO membrane is called "concentrate".聽聽Single Pass RO Pure Water System is to produce RO water. To understand the purpose and process of Reverse Osmosis you must first understand the naturally occurring process of Osmosis. Osmosis Osmosis is the movement of a solvent across a semipermeable membrane toward a higher concentration of solute from the lower side. Osmosis is a naturally occurring phenomenon and one of the most important processes in nature. It is a process where a weaker saline solution will tend to migrate to a strong saline solution. Examples of osmosis are when plant roots absorb water from the soil. Reverse Osmosis Reverse Osmosis is the process of Osmosis in reverse. Whereas Osmosis occurs naturally without energy required, to reverse the process of osmosis you need to apply energy to 鈥減ush鈥? A reverse osmosis membrane is a semi-permeable membrane that allows the water molecules passing through but reject the majority of dissolved salts, organics, bacteria and pyrogens. However, you need to 鈥榩ush鈥?water through the RO membrane by applying pressure(greater than the osmotic pressure) in order to desalinate (demineralize or deionize) water in the process, allowing pure water through while rejecting a majority of contaminants. Single Pass RO Pure Water System According to the times of raw water passing through the RO membrane, RO device can be devided into the single or double or even multilevel pass RO. Different times of passing through membrane will result different quality permeate water.聽 A complete RO system includes pretreatment & RO unit. The flow chart of a standard Single Pass RO Pure Water System is as following: Main Components CNP Water PumpGrundfos Water pumpDOW RO Membrane Ionpure EDI Module (Siemens)Stainless Steel Pipe PartsSEKISUI Clean-PVC Schneider Electronic PartsSiemens PLC ControllerElectrical Control Cabinet Successful CasesChina Pure Water System suppliers website:http://www.rxd-purewatersystems.com/pure-water-system/

[histologyapology]

Quiz Review #1: Water Quality

hhhhhhh i really don’t want to study tonight but this is a fairly interesting topic so I figured I’d try to bribe myself into some review by posting about it here. alright leggo. giant wall of text under the cut, strap in lads. 

Water Quality as it relates to histology is probably an overlooked topic in many labs. Many labs use tap water as a bluing reagent, and so the logic may be that if it’s good enough in that context then it must be fine for other steps in process, such as for water baths and rinsing steps in the H&E strainers. This isn’t the case; the ideal lab will have a water purification system that allows for water that goes through several layers of deionization, filtration and sterilization before it ever comes out of the spigot. But that’s getting ahead of things; let’s talk about why tap water isn’t usually a good idea for use in the histological setting:

Why is tap water bad? Five main Reasons:

 Tap water contains inorganic ions, which can negatively effect the quality of a whole bunch of special stains. Silver stains in particular are very vulnerable to inorganic ion contamination; it is common practice at my school to make students do a Gomori Methenamine Silver stain with tap water and a second with DI, just to demonstrate the difference the contrast and background staining issues. 

Tap water contains organic contaminants, such as those created by the breakdown of plants and algae. Bacteria and fungi find these substances extremely snack-able, which can lead to some false positives on bug stains. We actually had an issue with this in the lab at my previous rotation; the milipore guys wouldn’t tell us exactly what happened but going by the weird fish smell and the MANY  false positive bug stains from that week, we think it was an algal bloom/dieoff that fueled a giant bacteria party in the DI system! Fun times!                                        Another source of organic contaminants is the breakdown of plastic shipping materials and plumbing pipes, such as the polymers that leach out of PVC and water carboys. These are usually indicated by a harsh ‘chemical-y’ smell.

 Certain areas of the country may have issues with particulate and colloid pollution; most of the large particles (sand, rocks, plant bits) should be filtered from tap water by waste management, but certain substances such as calcium carbonate (aka limescale) are hard to get rid of and may cause crusty deposits on machinery and artifacts on slides.

Tap water can contain bacteria and their by-products, which is a big issue if you’re running any number of bug stains or histochemical enzyme tests. The bacteria themselves can give you a false positive on things like Grams, Gomori and Warthin-Starrys, and those bacteria contain can also cause degrade endogenous nucleic acids and screw up F/ISH testing.  

The last and probably rarest class of tap water pollutants is Gases and Fumes,including things like carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and fumes from acids and volatile solvents used in the lab. Carbon dioxide in particular can be an issue, because too much CO2 in water will cause it to acidify, which could mess with everything from basic H&E staining to tissue morphology. Xylene and alcohol evaporate very quickly; a lab with many open containers and/or poor ventilation may have areas where fumes ‘collect’ and these can sometimes condense onto an open water bath (tho can i just say? If your lab has open processors/open vats of xylene just sitting around??? get out of there, you’re going to get sick. rat out your management to OSHA. love yourself. jeeze). 

Alright so now you know why tap water is garbage, now let’s talk about how to measure the degree and severity of how garbage it might be. 

Measuring contamination:

Resistivity: a measurement of how strongly the water opposes an electical current moving through it. Remember genchem? yeah it sucked, but remember when you did that experiment where you put different salts into water and then recorded how easy or hard it was for an electric current to get through said water? It’s like that, but the inverse; resistivity is the inverse of conductivity. Pure distilled water does not conduct electricity well; it has a high resistivity. If your water has a bunch of inorganic contaminants in it, it will have a low resistivity, it’s going to conduct electricity very well, and the College of American Pathologists will yell at you and make you fix it or your lab will lose accreditation. Resistivity is measured using certified and calibrated meter. Details about the calibration of the meter and the periodic resistivity testing you do on your lab’s DI system should be recorded and presented to CAP when they come a-knockin’ at inspection time. 

Colony Forming Units: this is a measure of bacterial contamination where you plate some of your DI water onto some agar and see what grows. Make the nerds down in Micro do it so you don’t contaminate the plate with the sleeve of your scrubs and give yourself a heart attack. This is another measurement of water quality that CAP’s going to want to see during inspection, so keep good records. 

Alright so now we know what garbage is in tap water, we know how to measure that there garbage, now let’s figure out how to make some water that isn’t terrible, some nice pure delicious Science Water ® :

Purifying water: Seven ways

Distillation: Mankind’s been doing this one for thousands of years, tho usually it’s for getting drunk. The idea is to boil water and collect the steam that comes off. This will get rid of larger particulate pollution but may not get rid of some chemical pollution, so it’s best paired with another method. 

Reverse osmosis: ‘RO’ involves forcing contaminated water through a very fine membrane under enormous pressure. RO systems are expensive and making large quantities of water using RO can be time consuming, but the water quality they produce is generally worth it. 

Ion exchange: ion exchange involves two beds of resin, one positively charged and the other negatively charged. Contaminated water cycles through these beds, and any ionic contaminants are extracted from the water. The water itself dissociates into H+ and OH- ions, which can then be re-constituted to make pure water. 

electrodionization (EDI): EDI is a combination of Ion exchange and electrodialysis. The physics of how it works is a little complicated but there’s a nice video about it by Siemen’s here if you’re interested. The important thing to remember is that it is constantly regenerating the resins it uses in the ion exchange step, which makes it attractive to labs who don’t want to do a lot of maintenance (it is still recommended that you replace the ion beads periodically for quality control reasons; everything has a shelf life, you don’t want to push it). 

activated carbon: another classic. Carbon tends to be very porous, so if you let gravity pull water down through a thick layer of it, most larger particulates will get caught in these pores. This is neither a specific nor very powerful form of filtration, however, and is best paired with other methods. 

UV sanitation: A UV light is used to kill any aquatic life forms that may be in the water. Fishkeepers may be familiar with this method, it’s good for cutting down on algal blooms. 

Fine Filtration: a variety of filters can be used to reduce the amount of particulate pollution in water. they are split into two main categories: microporous and ultrafiltration. Microporous filters are basically large mats of fibrous material that physically trap particles while letting water flow through. Ultrafiltration membranes work at the molecular level, separating molecules based on size. Filtration with the method is extremely slow, so most labs opt to only use ultrafiltration for cell culture and molecular techniques. 

So there’s an important question outside of all the different filtration choices, and that is: How pure do you *need* your water do be? How much of it do you anticipate your lab needing? How fast do you need it to be able to replenish? Most labs will decide to choose some combination of these methods in order to best meet their needs and deal with the contaminants presented by their local water sources. The lab for my current rotation uses a combination of RO, EDI and UV, and circulates/re-filters unused DI several times each hour to avoid stagnation. We also have a number of rules about decontaminating pitchers, carboys and water lines within our stainers. We are strongly encouraged to use clear glass containers whenever possible even tho we all wear gloves all the time so we drop beakers all over the place ive only been there two weeks and its almost happened to me twice now

There are several classifications of water set by the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute with varying degrees of purity for use in the laboratory setting:

Clinical laboratory reagent water (CLRW): In my lab, this is what comes out of the DI tap. It’s whats called for in most stain recipes and is what we put in flotation baths. 

Special reagent water: we use this for reconstituting antibodies and the F/ISH team uses it for PCR. It comes from the milipore machine in the genetics ward because they need it more often and apparently the machines are very expensive so we only get one per department. 

instrument water: It won’t clog your stainer lines but it’s not good enough for your flotation bath. 

‘water supplied by instrument manufacturer’: I’m told no one does this any more. apparently once upon a time lab machine companies would send you big ol boxes of water in the mail to use exclusively on their machines, but then no one was checking to see how chemically stable the packaging was and there were issues with polymer contamination; this was very much before my time so i don’t have a lot of details. 

Commercially bottled purified water: another method that’s no longer popular since apparently most  bottled water is just tap water from someplace else and you’d still have to plate for CFU’s, test for resistivity etc

autoclave and wash water: tap water. Remember though, you should always give your glassware a final rinse with DI before hanging it up to dry toget rid of anything funky in the tap water. 

So yeah that’s how you make and monitor some sweet sweet Science Water, aka the Good Stuff. My next unit is on PAS/PASD, that’ll probably be up next sunday-ish. Til then,

-Reby

[filtration-products]

The sustainability success stories of the week

As part of our Mission Possible campaign, edie brings you this weekly round-up of five of the best sustainability success stories of the week from across the globe.

This weekly round-up explores how businesses across the world are ramping up efforts across all areas of sustainable development

Published every week, the new series charts how businesses and sustainability professionals are working to achieve their ‘Mission Possible’ across the campaign’s five key pillars – energy, resources, infrastructure, mobility and business leadership.

From carmaker SEAT’s focus on water stewardship at a facility in Barcelona, to a food group agreeing to power its Irish facilities with wind energy, each of these projects and initiatives is empowering businesses, local authorities and governments to achieve a sustainable future, today.

ENERGY: ABP strikes windfarm deal to reach carbon goals

It seems it’s been a week of food groups announcing plans to transition to a low-carbon economy. First, Arla Foods announced plans to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 30% per kilo of milk in the next decade and then Alpro and WWF agreed to pilot a new nature-focused science-based target scheme.

Following on from those announcements, ABP Food Group has struck a deal with UK-based Natural Capital Partners to power all of the food firm’s Irish sites with 100% wind energy. Sites in Bandon, Cahir, Waterford, Nenagh, Rathkeale, Clones, Newry and Lurgan will now be powered by renewable energy procured from nearby windfarms.

The agreement is set to enable ABP to reach its carbon-reduction goals two years ahead of schedule. ABP will have recorded carbon emissions reductions of around 350,000 tonnes across its operations against a 2008 baseline.

ABP’s group technical and sustainability director Dean Holroyd said: “We are significantly driving down our energy consumption, thereby helping our customers to source meat produced with a lower carbon footprint.

RESOURCES: SEAT slashes water use on World Water Day

Spanish car manufacturer SEAT’s Martorell facility in Barcelona is steeped in impressive environmental tech. SEAT has installed 4,000sqm of air-cleaning paving slabs at the plant and estimates that the installation of the first phase of slabs has cut NOx pollution at the plant by 40%.

To mark World Water Day (22 March), the car manufacturer revealed that the factory has also reduced its water consumption per car produced by 31% over an eight-year period. Water recycling, notably in the paint workshop and rain testing booth, has enabled SEAT to make an impressive reduction.

The factory, which produces around 450,000 cars a year, still used 1,170,000 m3 of water in 2018 – the equivalent of 470 Olympic swimming pools.

SEAT’s plant engineering manager Dr Joan Carles Casas said: “Digitalisation and new technologies are helping us make enormous progress towards a model of circular economy with more recycling and fewer emissions. But what is more important is the awareness and proactivity of the SEAT team, which will certainly enable us to fulfil our goals.”

MOBILITY: Ford pours $850m into EV assembly plant

Electrification has swept across the automaker market to the point where any company thinking about its long-term future is likely exploring ways to electrify its portfolio. Companies are catering to public demand and it is widely expected that electric vehicles (EVs) will represent 35% of all car sales by 2040.

Ford is at the forefront of this transition, having already launched an EV portfolio and announced plans to unveil electric F-series vehicles and commercial e-vans and pickups. Specifically, Ford has pledged to bring 16 new fully electric and 24 hybrid models to market by 2025.

The company this week announced that it was investing $850m into its Flat Rock assembly plant in Michigan, in a bid to make it a central production facility for EVs. More than 900 jobs will be made available at the plant, incrementally through to 2032.

“We’ve taken a fresh look at the growth rates of electrified vehicles and know we need to protect additional production capacity given our accelerated plans for fully electric vehicles,” Ford’s president of global operations Joe Hinrichs said.

BUILT ENVIRONMENT: Panasonic factories in Belgium and Japan reach zero carbon

Panasonic Group reported last week that two of its factories have achieved zero-carbon status, taking the company a step towards its ambition for carbon-neutral production across 100% of its factories by 2050.

The two factories; Panasonic Energy Belgium (PECBE) and Panasonic Eco Technology Center (PETEC) in Japan, simultaneously reached the status of zero-carbon production last month. Panasonic will take learnings from the two facilities to help other factories receive reach the status and reduce the company’s global carbon footprint.

Panasonic noted that a dedicated, company-wide carbon reduction working group was formed in 2017 to help spur progress to the 2050 ambition, as well as other targets listed under its 2050 Environment vision.

Panasonic has reduced its emissions by approximately 3,200 tonnes as a result of reaching that status at the factories. Reductions were achieved by installing onsite wind turbines, switching to 100% procured renewable energy, using carbon offsets that comply with Verified Carbon Standards (VCS) and switching its boilers to energy-saving models.

BUSINESS LEADERSHIP: Spanish football team shoots for carbon-neutral status

The beautiful game is becoming a bit of a grassroots movement for all things sustainable. Clubs across the English football pyramid have unveiled various sustainability initiatives; from Forest Green Rovers’ veganism, Arsenal’s battery storage, Southampton’s climate captains or the entire Premier League’s focus on single-use plastics.

This focus is also being seen in other countries. This week, Spanish football team Real Betis joined the UN’s Climate Neutral Now initiative, which calls on signatories to achieve climate neutrality and advocate for others to do so by 2050.

Real Betis will now undergo measuring and reduction processes for its emissions with offsetting schemes expected to be included in any strategy. The club will also educate fans on the importance of acting on climate change in an urgent manner.

Ángel Haro, President of the club said: “Since the beginning, Real Betis Balompié has been about its family, its members and fans. Taking action on climate is also about them, it’s about our family. We understand that climate change is a threat to the livelihoods and the wellbeing of everyone on the planet and we are doing our part.”

Matt Mace

Explanation of Filtration Products Website: Filtration Products web site captures the just released reports, highlights and filter innovations right from the separation biz. Filtration-Products.com keeps you familiar on purification and all the major industry innovation including string wound filter elements, pleated cartridges, melt blown filtration, sock filtration, Pre-RO filters, Pre-Reverse Osmosis filters, from brands such as Parker required for air filtration, and anything else the filter market has to report on.

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Business transparency needed to help consumers overcome the ‘plastics fear’

Coca-Cola’s new European sustainability director believes that honest and transparent conversations will help businesses change consumer perceptions on the use of plastics, which in turn will catalyse a movement towards a “world without waste”.

Last month, Noorlander stepped down from a role as Coca-Cola’s director of public affairs and communications for the Netherlands to take up the director of sustainability for Europe position

The plastic bottle is now the emblem of a global throwaway culture. As noted by the Guardian, a million plastic bottles are bought around the world every minute, with annual consumption set to surpass half a trillion by 2021. It’s part of a wider epidemic that has seen more than 86 million tonnes of plastics seep into the oceans, with up to 12 million tonnes added each year.

While this is largely driven by an avid demand for bottled water across the globe, Coca-Cola is one of the first company’s in the firing line when it comes to green group criticism. New global and European commitments have been announced by the company over the last 12 months to incorporate more recycled plastic content into packaging and improve collection rates of bottles. However, some green groups claim that the company can do much more.

It is an interesting time, then, for the company to announce a new sustainability figurehead. Last month, Therese Noorlander stepped down from a near-four-year role as Coca-Cola’s director of public affairs and communications for the Netherlands to take up the position as the beverage giant’s director of sustainability for Europe.

Noorlander is now spearheading the delivering of Coca-Cola’s “This is Forward” strategy across the European region. The strategy consists of key environmental goals, including a verified science-based target to reduce emissions by 35% across the company’s entire value chain, but it is the company’s position at the heart of the ongoing plastics debate that has been the biggest talking point amongst consumers and stakeholders.

For Noorlander, who is appearing at edie’s Sustainability Leaders Forum next month (scroll down for details), the strategy can act as a launchpad to drive ambitions to improve the recycling rates of Coca-Cola packaging. However, she believes that the business community as a whole needs to open up new dialogues with consumers to alleviate concerns on action plans.

“This Is Forward will leverage the power, impact and reach of our brand to inform consumers on what they can do,” Noorlander said. “Consumer perception is something to take very seriously, it triggers questions and actions. However, it’s a perception that isn’t always based on the right facts, it’s not being judgemental, but we need to take this into account.

“There’s a huge responsibility for companies, trade organisations and media platforms to support consumers with facts and dilemmas. There’s a bit of a plastic fear amongst consumers. As a company we recognise and embrace it, but what can you do with that? Do you respond to it by eliminating all the plastics you have? Or, do you take it into account to see what can be done to give information that shows your actions but also shows the benefits of plastics that gives an honest story about what the impacts would be if we moved to another packaging.”

Plastic problems

Plastic phase-outs have, understandably, been the go-to corporate sustainability commitment over the last 12 months, as company’s respond to consumer demands to shrink plastic footprints.

However, there is a new yet growing opinion amongst some sustainability professionals that the plastics debate is veering too far into immediate action that leads to unintended consequences in the future rather than incremental change.

Swapping out some forms of plastic with bio-based, biodegradable or oxo-degradable plastics (ODP), might not be the best solution in the long-term. The latter, for example, is often marketed as biodegradable, but in reality, break down into microplastics – small pieces of plastic that can pass through water filtration systems into the marine environment. As for bio-based, there are concerns as to the impact they will have on land use and space for food crops.

Elsewhere, there is still some uncertainty as to the life-cycle impacts of switching plastics to other materials such as glass, which could impact carbon emissions and increased fleet travel – and therefore travel emissions.

Coca-Cola and its major bottling partners use “Plant PET” in some packaging, which is chemically identical to PET and can be collected and recycled in traditional PET waste streams. However, bio and oxo-degradable solutions aren’t being used due to uncertainties over their environmental impact.

The firm’s This is Forward strategy focuses on the use of PET bottles, aiming to ensure that 100% of packaging – not just bottles – is recyclable or reusable, while also incorporating at least 50% recycled plastic by 2025. As of 2017, 96.6% of Coca-Cola Europe’s packaging was recyclable.

But recyclable doesn’t equate to recycled. One of the major ambitions of the strategy is to “work with local and national partners to collect 100% of [Coca-Cola’s] packaging in Western Europe”. For Noorlander, this ambition is the key lever to ensuring that the firm’s products aren’t adding to the plastics soup plaguing the oceans, but that it would be no easy task.

“The target demands being a partner in local structures, with policymakers, partners and customers, to figure out what structures are in place, what are the opportunities for change and how does that work,” Noorlander added. “This requires a very strong analysis. Some countries have deposit return systems, but collection depends on a variety of factors and whether waste management fits with central or local governments.”

Growth and sustainability

Noorlander believes that business should talk about the “dilemmas” they face when attempting to reduce plastics use and change perceptions but is also a firm believer that a successful strategy should be steered at a boardroom level.

Globally, Coca-Cola’s sustainability goals are similar to the European goals, but with slightly longer timeframes to account for developing nations where infrastructure is lagging. However, the global strategy has been championed by the firm’s chief executive James Quincey who envisions a “world without waste”.

However, with the company producing more than a billion plastic bottles in 2017 alone, some green groups are calling for more immediate action; lending itself to the debate as to whether profits and consumer habits can go hand-in-hand with sustainability.

For Noorlander, waste management remains front and central in the mindset of the company’s leaders, making it a consideration for every business decision going forward.

“This is something our chief executive has been talking about in several forums, and also to the shareholders,” Noorlander added. “We as a company absolutely believe that a growth strategy can go hand-in-hand with a sustainability strategy. This is really at the heart of our core strategy, and it needs to be.”

Therese Noorlander at edie’s Sustainability Leaders Forum

Coca-Cola’s new European sustainability director Therese Noorlander will be appearing on Day Two of edie’s Sustainability Leaders Forum, to discuss trust, transparency and traceability and how these can influence and impact stakeholders and suppliers.

The two-day event, taking place 5 & 6 February 2019 at the Building Design Centre, London, will also include debates on how to solve the plastics crisis and the state of corporate action on sustainable packaging. 

For more information and to register for the Forum, click here.

Matt Mace

Introduction of Filtration Products WebPage: Filtration-Products.com internet site passes along the recently released knowledge, summaries and purification supplies right from the purification vocation. Filtration-Products.com keeps you current on filtration and all the related industry supplies including string wound depth elements, pleated elements, melt blown elements, sock filtration, Pre-RO filtration, from brands such as Parker designed for water recylcling, and anything else the purification market has to notify.

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the best green innovations for Clean Air Day

To mark Clean Air Day (21 June), edie has rounded up some of the ground-breaking innovations being explored by companies across the globe as we look to tackle the dangers of air pollution.

A number of eye-catching and potentially transformational innovations aimed at tackling dirty air have emerged

The event, organised by Global Action Plan (GAP), serves to highlight the scale of the toxic air challenge in the UK and abroad, after the UK’s polluted air was declared a “public health emergency” by MPs in 2016. Globally, 90% of people were found to be breathing poor air daily by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Indeed, GAP estimates that airborne pollutants shorten the life of at least 29,000 people every year in Britain alone, with the latest global data from WHO finding that the global figure stands at seven million, with developing nations the most vulnerable.

But potential solutions to the toxic air epidemic do exist – this is not an unsolvable issue. The onus is now on businesses – particularly those within the carbon-intensive transport and mobility sectors – to continue to innovate and to work collaboratively to solve the problem.

With that in mind, edie has rounded-up some of most innovative solutions to the toxic air problem below.

Magtec’s repowered electric bin lorry

As carmakers push to electrify their models and businesses strive to cut fleet emissions, the EV revolution has just begun within the heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) sector, with Volvo unveiling its first electric truck designed for heavy-duty roles in May.

This week saw UK firm Magtec retrofit a refuse collection vehicle at the end of its normal working life with an electric motor in a bid to cut air pollution in the UK’s urban areas, most of which have been covered in illegally toxic air since 2010.

The zero-emission, 26-tonne dustcart is designed to carry out a 14-hour shift around Greenwich before it requires recharging and is set to begin a year-long trial in the borough this year, with a view to a wider rollout if successful.

The trial comes ahead of the Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) launch in Central London, which will penalise diesel vehicles that do not meet Euro 6 standards and most petrol vehicles that do not meet the Euro 4 standard from next April.

Airlabs’ air filtering technology

Given that air pollution is a contributing factor in the premature deaths of more than 9,000 Londoners annually, technologies which aim to clean air in the capital are widely sought after.

One potential solution comes from Danish firm Airlabs, which has created air-filtration technology which claims to remove 95% of traffic fumes and residual airborne pollutants including nitrogen dioxide and CO2.

The air cleaning units have been fitted at three bus stop sites in New Oxford Street, Tottenham Court Road and High Holborn as part of a campaign by The Body Shop, and were more recently installed in Stella McCartney’s new Bond Street store.

RepAir’s “breathing” shirt

Another move from the fashion world comes from Italian designer Kloters, which has created a T-shirt that cleans the air through a specially-designed insert capable of capturing and disintegrating pollutants and foul odours.

Called RepAir, the shirt is made from organic cotton but incorporates a pocket filled with so-called Breathe fabric – a material Kloters claims can remove up to 92% of sulfur dioxide and 86% of the nitrogen oxides it comes into contact with.

The designer estimates that each shirt, if worn constantly for a year, would absorb the equivalent pollution to that emitted by two cars annually. A previous entrant on the green innovations of the week, the product is currently raising £8,000 in funds for the product through a Kickstarter campaign.

 Graviky Labs’ tailpipe Air Ink

Contrary to popular belief, carbon isn’t inherently evil – so much so that companies like high-tech polymer supplier Covestro are treating it treat it as a valuable raw material that can enhance product specifications and cut key environmental footprints.

Another company adopting a similar mindset is Graviky Labs, a spinoff company from MIT Media Lab working out in India. The start-up is targeting tailpipe emissions from diesel vehicles, and using them as a resource material for an innovative Air-Ink system.

More than 1.6trn litres of air has been cleaned by the firm’s technology since 2013. The process attaches a “Kaalink” device to vehicle exhausts. The process is being kept under wraps by the firm, but the device can capture around 93% of the emissions from internal combustion engines, taking just 45 minutes to convert it to an ounce of ink, which will then be sold on as a product.

Evergen Systems’ Citytree

With large areas of London commonly breaching annual legal limits for air pollution within the first few weeks of January, the CityTree could embed air purifying technology as part of a smart cities transition.

The device, which has an air purifying capability of 275 natural tress, occupies the space of just one tree and can reduce harmful pollutants in its immediate vicinity by up to 30%.

It utilises a combination of mosses to absorb particulates, while plants provide shade to enable the moss to grow in an urban environment. Meanwhile, built-in watering and Internet of Things (IoT) monitoring mean it is largely self-sustainable. 

European cities such as Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam and Oslo all have CityTrees in place, while the first in the UK was installed in Newcastle in March. Since then, The Crown Estate and Westminster City Council have started trialling the moss-covered technology on Glasshouse Street to see what impact it has on local air pollution levels.

Various electric cargo bike services

A cocktail of stringent T-charges, accelerated urbanisation and the evolution of online shopping is changing the role of delivery fleets. These heavy-duty vehicles are finding it harder to operate across cities yet are one of the least developed vehicle types when it comes to electrification.

It is reassuring to see, then, that companies such as UPS and the City of London Corporation’s Environment Committee are rolling out various e-bike models to help with last-mile deliveries in a sustainable and environmentally considerate way.

Cargo bikes can make deliveries anywhere within Congestion Charge zones and use an electric motor to enable the deliverer-turned-cyclist to transport goods around urban areas, without the associated noise or emissions from conventional delivery trucks, which themselves are slowly becoming engulfed by the EV transition.

Sarah George & Matt Mace

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