ACO Marine launches a novel water recovery system
Leading wastewater treatment systems specialist ACO Marine has launched a novel water recovery system that gives vessel owners greater capacity to re-use the treated effluent from wastewater treatment plants, the company said in its press release. The ACO Water Maker WM3 converts treated waste water into pure distilled technical water for such applications as general surface cleaning, laundry, showering, toilet flushing, engine cooling – in fact, any fresh water requirement.
The unit, which has extremely low energy consumption, reduces a ship’s need to take on fresh water in port or to make its own water through reverse osmosis or flash evaporation – both high energy consumers. It is suitable for use onboard all vessel types and can be easily retrofitted to ACO Marine’s Maripur and Clarimar wastewater treatment solutions in addition to third party systems. A typical unit has a footprint not dissimilar to the size of a small domestic refrigerator, with water-making capacities ranging from 6,000 to 24,000 litres per day.
“We have received a lot of interest in this innovative system, from the German Navy to Greenpeace,” said Managing Director Mark Beavis. “It is environmentally-friendly and very cost effective. The smallest unit can even run solely on solar power.” The water maker reduces the kilowatt power per litre of water produced compared with conventional methods and can cut wastewater dumping significantly. The unit also fulfils the function where vessels require freshwater generation redundancy. “By enabling treated wastewater to be converted back into pure distilled technical water or even drinking water, the WM3 closes the water treatment loop,” Beavis said. “The sterilisation process is so effective that all types of produced water can be stored in vessel holding tanks for at least 120 days without any further treatment.”
