Joe Wong, an Industrial Water subject matter expert and membrane technology leader at Brown and Caldwell, has authored “What Are Useful Membrane Technology Applications for Power Plant Water Treatment and Reuse,” appearing in Ultrapure Water’s April issue.

Wong, with Brown and Caldwell for 32 years and in the industry for nearly 40, has published about 120 articles and conference papers. He has also been a consultant to the U.S. Department of State Office of Safety, Health and Environmental Management as a water treatment expert and the government of Iraq as a designer of conventional surface water treatment plants.

The environmental engineering senior expert says that he focused on membranes for power plants in this article because the amount of water that power plants need for cooling towers and boiler feeds is staggering.

As Wong’s article points out, the El Segundo (California) Chevron refinery has been receiving 4.3 mgd of highly treated reclaimed water to feed its boilers, similar to a practice in power plants.

Power plants also need elaborate treatment to meet stringent water quality requirements for each use.

“Membrane technologies are available to replace or complement conventional treatment methods to improve water quality and/or reduce cost of treatment,” Wong says. “Newer membrane technologies are also available to help recycle and reuse wastewater in power plants to achieve zero liquid discharge in arid areas.”