The Chester facility produces about 90MW of energy from 3,510 tons per day of municipal solid waste.
GE’s RePAK Combination Ultrafiltration and Reverse Osmosis System will allow the facility to reuse nearby wastewater treatment plant’s water instead of consuming local drinking water supplies.
The installation of GE’s technology resulted in financial savings for Covanta, which had earlier spent more money for the plant’s daily water purchases.
The facility had earlier used 1.3 MGD of municipal drinking water in its waste conversion process.
GE installed two RePAK-450 trains, each producing 450 gallons per minute of purified water.
The company said its RePAK combined treatment system reduces the equipment footprint up to 35%, when compared to separate UF and RO systems.
Covanta Delaware Valley facility manager Tim Gregan said: "By installing GE’s water treatment technology, we are able to reuse the nearby wastewater treatment plant’s wastewater effluent that otherwise would have been directly discharged, enabling us to save over a million gallons per day in drinking water for local residents rather than using it for industrial purposes.
"Not only are we reducing the stress on local drinking supplies, but also the environmental impacts of the wastewater treatment plant and the use of potable water by our facility."
Image: GE’s RePAK water reuse technology has been installed at Covanta’s Pennsylvania energy-from-waste facility. Photo: Courtesy of General Electric.
