German Water Treatment Technology Sweeping the Globe

Founded in the year 2000, the German company inge AG has developed a product based on ultrafiltration technology that turns even the dirtiest water into clean drinking water and even filters out viruses and bacteria. However, constructing large water treatment plants is no small undertaking and typically requires millions of euros of investment. Many plant constructors were initially reluctant to back the new products of a previously unknown company, but with this German technology having lived up to its promise over a number of years, demand is now booming across the entire globe.

In Germany, having clean drinking water is almost taken for granted. Yet more than one billion people worldwide have no access to clean water. With climate change also contribut-ing towards turning drinking water into an increasingly precious commodity, there is clearly an urgent need for a reliable and cost-effective technology that helps to purify dirty water or clean sea water ready for de-salination.

Ultrafiltration even removes viruses and bacteria from water. In comparison to conventional water treatment processes, the advantage of ultrafiltration as a filter technol-ogy is its ability to reliably remove germs, microorganisms and suspended solids from water. At around 20 nm, approximately 3000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair, the pores of the membrane are small enough to prevent even viruses from passing through them. The process is simple and safe to per-form, does not require the addition of further chemical disinfectants and takes very little energy to run. De-pending on how dirty the water is, however, the membranes are required to cope with tremendous loads. It is therefore essential that the membrane fibers do not break, since otherwise viruses and bacteria could slip through. In the past, however, it was precisely this problem of fiber breakage that was the main sticking point when it came to deploying ultrafiltration technology. The company inge AG from Greifenberg am Am-mersee, Bavaria (Germany) has managed to successfully develop and produce its own membrane that is capable of stabilizing the fibers to such an extent that breakages are practically non-existent.

Honeycombs act as the inspiration for stable fiber structures. A membrane fiber structure, which the developers modeled on the honeycomb structure used by bees, has proven to be an essential ingredient in this recipe for success. A single membrane fiber combines seven individual capillaries, a fact that differentiates it from conventional single-fiber capillary membrane products, and which makes it extremely stable and resistant. The capillaries are securely mounted in a plastic housing called a "dizzer module", providing optimum hydraulic properties, ...