Actiflo™ is a compact process that operates with microsand (Actisand™) as a seed for floc formation. The microsand ballasted flocs display unique settling characteristics, which allow clarifier designs with very high overflow rates and short retention times. These designs result in footprints that are 5 times smaller than classic lamella clarifier or dissolved air flotation (DAF) and up to 20 times smaller than conventional clarification systems.
Actiflo™ : a compact clarifier
Drinking water
Actiflo™ applies to both surface and ground water where improved performance and/or capital cost reduction is desired.
It is ideally suited to the treatment of :
- rapidly fluctuating water sources,
- low temperature water (1°C),
- reservoir water with very low turbidity,
- sea or brackish water.
Through the use of Actisand™, Actiflo™ achieves better performance than all existing clarification processes, displaying consistent removal of :
- turbidity, color, total organic carbon (TOC),
- algae, particle count, pathogens, cryptosporidium,
- oxidized iron, manganese and arsenic...
Actiflo™ is particularly efficient to remove taste and odor associated with algal bloom.
It can also be used for the recovery of backwash water from rapid gravity filter thus reducing water loss and running costs.
Wastewater
Actiflo™ can be used in most municipal applications:
- Primary settlement: due to the mass of microsand constantly in the process, Actiflo™ handles very swift raw water quality variations and rapid flow changes
- Treatment of biofilter backwash water: due to its short residence time, the biological sludge is unlikely to go septic; it is therefore clarified extremely efficiently, with superior levels of treatment compared to flotation
- Clarification of trickling filter effluents, in replacement of a conventional clarifier
- Stormwater treatment (combined sewer overflow): Actiflo™ treats storm peak flows as they occur. In combination with UV disinfection (Actistar™), it delivers an effluent compliant with the most stringent bathing and shellfish water directives
- Tertiary polishing or phosphorus removal: whether it is used for suspended solids, color or phosphorus removal, Actiflo™ meets or exceeds water quality standards with removal rates usually higher than 90%. The same Actiflo™ unit applies to storm flow treatment in peak flow and to tertiary treatment in dry flow conditions, with a significant removal of hormones (endocrine perturbators) for the latter
- Water reuse for crop irrigation or aquifer recharge, in combination with Discfilter and UV disinfection (Actidisc Plus™)
Industrial water and effluents
Actiflo™ is an ideal solution for the recycling of process water and pre-treatment of boiler feed or cooling tower make-up water.
Similarly it treats any type of process water as well as most industrial effluents.
- Solids and color removal: prior to membrane treatment, reverse osmosis (Actimem™), or in combination with Discfilter (Actidisc™), to produce process water for the pulp & paper or food industry
- Removal of heavy metals (lead, cadmium, zinc...) and ashes from power plant and steel mill effluents, or polishing treatment to remove suspended solids and associated pollutants
- Lime soda softening (Actisoft™) for the production of demineralized water
Major process benefits
- High treatment efficiency: turbidity removal > 90%
- Very small footprint compared to conventional clarifiers -suited to restricted spaces and easy retrofit of existing plants
- Reduced civil engineering
- Flexible: reacts quickly to changing raw water quality -provides consistently high quality effluent
- Very short start-up time < 10 minutes
- The sludge produced can be thickened and dewatered easily
- Solution that can be entirely automated and remotely controlled
- Minimum equipment to maintain, easy to access
- 15 years of operating experience with more than 300 Actiflo™ references worldwide
- Prefabricated package plants (1 000 to 10 000 m3/d per unit) which can be combined for larger flow rates
