It is highly likely that ultrafiltration is already a key part of your water treatment system, with membranes as the main component. If they start to leak, contaminants will get into the filtrate. You therefore need to closely monitor the differential pressure between the inlet and outlet in order to identify leakages as early as possible. Festo recommends automated, decentralised pressure control and pressure monitoring to help you with this.
Ultrafiltration systems and membrane filtration are used in both water treatment and industrial water plants. The pressure retention test is a proven method to test the filter integrity. It is important to carry it out regularly to prevent contamination of the filtrate. During this test, the individual membrane modules are supplied with controlled compressed air for two to three minutes and the pressure drop is measured. If this deviates from the reference value, it indicates that there is a leak in the membrane.
The integrity test can be automated in such a way that it is as reliable as the pressure retention test itself. The key to this is the system CPX/MPA from Festo as a remote I/O with integrated pneumatics. It allows you to record the pressure in the tubing using an analogue input card with a direct supply port, giving you an accurate leak test.
The CPX/MPA is installed directly in the field and can be easily connected to the central controller using common fieldbus protocols. In addition, this eliminates almost all of the cabling. Continuous process monitoring, even remotely, is possible, as is protecting the pressure regulator against operating errors and tampering.
Next, we will show you the benefits over manual or semi-automated testing. Or click here to go directly to the Festo solution.
In many cases, the pressure retention test is still carried out manually. That is the conventional way of doing it: opening and closing all the valves by hand. The applied pressure also has to be set manually. Recording, evaluating and monitoring are also done by hand. However, this approach has considerable disadvantages. Other than the personal effort required, recording the data is a laborious process. On top of that, the process is prone to errors and difficult to integrate into the control system.
Some water treatment systems are already semi-automated. This means that many of the steps in the pressure retention test no longer have to be started off and carried out manually. The pressure values are also measured automatically using a PLC. However, adjusting and regulating the pressure generally still have to be done by hand.
Complete automation, as offered by Festo with the CPX/MPA, is easy to integrate at the PLC level by cabling the field devices to I/O cards. This means that all process steps are automated. The pressure is regulated and measured directly in the field thanks to integrated functions.
By combining electric and pneumatic components into one I/O system, Festo is able to offer an innovative solution for ongoing ultrafiltration integrity tests. This solution offers benefits to both operators and design engineers of water treatment systems:
And, as already mentioned, the CPX/MPA can also integrate additional solutions.