Ultrafiltration (UF) is a method of filtration that removes any particles larger than 0.04 microns. The wastewater passes through specially designed membranes under pressure. The membranes capture unwanted material and will need regular cleaning to prevent fouling. Some UF systems will have automatically cleaning cycles that greatly reduce the amount of maintenance required. UF has many applications and may be able to effectively remove muck soil particles and dissolved nutrients from vegetable washwater. The HMGA Water Project is working with Newterra, a Canadian engineering company that specializes in wastewater treatment. Newterra provided a UF pilot unit that was placed after a settling tank system at vegetable washing facility.
| Capacitive deionization (CapDI) is an effective technique used for the removal of dissolved ions from water. CapDI uses negatively or positively charged electrodes to attract and hold ions, which also have electrical charges. Negatively charged electrodes attract positive ions and the positive electrodes attract negative ions. Each CapDI system can be designed to target different ions depending on the chemistry of the wastewater. CapDI is commonly used for the removal of salt from water (desalinization) but it can also be used to target dissolved nutrients commonly found in vegetable washwater. The HMGA Water Project partnered with a Dutch company called Voltea to run an on-farm pilot test of a CapDI system. The ultrafiltration system was placed before the CapDI system as it is able to remove the fine solid particles that would foul the CapDI (Figure 1). There were several additional water lines and a holding tank required to complete the test set up. Results to follow |  Figure 1: Organization of test including both technologies and water flow path |
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