GET, Inc.
Global
EnviroScience Technologies, Inc.
Water Purification Equipment
Industrial, Commercial, Municipal & Marine Applications
Dealer/Distributor/Representative
Inquiries Invited.
|
GET, Inc.
|
|
GET
DESALINATORS GET, Inc. has built up a reputation for premium quality designs, products & services. Some of the engineering features of GET seawater desalinators from 200 TPD (about 50,000 US GPD) and up are summarized below. These features, along with others not herein detailed, are key factors in making GET systems more efficient, more reliable, longer lasting, and less costly to own than most competing systems. A system made by GET may have a higher price than that of a competitor, but the true cost of owning a system must take into account the life expectancy of the entire system and its key components, the frequency of repairs, the cost of repairs and downtime, the cost of labor, and the energy consumption of the system. When these factors are honestly considered, GET systems consistently cost far less to own than others. These features are normally quoted on equipment recommended by GET. When pricing objections are faced, GET may delete some or all of these special features to meet a customer’s budget. However, we urge each customer to make informed choices on these features, as each one adds to the system price, but significantly reduces the true overall cost. Equipment included as standard: Many times, prospective customers will point to a lower price on a competing system without knowing what the scope of supply is. Often, competitors of GET will offer “stripped down” systems, lacking a feed supply pump, multimedia or automatic filters, two stages of bag/ cartridge filtration, membrane cleaning system, proper pretreatment, and sufficient instrumentation to properly monitor the system’s performance. Knowledgeable buyers make sure to gather sufficient information to make an informed choice, as there are usually specific reasons for price disparities. No seawater reverse osmosis system can operate without a feed supply pump or pressurized feed. Yet many companies offering such systems leave out such a basic requirement in order to make the customer believe he is getting a better deal. GET is quite specific about what is included in the system, leaving no doubt as to the scope of supply, which even with basic systems is sufficient to properly operate and monitor the system effectively. Feed Supply Pump: Any seawater desalination system requires a feed supply pump or a source of pressurized feedwater to deliver the feedwater through the prefiltration and other pretreatment and still provide a significant positive pressure to the high pressure pump. GET seawater desalination systems ranging from about 30 TPD to around 1,000 TPD (8,000 to 264,200 US Gallons per day) are usually supplied with a high efficiency centrifugal pump with an investment cast head of aluminum-bronze or 316 SS and a TEFC motor. These heavy-duty investment cast heads are designed and built to last 20 years or more in seawater service. Larger systems are usually fitted with feed pumps made of Duplex Stainless Steel, CD4MU, or other comparable materials that have demonstrated superior life in seawater service. There are far cheaper pumps available, such as are usually offered by our competitors when including a feed supply pump in their quotation. But the pumps used in GET systems offer far greater life expectancy, lower maintenance requirements, optimum performance and far lower cost of ownership. High Pressure Piping: GET uses Duplex Stainless Steel, alloy 2205 or 2207 as standard on all seawater desalination systems from 200 TPD and up. The industry standard is 316 or 316L stainless steel. Duplex Stainless Steel costs about double 316 or 316L, but lasts 7-10 times as long. This makes it a very wise investment, as the cost/life ratio is excellent. As the piping is a significant part of the cost of the system, this much difference can have a significant impact on the system price. However, when you consider that 316 SS piping can be expected to last only about 3 years (provided all welds are of very good quality), the true cost of installing Duplex Stainless Steel is far less even after only 3-4 years of system operation. Special attention is given making leak-free joints and convenient, manageable piping sections. Most joints on larger systems are Victaulic or flanged for ease of use, ease of maintenance, and optimum performance. Welds, when required, are carefully made using the same material as the piping to ensure integrity and long life. GET also installs larger diameter piping than most competitors, not simply accepting the inlet & outlet sizes of our pumps & energy recovery devices, but engineering all system aspects for optimum performance. We do this in order to minimize pressure loss and optimize efficiency. Oftentimes this simple improvement will save 3-5% or more in energy costs. Such advantages can mean major costs savings over the life of the system. High Pressure Pumps: GET utilizes HP pumps of Duplex SS for all centrifugal pumps used on seawater systems. The same life expectancies are valid for pumps as for piping. GET installs the most efficient pumps available for the capacity of system being built. Since electrical costs account for most of the cost of ownership of a system, any improvement in efficiency is significant. Any reduction of efficiency as may be found in competing systems can cost far more than the price of the system over time. On small small & medium size systems, GET installs positive displacement pumps for optimum efficiency, at some sacrifice in maintenance. Together with the customer GET will openly evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each choice and select the pump type that will prove most advantageous for the customer for the long term. Cartridge Filter Housings: Most GET SW Desalinators from 200 TPD & up use one or more state-of-the-art high tech heavy duty multiple cartridge fiberglass filter housings. These housings feature heavy duty, rugged, corrosion-free fiberglass construction with a life-expectancy well in excess of 20 years. Fasteners & hardware are 304 Stainless Steel. The vessels are designed to meet and/or exceed ASME Code Section X. The structural and fatigue characteristics of this code is the capability to resist a burst pressure exceeding 6 times the intended use pressure and a minimum of 100,000 cyclic pressure pulses of pressure variation from 0 to use without leakage. The vessels are subjected to a factory test pressure of twice the vessel's maximum use pressure prior to acceptance for service and shipment. The design of this housing provides for a positive seal without over-tightening and for rapid & easy filter changes. Each filter vessel is fitted with a drain valve to facilitate changes without raw water bypass. Most GET systems are quoted with multiple housings & isolation valves so that filter changes may be accomplished without system downtime. A majority of GET competitors use stainless steel filter vessels. When 304 SS is used, the life expectancy is one year. When 316 SS is used, the life expectancy is three years. GET vessels can be expected to last well over 20 years, resulting in far lower total cost of ownership. Instrumentation: A small seawater desalinator may have only a high and low pressure gauge, product flow meter, and perhaps a salinity indicator of some type. For larger systems, such basic instrumentation is not sufficient to provide sufficient operator feedback on system performance or to diagnose system operating conditions. A well instrumented system, such as high quality GET seawater desalinators from 200 TPD and up, should be fitted with multiple low pressure gauges before and after each pretreatment device, a HP gauge at the pump discharge, at the pressure booster discharge, and at the membrane outlet. Flow meters should always include at least the product & reject flows, and in many cases a feed flow meter. A flow meter would also be included in a high quality membrane cleaning system. Accurate TDS readouts are very important, primarily for the product, but better systems will also include a feed TDS readout in order to calculate the membrane rejection rate. A wide range of qualities is available for instruments. For example, premium quality pressure gauges may cost 30 times as much as cheap pressure gauges, a premium quality TDS meter may cost 7-30 times as much a cheap TDS meter. In most cases, the price of such cheap instruments is an accurate indication of their true value as limited by protection (or lack thereof) from the elements, life expectancy, ease of use, reliability, and accuracy. Usually a low price from a competitor indicates their use of insufficient and poor quality instrumentation. This will allow for a lower price, but in the end, much higher cost of ownership. GET quality means the lowest overall cost of ownership. Prefiltration: Most GET seawater desalination systems from 200 TPD and up are quoted with some form of automatic filtration, followed usually by two additional stages of bag or cartridge filters followed by the final stage of 3 or 5μ cartridge filters. The automatic filtration may be multimedia or automatic 25 micron self-cleaning screen filters. These are made of all corrosion-resistant materials for long, trouble-free service life in seawater. Automatic filters may be optional for systems using beach well feedwater sources, as such generally have very low suspended solids levels. A bag filter can be a very helpful intermediate stage in many systems, increasing the life of the final cartridge filters and reducing overall costs. If a system takes open ocean feed without automatic prefiltration, frequent cartridge changes will be necessary, increasing labor and materials costs. Most GET competitors supply only minimal (single stage) prefiltration, resulting in shorter membrane life and increased filtration and other maintenance costs. Wise buyers will choose a well-equipped system to ensure lower overall cost of ownership. Pretreatment: Optimum membrane life requires high quality, well engineered pretreatment. Consideration must be given to all possible foulants from all sources before finalizing on the pretreatment to be included. Sufficient information is required to do this effectively, including a complete, up to date feedwater analysis. Typical membrane foulants include greases & oils, certain heavy metals, suspended matter including particles and colloids, tannins & dyes, biological growths, and mineral scaling. When potential foulants are disclosed to GET by providing an accurate feedwater analysis, steps are taken in the GET system design to optimize membrane life by elimination of the fouling agent prior to entry into the GET system, or by adding a pretreatment agent or process to minimize the potential for fouling. Quality pretreatment includes well engineered prefiltration, usually in multiple steps, as well as selected food-grade injected chemicals. Typical GET systems include a food grade antiscalant/ dispersant agent to keep minerals from precipitating during normal system operation, thus keeping the membrane surface clear and functioning at optimum levels. Most GET systems also use a food grade agent to control biological growth during system operation to prevent biological colonies from fouling the membrane surface. When other threats to membrane life are encountered, remedies are employed to ensure optimum membrane performance and life. Many GET competitors give inadequate consideration to effective pretreatment, often resulting in premature membrane fouling, poor system performance, and significantly increased cost of ownership. Trust GET to engineer your pretreatment system for optimum performance, long life and lower overall cost of ownership. Skid Construction: GET does it’s skid fabrication in house for optimum quality control and to keep costs reasonable. Drawings are prepared for each project. Standard frames used before are reviewed to make sure all patterns fit the parts to be installed with ample access for maintenance. Piping arrangements and structural supports are also carefully reviewed prior to beginning fabrication. Fabrication & hole punching are done, then reviewed before sending the frame out for sand-blasting and power coating or two-part epoxy coating. This insures that the premium quality coatings are not violated afterwards by drilling additional holes. Provisions are made for lifting GET system skids via fork truck or crane without causing damage to the skid or key system components. GET offers multiple levels of system features and quality. Higher level systems incorporate customized gaskets and mounting pads for mounting key system components to the system skid. These gaskets or mounting pads are custom fabricated from various materials, including Teflon, UHMW, PVC, Polypropylene, Polyethylene, and other suitable materials as required by the application. These are utilized to prevent damage to the skid coating, to provide a long life lubrous surface for certain moving parts, and to make maintenance requiring disassembly and reassembly much easier, faster, and more efficient. Such features add real value to GET systems, significantly reducing the cost of ownership. Fasteners: GET systems are constructed using all 304 SS fasteners. 304 Stainless steel is stronger than 316 Stainless steel, but exhibits slightly more surface rust. This surface rust may occur in heavy salt air environments and other corrosive situations, but the structural soundness is not affected. Also any slight surface rust does not hinder assembly and disassembly of the fasteners as required for maintenance. Due to it’s superior strength, 304 SS is the most advantageous material to use in most GET SW desalination systems. In some critical areas, a special corrosion-inhibiting anti-seize lubricant is used to further facilitate assembly & disassembly of very important system parts. Most nuts installed by GET are lock nuts with nylon inserts. These are used to prevent vibration as encountered during transportation or during use on ships from loosening the fasteners and causing partial system disassembly. Careful attention is given to placement of fasteners for ease of access. When using positive displacement pumps, GET makes a special draw bar of aluminum-bronze and draw screws of stainless steel in order to provide proper belt tension. This special combination provides the needed corrosion protection, plus the lubricity of the aluminum bronze prevents seizing which can occur in heavy use between two stainless steel components. This careful attention to detail means reduced parts and labor costs to the user, lower the cost of ownership. Membrane Designs: GET engineers run membranes very conservatively in order to achieve longer life, optimum performance, maximum flexibility, ability to achieve full performance even toward the end of membrane life, and for lower energy consumption. Industry standards call for reverse osmosis seawater systems to operate at 8-10 GFD (Gallons per square Foot per Day). GET creates most system designs at or close to 8 GFD, with some system designs approaching 9 GFD. The proprietary membranes used in most systems by GET experience little compaction over time when exposed to the usual GET operating pressures. Hence these membranes can produce the desired water quality and quantity for a longer period. For this reason, membranes are replaced less often and at significantly reduced cost. Additionally, running membranes conservatively reduces the potential for membrane fouling due to biological, particulate or mineral attachment to the membranes. All GET membrane designs are carefully checked, using the best researched data or specific data supplied by the customer, on a computer program designed to analyze long-term membrane performance, and are fine-tuned for optimum results. Aggressive use of membranes as often used by GET competitors offers an initial price advantage, but a significant long term cost disadvantage. Rely on GET to provide you with the lowest overall cost of ownership considering membrane life and maintenance. Pressure Vessels: GET equipment includes the best quality, high tech membrane pressure vessels on the market. Some manufacturers use stainless steel membrane pressure vessels. While stainless steel can be effectively employed in some system aspects, this material develops pitting and corrosion when subjected to seawater. The most critical area of the pressure vessel is the location of the brine seal. This seal, on the leading edge of each membrane, prevents the feedwater from flowing around the membrane. Where this u-cup seal contacts the pressure vessel, it prevents oxygen from reaching the surface of the pressure vessel material. When this material is fiberglass, this creates no problem. But in the case of stainless steel, the lack of oxygen during exposure to water containing high chlorides, pitting and corrosion become significant, to the point that the vessel will require frequent replacement at considerable expense. GET fiberglass membrane pressure vessels are impervious to this problem. The exterior coating of some vessels is simply paint, with a limited life expectancy. While this may not cause structural problems, not long after installation, these vessels don’t look good anymore. GET vessels have a lustrous integral polyeurethane coating for very long life and lasting good looks. Feed & discharge ports in seawater pressure vessels must of necessity be metallic. Most GET competitors use 316 SS ports. At best, these have a life-expectancy of three years in seawater service. GET pressure vessels use alloy AL6XN, which lasts at least 10 times as long as 316 SS. Many membrane pressure vessels are made with end porting. This was the original design for such vessels. With end porting, piping manifolds have to be made for feedwater & reject water, and these manifolds block access to the membranes. When membrane access is required, extensive work must be done to disassemble the piping manifolds, perform needed service, and then re-assemble the piping manifolds. Also, with such complex manifolding, replacement of vessel feed & reject ports can require extensive labor. GET pressure vessels utilize side ports. Historically, side port vessels have been known to greatly simplify piping & maintenance access, but when port replacement has become necessary, past designs required replacement of the entire membrane vessel. However, state-of-the-art GET membrane pressure vessels employ field replaceable side ports, for enormous long-term savings. Thus GET systems enjoy the important advantage of simplified piping, easy access for maintenance, reduced labor costs, premium quality, long life, field-replaceable AL6XN pressure ports, with the end result of the lowest cost of ownership available in today’s market. GET membrane pressure vessels also include two additional key features that are of considerable advantage in a seawater reverse osmosis installation. Most membrane pressure vessels utilize O-ring seals. These seals are used to keep the seawater from leaking out the ends and to separate the permeate or product water from the seawater and reject water. With the considerable pressure differential that must exist between the feedwater and product water, some leakage may occur around these O-ring seals. When these seals leak, the permeate or product water exhibits a higher salt content due to mixing with the feedwater or reject water. Typically, such increase in permeate salt content is diagnosed as membrane fouling or membrane failure. In order to address such concerns, GET utilizes square cut seals, which have a much greater sealing area than O-rings, and dramatically reduce cross over leakage of high salinity feed water or higher salinity reject water. This results in lower TDS product water and significantly lower maintenance costs. GET square cut seals also last longer than O-ring seals, reducing the need for replacement parts & labor costs. A significant cause of premature wear in the seals in membrane pressure vessels is movement of the membranes and components during startup, shut-down & operation. Due to tolerances in manufacturing, membrane pressure vessels must be made a little longer to ensure that all the required membranes can be installed. This leaves a little “slop”, or excess space. If this excess space is not filled in by shims or spacers, or otherwise remedied, the membranes will move during every startup, every shut-down, and during fluctuations of pressure or flow. Such movement results in premature seal wear, causing leakage, most of which is internal. The internal leakage causes increases in the salt content of the product water or permeate. Such increases are usually mis-diagnosed as membrane fouling or membrane failure, with the likely result of unnecessary spending. Quality manufacturers have often tried to determine the amount of slop and then installed spacers, but achieving the correct spacing is extremely difficult and very seldom accomplished even with the best of effort & skill. GET has remedied this problem by installing a patented automatic shim adjustment device in each multiple-membrane housing. This device is installed once the membranes have been loaded and positioned. Then the adjustment screw is tightened, providing just the right amount of space makeup and tension to prevent movement of membranes and premature seal wear. The result is improved product water quality, less frequent seal replacement, greatly reduced parts & labor costs, and improved system performance. Competing systems may have a lower price, but the reality is that they cost far more to own & operate than GET systems. Sample Valves: Smaller and inexpensive seawater desalinators may not have any sample ports, or may only permit sampling at one outlet point for the entire system. Good seawater desalinators with multiple membrane pressure vessels are generally fitted with a sample port for each membrane pressure vessel. This is a valuable feature, as the operator can isolate problem vessels for maintenance or membrane repair. However, with the typical larger seawater desalination system having seven membranes or so per membrane vessel, these sample ports leave you guessing as to which membrane or membranes have gone bad. The usual result is that all membranes in a problem tube are replaced at considerable cost. GET installs on each membrane vessel a special, patented sample port that permits collecting a representative product water sample from each individual membrane. This eliminates guesswork and saves hundreds or thousands of times the cost of the sample port by not replacing membranes that still perform well. This diagnostic tool adds some to the price of GET systems, but it provides for very substantial reduction in true overall costs. Energy Recovery: To achieve the lowest operating costs, electrical power consumption must not be overlooked, as over the years of operating a seawater desalination system, the cost of electrical power becomes more important than all other costs combined. Hence GET utilizes the most advanced technologies, tailored to each system’s design parameters, to reduce the electrical power consumption to the lowest possible level. If not using energy recovery, a typical reverse osmosis seawater desalination system wastes over 50% of the driving energy of the high pressure pump by discharging the reject stream at high pressure. GET employs various devices to recapture this available energy to help drive the system, resulting in energy savings from 20% to 45%, depending on system size, type, flow rates, etc. The energy recovery device used on most GET seawater desalination systems is an Energy Recovery Turbine (ERT) It utilizes a turbine to harness the power from the reject stream, attached to a specially designed and custom machined pump that boost the pressure to the membranes. This device is made of Duplex Stainlesss Steel, alloy 2205 for very long life in seawater service. The device is self-powered, self-lubricated, easy to install, and requires no scheduled maintenance. The ERT used by GET also allows for easy brine disposal without addition of another pump. Other devices are available claiming even higher efficiencies. Some of these are as yet unproven, and require complex installations with additional pumps that reduce their overall efficiency and lessen the desirability of their devices. Competing systems that neglect to include energy recovery devices to achieve a lower price end up costing substantially more in electrical power consumption, leading to a far higher cost of ownership. Membrane Clean-In-Place (CIP) System: Reverse osmosis membranes require periodic cleaning, using approved agents, to maintain long-term performance and to achieve acceptable life. Cheap systems usually do not include a membrane cleaning system. Hence, when membrane cleaning is required, the customer must seek out a company having a membrane cleaning operation, remove the membranes from the system and from the premises, have the service performed, then re-install the membranes in the system. As this involves considerable work, time, and logistics, GET recommends installation of a membrane CIP (Clean-In-Place) system. Most GET systems from 200 TPD and up include such a system. Having a CIP system installed can save considerable time, labor, logistics, and downtime when membrane cleaning is indicated. As with most products, CIP systems can be simple and inexpensive, upscale, or highly sophisticated and of very high quality. A basic CIP system requires a chemical mixing tank, use of a pump for cleaning, either an existing system pump for lower costs systems, or a dedicated cleaning pump for better systems, piping, valves, and a filter to prevent re-introduction of contaminants. Better systems would include a flow meter, pH meter, a dedicated cleaning pump, in some cases a mixer and/or a heater, and more convenient connectivity to the membrane system. These systems can also be semi- or fully automated. GET offers several levels of CIP systems, commensurate with the size, level of quality and level of sophistication of the GET reverse osmosis desalination system. Often, multiple systems at one installation or a system with multiple trains can be best served by a single customized CIP system. For best results and lower overall cost of ownership, ask GET to recommend the appropriate CIP system for your installation. |
|
Copyright 1995-2008 GET, Inc. Water Problems? GET the Complete Solution! Quality is remembered long after the price has been forgotten. Hablamos Español.
GET, Inc. Global EnviroScience Technologies, Inc.
Mail:
PO Box 90756, Long Beach, CA 90809-0756, USA Tel: 1-562-983-7777; Fax: 1-562-608-8875
E-Mail
us now! :
info@get-inc.com
|