Mycelx Membrane Integrated Device

The Mycelx Membrane Integrated Device (MMID) is installed between the primary Oil Water Separator and Ultra filtration Polishing membrane unit in the bilge water treatment system.

The MYCELX Membrane Economizer physio-chemically conditions the hydrocarbon droplets prior to the ultra filtration membrane by visco-elastically modifying the rheology of the oily water and its film forming constituents. This conditioning enables easier rejection and complete removal of oily hydrocarbon droplets on the membrane surface thereby increasing the concentration rate, maintaining high permeate flux and maintaining required overboard discharge water quality (< 1-5 ppm) through the ultrafiltration membrane.

The membrane conditioner is contained as a dry cartridge form in three stage vessels with stage-wise action. The first stage is primarily to protect the third stage. It incorporates a 25-5 micron particle filtration bag. The secondary stage incorporates MYCELX Snippet Technology which visco-elastically conditions hydrocarbon droplets of 25 micron and higher without fouling. The third stage incorporates MYCELX HRM cartridge, which modifies and conditions droplets smaller than 25 microns.

The visco-elastically conditioned oily water then enters a standard bilge water ultra filtration membrane unit and the permeate is discharged to < 1-5 ppm. The stage-wise removal destabilizes the film forming ability of the constituents of oily water thereby significantly reducing maintenance requirements on the ultra filtration membrane unit.

The MMID offers:

• 1) Reduce maintenance requirements and man-hours on cleaning and operation of ultra filtration membrane based bilge water treatment system
• 2) No chemical addition; no moving or electrical parts
• 3) Simple, robust and easy to use and maintain ? no skilled labor required
• 4) Less than 2 psi pressure drop across the Economizer unit
• 5) Can be easily retrofitted into existing bilge water treatment systems with ultra filtration membranes.