Ferrate Water Treatment


Ferrate Water Treatment (FWT) System Overview

The Ferrate Water Treatment (FWT) System is the first patented, on-site Ferrate reactor for municipal and industrial applications. With this breakthrough of small, inexpensive, transportable on-site synthesis reactors, Ferrate can now be delivered continuously for chemical, industrial, and environmental treatment processes in commercially significant quantities.

The Ferrate Treatment System is made from off-the-shelf parts, can be scaled for any application, and pumps a liquid ferrate product directly into treatment process streams. The system has a small footprint. It can be skid-mounted and shipped by air or truck to any location or facility. The system easily retrofits into existing plant infrastructure by piping to and from a self-contained unit.

Ferrate Systems Capacity: 3.0 – 60.0 Million Gallons per Day

Historically, at over $20/lb, Ferrate had been just too expensive for bulk industrial use. Before the creation of the patented on-site synthesis process, no one had ever manufactured Ferrate in commercial quantities at a reasonable price. Synthesizing Ferrate on-site eliminates product handling and transport and reduces the traditional cost of manufacturing a Ferrate product by over 90%. Prior schemes tried to manufacture a dry, stable, powdered Ferrate product in a central plant which then had to be packaged in hermetically sealed containers to keep it from contacting air or water while it was transported to the site of use.

RET’s system now makes it possible to commercialize a highly reactive, Ferrate treatment product. By synthesizing Ferrate proximal to the site of its use, the systems eliminate all central-station manufacturing, transportation, distribution and product handling costs. Because our product is a liquid instead of a solid, it can be easily pumped and injected into standard industrial treatment processes. Most importantly, the system utilizes cheap, commodity-chemical feedstocks (caustic, bleach, ferric chloride) already found at most treatment plants. Substantial improvements in manufacturing economics enhance Ferrate’s potential for multiple applications in treating drinking, ballast, municipal, and industrial waste waters and associated sludges and biosolids.

Recovered Earth Technologies has exclusively licensed the use of the Ferrate System in combination with RET’s other technologies to create the most advance water treatment systems available today in any industry.

FWT Systems – Models, Dimensions and Capacities

Ferrate Water Treatment Technology

• Is environmentally friendly and powerful enough to meet escalating treatment demands.
• Is cost-effective to operate and maintain.
• Can be synthesized from commodity feedstocks.
• Utilizes existing plant infrastructure and plugs into existing treatment processes.
• Is highly scalable, modular and easy to retrofit and implement.
• Requires a small footprint; critical for landlocked treatment facilities.
• Requires minimal incremental capital investment compared to UV or Ozone.
• Is NSF International Standard 61 Certified

Ferrate is extremely powerful, can deliver multiple treatments from a single application, does not create disinfection byproducts, is environmentally friendly, and solves difficult treatment challenges that other oxidants can’t touch. Most importantly, Ferrate is often the least expensive and most effective treatment option.

Ferrate treatment units are powerful, high-valant [FeO4]2- iron molecules that oxidizes process chemicals, disinfects pathogens and scale causing organisms, and coagulants or co-precipitates dissolved and particulate metals; all from a single dose. Ferrate is a supercharged iron molecule in which iron is in the plus 6 oxidation state; it is better known as Iron(VI).

As Ferrate (iron six) is reduced (by stealing electrons from something else) it falls back down from iron 6+ to 5+ to 4+ to 3+ (ferric iron), in the process acting as an Oxidant, then Coagulant, and finally as a Flocculent. Uniquely, Ferrate performs these three distinct treatment functions from the application of a single dose. Therefore, Ferrate has the potential to work in many water and wastewater treatment markets worldwide.

In a single application, Ferrate can simultaneously perform as an oxidant, disinfectant and coagulant.

Ferrate is more powerful than other oxidants such as ozone and chlorine dioxide. It can replace coagulants such as ferric chloride, alum and polymers for the removal of metals, non-metals and humic acids. It outperforms other disinfectants such as UV, hydrogen peroxide, and chlorine and can kill many chlorine resistant organisms such as aerobic spore-formers and sulphite-reducing clostridia.

Guaranteed Regulatory Compliance

  • Ferrate Dose Monitor: Flow Through Cell.
  • Miniaturized Electronics Package: Small profile at 3”x5”x1” thick.
  • 4 to 20 milliamp Output: PLC Control.
  • Real-time Feedback: System provides control to increase or decrease dosing pump rate based on the measured concentration of Ferrate in the stream being dosed.
  • Data logging: Provides regulatory assurance that the designed Ferrate dose is maintained even if characteristics of a wastewater stream vary.

Industrial Effluent / Wastewater Applications

In industrial effluent, Ferrate’s powerful and unique chemistry can be used in the following applications:

• Removal of Heavy Metals (ex. Arsenic, Chromium)
• Disinfection (Without Disinfection Byproducts)
• Pesticide Removal
• Phosphorus Reduction
• Deodorization
• Biosolid Stabilization
• Pre-Oxidation of Organics
• Coagulation
• Algae Removal
• Biofouling and Biofilm Control
• Destruction of Emerging Contaminants (ex. EDCs, PPCPs)
• Frac Water Recycling
• Mine Waste Treatment

Industrial Wastewater

Industrial wastewater is a fertile field for RET’s Ferrate treatment oxidant. Industrial wastewater contaminants vary widely across such diverse industries as pulp and paper, mining, food and beverage, pharmaceutical manufacturing, electroplating, metal fabricating, aquaculture, leather tanning, oil and gas extraction, hazardous waste, and industrial farming.

The effectiveness of ferrate as a powerful oxidant in the entire pH range, and its use in environmental applications for the removal of abroad range of contaminants has been well documented by several researchers (Sharma, 2002; de Luca et al, 1992; White and Franklin, 1998). Numerous possibilities exist for the use of Ferrate technology in industrial and agricultural wastes. There is scientific evidence that ferrate can effectively remove arsenic, algae, viruses, pharmaceutical waste, and other toxic heavy metals of concern (Lee et al. 2004; Kazama, 1995).

Download RET Ferrate Water Treatment (FWT) Brochure