A water treatment offering that is new to South Africa will soon be introduced to the water sector.

Packaged Metering & Pumping Solutions (PMPS) recently announced its intentions to launch an Italian OBL Polisol automatic polymer preparation plant. Designed for treating water at and wastewater at treatment plants, the new operation is expected to produce better, higher quality yields of water.

With South Africa in the midst of its worst drought in almost 100 years, water has become a scarce resource and higher yields of quality water are in high demand.

Technical director at PMPS, David O’Neill, acknowledged this, saying there is now a greater need for improved water treatment infrastructure in South Africa, hence the company’s decision to introduce the OBL Polisol system.

The system consists of automatic plants, engineered for the continuous preparation of dosing of dry polymer.

PMPS said the system is mainly used in treatment plants to help the aggregation of small suspended particles to form a floc for filtering or settling out. The company said it also believes that this system will pose several distinct advantages.

O’Neill pointed out that one of the main differentiating factors between the Polisol system and others is the initial point at which the dry polymer is wetted. “The device has to ensure that the polymer beads are constantly wetted, or it will form lumps and ‘snake eyes’, which both hinder the treatment process,” he said. “OBL’s patented wetting-in device uses a vortex and venturi to keep this from occurring, ensuring a high-quality dilution.”

PMPS said standard units with either two or three compartments will be able to provide between 450 to 10,000 litres/hour output per day of 0.5% polymer solutions.

The company also said the system has been around for more than three decades, and has evolved in line with advancements in technology.

Should the system be received well with the local market, O’Neill said the company would consider local manufacturing which he believes will have a “knock-on effect in terms of employment creation and skills training”.

For now, he said the company has a trained and highly qualified team of service technicians and engineering staff ready to offer customers support and expertise on the system at short notice.

O’Neill added that the company currently has the capability to provide a skid system which includes dosing pumps, flowmeters and valves, to render the system fully functional as a standalone plant.

“There is no more pressing time than the present for South Africa to take a proactive stance on its water and waste water treatment infrastructure,” he said. “With its high-quality hardware, superior yields and customisable features, the Polisol system represents the means to a clearer, cleaner future for South Africa’s water supply.”