There’s no denying the rise in demand for sustainable technologies to answer the world’s water needs. The BioBarrier HSMBR (High Strength Membrane Bioreactor) system from BioMicrobics offers onsite installers an alternative way to treat and reuse all wastewater on a property.

BioBarrier systems don’t require external pumps, valves, clarifiers and the associated control system, nor costly chemicals, additives or add-on disinfection. While conventional treatment processes focus on the degradation of the waste and nutrients (i.e., nitrogen and phosphorus), the membranes physically separate much smaller microorganisms and contaminants that create turbidity.

“The HSMBR provides new opportunities for wastewater recycling to have dramatic, positive effects on water resources around the globe,” says Jennifer Cisneros, vice president of marketing for BioMicrobics. “Its use can help meet the increasingly stringent needs of water-quality standards, site issues and water reuse applications.”

Utilizing biological processes and membrane separation to treat wastewater and engineered to fit most residential (small to large) and commercial applications, the BioBarrier is designed to treat water to 99.9% clean of contaminants. The membranes and processes used in this advanced system act as an impenetrable physical barrier for nearly all common pollutants found in wastewater today, according to Cisneros.

“The complete, optimized design of the BioBarrier dramatically simplifies the settling, screening, direct aeration and ultrafiltration of the wastewater treatment process,” Cisneros says. “This treatment system establishes the material, design, construction and performance requirements for onsite residential and commercial applications. Installed in watertight tanks, the systems also meet water-quality requirements for the reduction of chemical and microbiological contaminants for nonpotable water reuse.”

The HSMBR is designed for larger commercial applications, such as restaurants, hotels/resorts, wineries, breweries and other specialty applications, providing a system to achieve higher water-quality standards in situations that can exceed 150,000 gpd.

“It basically combines the advantages of activated sludge treatment with ultrafiltration flat-sheet membranes with a pore size of 0.03 μm, eliminating the need for secondary clarification tanks,” Cisneros says. “The result is a system with a smaller footprint. With the solids-liquid separation process inside the tank, the system produces a clear, highly purified effluent that is suitable for water reuse, direct discharge into the receiving environment.” 800-753-3278; www.biomicrobics.com.