Dynatec News

MBR Conversion – Pharmaceutical Company

A pharmaceutical firm suffered from frequent upsets to their existing treatment process. The existing conventional aerobic biological system followed by a gravity clarifier, led to discharge noncompliance.

Dynatec completed bench top treatability studies and pilot studies to confirm the best method to improve performance.  Adding ultrafilters as part of the conversion to a Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) was the best course of action.

MBR Conversion – Pharmaceutical Company

The wastewater stream was high in organic content (BOD, COD), and suspended solids (TSS). The MBR conversion, using a Dynatec ultrafiltration system allowed the customer to run the biological system at high mixed liquor concentrations without concern for settling characteristics. The higher mixed liquor concentration and longer sludge age proved to be successful in consistently reducing BOD and COD into compliance.

The system was designed to treat nearly 300,000 gallons per day. The COD was consistently reduced to 300 – 500 mg/l from 14,000 mg/l while BOD was reduced to non-detect.

The upgraded system handled variable loads in terms of organic load and flow rates. It consistently delivered high-quality effluent with less operator attention than their previous system. Additionally, the customer no longer faced fines for exceeding discharge limits for organics and solids.

Dynatec completed the process design, provided the equipment, and performed the installation. Existing tanks and aeration were utilized, keeping the conversion cost to less than any alternative.

Dynatec Systems industry-leading tubular ultrafiltration (UF) system can be used to treat a broad range of industrial wastewater by separating insoluble components from waste streams. As a cost effective and simple solution for separating insoluble components and colloidal contaminants from a waste stream. Wastewater ultrafiltration offers significant advantages over conventional separation. It is a useful process that does not require chemicals or much space to separate insoluble contaminants.

Contact Dynatec to discuss your wastewater treatment needs.

https://www.dynatecsystems.com/technologies/membrane-bioreactors/mbr-conversion-r…pgrade-solutions/ ‎

Landfill leachate treatment system

Landfill leachate treatment system for a hazardous waste landfill incorporates heavy metals pretreatment followed by a tubular MBR system. 

The MBR reduces:

• ammonia
• phenol
• Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCB)
• chemical oxygen demand (COD)
• volatiles and semi-volatiles
• and other contaminants adequately for discharge  

The system reduces PFAS 30-60% and carbon is utilized to reduce PFAS to low ppt concentrations.

Landfill leachate treatment systems with Membrane Bioreactors (MBR)s have developed many unique process improvements for industrial wastewater applications. Dynatec successfully uses Ultrafiltration (UF), MBR and Reverse Osmosis (RO) for landfill leachate applications.

Landfill leachate treatment requirements

Treatment can vary, depending on the discharge requirements, and the contaminants present

Landfill leachate is characterized by:

• High Total Dissolved Solids (TDS)
• Heavy metals
• High BOD
• Color
• High COD
• High ammonia

Landfill leachate treatment systems options

The MBR option: an aerated biological mixed liquor process operating at very high solids concentrations. 

The advantages are:

• Long sludge age produces a well acclimated biomass. High concentration (typically 12,000 to 20,000 mg/l) provides very high rates of reaction
• Excellent nitrification and de-nitrification
• Smaller footprint then conventional aerated systems
• High-quality effluent as a result of using membranes for final clarification
• Lower sludge production than conventional systems

Typical MBR results in landfills: 

The system produces bio-sludge, which can either be dewatered for disposal, or disposed of as a liquid sludge.

Alternative landfill leachate treatment options: 

• Chemical precipitation of metals before MBR treatment
• RO after MBR treatment removes organic and inorganic contaminants, and color
• UF followed by RO

The two effluent streams from a RO system are:

• Permeate
• Concentrate (or reject)

This can be re-injected into the landfill.  Its long-term effects on leachate concentrations should be considered.

Conclusion

The MBR process provides the highest possible levels of organic removal with essentially zero suspended solids in the effluent. This is the ideal feed system for RO treatment.

RO permeate can be used for other non-potable purposes:

• Irrigation
• Truck washing
• Dust control

Dynatec membrane treatment systems have successfully provided outstanding performance in many landfill leachate applications. Considerations for this technology include:

• Membrane treatment offers reliable, consistent landfill leachate 
• Systems are highly cost effective, and require low levels of operator interface
• The best membrane system configuration for each application should be individually evaluated
• Membrane treatment is broadly applied in the US and abroad

https://www.dynatecsystems.com/industries/landfill-leachate-treatment/

For more information on landfill leachate treatment systems, please contact us today.

Flexographic Ink Wastewater Treatment

FLEXOGRAPHIC INK WASTEWATER TREATMENT

A corrugated box manufacturer utilized conventional batch physical/chemical treatment for processing wastewater generated from the clean-up of flexographic ink wastewater. The system consisted of chemical coagulation followed by conventional flocculation. A deep bed filter was used to clarify and dewater the waste. The system was operator intensive and generated lots of sludge for disposal.

Solution:
A tubular non-clog membrane filtration system was installed to process the waste stream. The waste was pH adjusted to optimize the removal of copper and zinc. The waste was circulated through the filter for discharge and the contaminants were concentrated. The
concentrate of contaminants was reduced to 2% of the original volume. The system reliably produces high quality water with very little operator involvement.

Simple Mechanical Process:
The membrane filter is a mechanical system that allows clean water to pass through the filter while contaminants are rejected and returned to the waste holding tank. There are no chemicals required other than that which may be necessary for pH adjustment. Also, there is no sludge generated by the process. The system simply separates the contaminants from the water, whereas a chemical treatment system generates copious amounts of sludge that must be dewatered and disposed.

Unattended Operation:
Since this process is completely mechanical and not dependent upon chemical feed and the coagulation and flocculation process, the only operational requirement is to clean the membrane filters periodically. This is a simple process that involves less than one half hour of an operator’s time. A chemical treatment system requires ongoing adjustments of the chemical feed pumps, make-up of the chemical feeds, operation of the dewatering system and control calibration and adjustment. The chemical system tasks require continual attention on a daily basis, whereas the membrane filtration system requires attention only for cleaning.

Consistently High Quality Water:
The membrane filter forms a positive barrier to the flow of contaminants, producing continuous high-quality water without operator attention. The membrane system is not affected by variability of the waste stream. The purified water is suitable for reuse or sewer discharge.

Low Disposal Cost:
The mechanical separation produced by the membrane filter does not generate sludge. It simply separates the contaminants from the water and leaves those contaminants in a liquid phase. The amount of liquid concentrate is normally very small and it is, therefore, cost-effective to dispose of that concentrate as a liquid waste and thereby preclude the need to run and operate a solidification and de-watering operation.

Low Operating Cost:
The membrane filtration system will be the least expensive treatment system to operate. The cost of operation of a membrane filtration system is much less than a chemical treatment system.

Contact Dynatec Systems today to discuss your wastewater solution today.

https://www.dynatecsystems.com/industries/manufacturing-wastewater-treatment/ink-wastewater-treatment

Brewery Reuse System

Brewery reuse system consists of a Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) and Reverse Osmosis (RO) system.  The brewery produces high strength wastewater with COD > 8,000mg/L.  An anaerobic digester ahead of the MBR, produces gas for heat and power generation. The wastewater then goes to the MBR and RO producing high-quality water that is suitable for reuse in brewery operations. The RO reject is combined with a portion of the MBR permeate to manage total TDS concentrations so it can be discharged to the sewer.

Complete wastewater purification and reuse systems 

• Cooling tower makeup
• Irrigation (especially applicable to wineries)
• Boiler feed
• Cleaning and other plant processes

  

  Containerized MBR for distillery

Brewery, distillery and winery wastewater treatment solutions 

• Ultrafilter (UF) for removal of non-soluble contaminants
• Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) 
• Conversion of existing biological systems to MBR
  • To expand capacity
  • To improve effluent quality
• MBR for treatment and wastewater reuse
• Reverse Osmosis (RO) for high purity wastewater reuse
• MBR for biological treatment

Contaminants Removed

• Suspended Solids
• Alcohol
• Sugars
• Ammonia
• Phosphorous
• Copper
• Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD)
• Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD)
• Dissolved Solids 
• Acids
• Phenol

Technology Benefits – Membrane Separation System Using Tubular UF membranes

• Simple mechanical process
• Consistently high-quality water produced
• Ability to reuse purified water
• Low operating costs
• Unattended operation
• Skidded components reduce space requirements
• Ability to remotely monitor and control
• Cell phone and iPad compatible

The MBR configuration has proven to be optimal for treatment of many industrial wastewaters when treatment efficiency is an important consideration.

The MBR is the ideal bioreactor configuration for treatment of organic or inorganic contaminants present in industrial wastewaters. MBRs operate at a higher efficiency while achieving consistent design performance objectives. This makes MBR a more cost effective method of treatment when performance and tank requirements are considered.

Bioreactor systems such as the conventional activated sludge system, sequencing batch reactor system and trickling filters are typically designed for operation at a lower volumetric removal rate, requiring larger tanks and more space. These conventional systems often experience upsets that inhibit settling and therefore require much more operator attention than a membrane bioreactor.

The MBR has proven to be optimal for treatment of many industrial wastewaters because it is less susceptible to upsets. The MBR’s performance is not affected by changes in sludge settleability like the conventional systems, making MBR a wise choice for industrial systems that have more difficult to treat waste streams. Dynatec has over 42 years experience in dealing with difficult to treat industrial wastewaters using membrane filtration.

https://www.dynatecsystems.com/technologies/recovery-and-reuse/

MBR for Cereal Manufacturer

MBR for Major Cereal Manufacturer

Dynatec provides a turnkey wastewater solution for a food manufacturing wastewater process.

The problem
A major cereal manufacturing plant needed to upgrade their treatment process. MBR was selected, and the company was about one month away from entering into a contract with a major MBR supplier of submerged hollow fiber membrane bioreactors. The cereal manufacturer has had chronic problems in procuring wastewater treatment systems that were able to meet required treatment levels.

Dynatec was invited to offer a proposal based upon our previous experience and successful implementation of membrane bioreactor systems in the food industry. Specifically, Dynatec had previously installed a  MBR system at another cereal manufacturing plant, which was operating without problems.

The Solution
When the two MBR systems were evaluated, Dynatec was selected. Reasons for selection were Dynatec’s experience with industrial wastewater, Dynatec’s record of success with other industrial MBR projects in the industry, lower cost and simpler operation.

Implementation
The system had one major requirement. It had to provide reliable operation without a long process of evaluating problems and making changes to the system. For this reason, the  MBR process was used for its very reliable simple operation. A DAF was also provided by Dynatec ahead of the MBR system to remove solids and some BOD.
DAF effluent enters the MBR system for biological treatment and removal of solids. Some of the MBR effluent is reused on site for irrigation and other non-process uses. The other portion of MBR effluent is sent to a reverse osmosis system also provided by Dynatec. The RO effluent is used for cooling towers and other non-food reuse applications within the plant.
Dynatec was also engaged to install the system at the customer’s facility.

Contact Dynatec Systems today to discuss your wastewater application.

https://www.dynatecsystems.com/industries/food-and-beverage/cereal/

Wastewater Treatment System

Wastewater treatment system for an aerostructures manufacturer provided by Dynatec Systems.  The system removes heavy metals and produces water for reuse.  Dynatec Systems also provided a double pass reverse osmosis (RO) system to produce low conductivity/low Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) water (less than 3mg/l) for the metal finishing process in lieu of a deionizing system. The RO system was much more cost effective in processing the relatively high TDS water supply.

Dynatec specializes in extensive reverse osmosis (RO) membrane systems and nanofiltration (NF) membrane systems to remove soluble components of wastewater that may not have been removed by primary treatment. In most cases, the purified water can be reused.

RO is capable of rejecting soluble constituents of aqueous streams, such as:

• Bacteria
• Salts
• Sugars
• Proteins
• A wide range of organics and colors
• Improves the color, taste and properties of the fluid

This process is commonly used to purify water and remove salts and other impurities. It can be used to purify fluids such as ethanol, which will pass through the reverse osmosis membrane, while rejecting other ions and contaminants from passing.

Reverse Osmosis/Nanofiltration systems

The most common use for reverse osmosis is in purifying water. It is used to produce water that meets the most demanding specifications. This differs significantly from other RO systems that are often only designed to treat potable water. Our system is specifically designed to accommodate:

• Minimize reject volume
• Variable characteristics
• Minimize fouling

For more information on a wastewater treatment system to remove heavy metals and produce water for reuse, please contact us today.

https://www.dynatecsystems.com/technologies/membrane-technologies/reverse-osmosis-membrane-systems-nanofiltration-membrane-systems/

Paint Manufacturer Reuses Latex

A paint manufacturer engaged Dynatec to provide a system to separate latex from wastewater and reuse it in the production of paint

The Problem

The company was using a chemically assisted, rotary drum vacuum pre-coat filter that was expensive to operate and created a lot of sludge which was expensive to dispose.

The Solution

The white paint wastewater was segregated from the colors, and processed separately. The concentrate of white latex solids were used in the manufacture of new white paint.

The paint solids from the colored paints can be concentrated to as high as 20% (typical paint contains between 45% and 55% solids) using wide channel ultrafiltration. The paint solids are concentrated and reused to make a grey paint. The water can be discharged to sewer, since it contains no solids, or it can be reused as wash water.

Special circulation pumps are also used to handle the high solids loadings.

Return on investment

The return on investment was high. The latex from the white paint wastewater is reused in the production process for manufacture of new paint. The paint solids from the colored paint wastewater is recovered as a saleable low quality paint product. The cost for disposal of the solids removed by the old chemical treatment system has been reduced by 90%. The wastewater from both processes is discharged to sewer.

Significant Savings:

 No sludge

 Beneficial use for latex

 Water quality for discharge is better

 Much less operator time

 No chemicals

Ultrafiltration excels at the clarification of solutions containing:

 Suspended solids

 Bacteria

 High concentrations of macromolecules including:

 Oil and water

 Fruit juice

 Milk

 Latex

 Whey

 Electro-coat paints

 Pharmaceuticals

 Poly-vinyl alcohol

 Potable water

 Tertiary wastewater

 Some proteins

 Some dyes

 Oils

 Colloidal or emulsified components

Contact Dynatec Systems today to discuss your wastewater solution!

https://www.dynatecsystems.com/technologies/membrane-technologies/ultrafiltration-systems/

Wastewater Reuse – Phosphate Mine

Mining operations can produce a large amount of wastewater in the form of spent liquor that requires treatment. The wastewater stream has a high concentration of contaminants that need to be separated from the water before it can be discharged or reused. Dynatec has provided a system to a phosphate mining operation that treats five million gallons of wastewater per day. The customer was motivated to put a treatment/reuse system to separate a portion of the compounds in the wastewater for reuse. Also, the desired water quality for discharge met requirements for reuse of several water users in the plant.

Dynatec was asked to conduct a pilot to study the feasibility of using membrane technology to purify the wastewater so that it could be reused in mining operations at the site. After several months of piloting, Dynatec was commissioned to supply five ultrafiltration skids, each capable of producing one million gallons per day of permeate. The ultrafilters were a part of the reuse system that also includes nanofiltration and reverse osmosis to produce water and product for reuse.

Due to the highly saturated wastewater stream, the pH of the wastewater was maintained at 1.8 s.u. to keep specific contaminants from precipitating in the membrane systems. The ultrafilters have successfully operated at this pH for over 10 years and their life span has not been negatively impacted by the nature of the wastewater.

The high strength spent liquor is processed through a series of membranes from UF to NF to RO. The customer has found reuse applications for reject and permeate from the membrane systems. The final system has alleviated concerns of future environmental infractions and has saved the customer money.

Contact Dynatec Systems to discuss your wastewater solution.

https://www.dynatecsystems.com/technologies/recovery-and-reuse/

Sanitary Wastewater Expansion

Sanitary wastewater expansion of a previously supplied MBR by Dynatec Systems for a mall was recently completed. The original system treated the sanitary wastewater generated at the mall and wastewater from several restaurants on the property. Recent changes at the mall, including the addition of residential units, resulted in greater wastewater volumes. The expansion was relatively fast and easy due to the modular nature of Dynatec’s UF skids. The permeate meets all requirements for direct discharge to the environment and the compact design fits the limited space available at the mall.

Sanitary wastewater from private communities, industrial and academic campuses, resorts, and various other facilities can be treated to meet discharge permit limits or to meet reuse standards. Dynatec provides systems that accomplish this in a small space and with low operating costs.

Membrane bioreactor (MBR) solutions provided

• Plant expansion
• Improved effluent quality
• Purification for direct discharge
• Existing plant upgrades
• Sequencing batch reactor (SBR) to MBR conversions
• Wastewater reuse for:
  • Cooling tower
  • Boiler
  • Toilet flushing
  • Irrigation applications
• Recovery and reuse of wastewater for:
  • Apartment buildings
  • Industrial campuses
  • Academic campuses
  • Hotels and resorts
  • Golf courses
• Compact wastewater treatment systems
• Containerized/mobile sanitary treatment systems
• Water mining systems

Significant Benefits

• Lower energy cost allows operation in larger plants
• Robust tubular membranes reduce replacement cost
• High mixed liquor concentration reduces tankage required and higher treated water quality
• Small system footprint
• Easily expandable
• Safe automatic clean-in-place system protects operators
• Predictable, consistently high performance
• Remote monitoring – compatible with cell phone or iPad

Contaminants removed from sanitary wastewater

• Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD)
• Oils and Grease (O&G)
• Total Suspended Solids (TSS)
• Ammonia
• Total N
• Fecal Coliforms

For more information on sanitary wastewater expansion, please contact Dynatec to discuss.

https://www.dynatecsystems.com/industries/sanitary-wastewater/

Dynatec Systems provides landfill leachate solution

Kootenai County says leachate treatment pilot succeeded; county to resume processing in March.

Kootenai County Solid Waste reported the final update on a pilot system designed to treat landfill leachate, county Director John Phillips told commissioners at the department’s quarterly meeting on Jan. 6.

Phillips said the county solicited local treatment plants, worked with Jacobs Engineering, and selected Dynatec Systems to provide reverse-osmosis and ultrafiltration equipment. Dynatec completed bench- and pilot-scale testing; a purchase order was issued in May 2025 and the county operated a pilot system for about six months. The treated water was hauled to a regional treatment plant identified in the transcript as HARBS beginning in October 2025 and tested by HARBS and a third-party laboratory, Phillips said. According to Phillips, the water met HARBS’s pretreatment and plant-delivery requirements.

The county determined the pilot successful and completed final payment for equipment in November 2025. Phillips reported the pilot’s total cost, including setup, engineering and operations, was approximately $1,600,000—below the $2,000,000 budget. He said the county has hauled “several hundred thousand gallons” of treated wastewater and that the volume could be approaching 1,000,000 gallons; he described those haul volumes as approximate. Phillips told the board the treatment system is winterized now but is planned to restart regular leachate processing in March 2026, weather permitting.

Why it matters: Leachate is classified as industrial wastewater and can contain PFAS, PCBs and high total dissolved solids (TDS), the director said. Having an on-site treatment capability reduces the county’s dependence on other publicly owned treatment works and provides an option during high-precipitation years when leachate volumes increase.

The county did not provide specific lab reports in the meeting; Phillips invited commissioners to ask questions during the rollout and said staff would continue to update the Board of County Commissioners as operations resume.

Next steps: The system is winterized for the season, and county staff expect normal processing to begin in March 2026, subject to weather and operational checks.

Contact Dynatec Systems today to discuss your landfill leachate solution today.

https://www.dynatecsystems.com/industries/landfill-leachate-treatment/