SELENIUM REMOVAL TECHNOLOGY
Selenium is a non-metallic element toxic to humans and wildlife in high concentrations and toxic to fish in concentrations as low as 1.5 ppb. It is listed as a priority pollutant by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). EPA effluent limitation guidelines and National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit requirements have necessitated selenium removal for many mining, power, refining, and chemical facilities.
Current Selenium Removal Technologies
Until now, bioreactors have been the industry-standard technology for removing selenite and selenate from water to comply with discharge regulations. This bioreactor technology comes with hefty capital expenditures and requires precise control to maintain bio-populations.
Most importantly, bioreactors often struggle to remove selenium to the appropriate limit level needed to comply with EPA and NPDES permit requirements.
Introducing SeQuesterTM
SeQuester is a targeted physical chemical process designed to remove selenium from effluent water in industrial wastewater applications.
This innovative selenium removal technology reduces selenium concentrations via chemical and physical methods while helping avoid capital expenditures by transferring costs towards operations and maintenance. It utilizes an enhanced adsorptive matrix and process adjustments along with conventional wastewater treatment equipment such as holding tanks, clarifiers, and filter presses.
Laboratory tests and field results have shown that, not only can SeQuester effectively remove selenium, but can also remove total suspended solids (TSS) and metals such as lead, arsenic, mercury, and molybdenum from wastewater under typical industry operating parameters.
SeQuester offers the following benefits over bioreactor treatment under standard operating parameters:
Can consistently reduce selenium below restrictive NPDES limits (
Consistently removes selenium from power, refinery, landfill, mining, storm water runoff, and other industrial process and wastewater streams, enabling facilities to meet discharge regulations
Requires less capital investment
Removes selenium without concern for standard upstream process operating parameters
Can be operated in batch mode or continuously, depending on your plant’s needs
Can operate over a wide variety of flow rates to accommodate variations in processing requirements
