As a critical step in advanced water treatment, ultrafiltration improves water quality, protects reverse osmosis systems, and supports reliable operation in demanding water conditions. SYCHEM applies ultrafiltration technology to remove suspended solids, colloids, microorganisms, and turbidity, helping ensure stable performance across desalination and water treatment applications.
Integrated into both standalone systems and complete treatment plants, SYCHEM’s ultrafiltration solutions are used in desalination pre-treatment, industrial wastewater recovery, reuse and recycling, and tertiary treatment applications. By enhancing filtration efficiency and protecting downstream processes, they contribute to more reliable, efficient, and long-lasting system performance.
Ultrafiltration is a low-pressure, size-exclusion membrane process, typically using hollow-fiber membranes with pore sizes in the 0.02–0.05 μm range, depending on the selected membrane configuration. Under controlled transmembrane pressure, water and dissolved low-molecular-weight species pass through the membrane, while suspended solids, colloidal matter and microbiological contaminants above the membrane cut-off are retained.
SYCHEM’s UF systems are engineered according to feed-water quality and project requirements, with parameters such as membrane flux, recovery, backwash frequency, chemically enhanced cleaning and CIP strategy defined on a case-by-case basis. This creates a stable physical barrier and a more predictable filtrate quality than conventional filtration alone, especially in applications with variable turbidity or increased fouling potential.
As RO pretreatment, UF provides a consistent, low-turbidity and low-SDI feed stream, reducing the particulate and microbiological fouling load on downstream membrane arrays. This supports more stable RO operation, optimized cleaning intervals and improved system reliability in seawater, brackish water and wastewater-reuse applications.
In tertiary treatment and industrial wastewater recovery, UF also acts as a robust polishing stage before disinfection or RO, enabling high-quality effluent for reuse applications. SYCHEM has applied this UF–RO approach in large-scale reference projects, including the MOTOR OIL Hellas seawater desalination pretreatment installation and the Hersonissos wastewater-effluent reuse plant in Crete.
