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| The new international headquarters are independent of water and wastewater service lines. |
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| The new international headquarters are independent of water and wastewater service lines. |
Zenon Environmental Inc. recently opened its international corporate headquarters and North American Systems Assembly Plant in a spectacular building, in Oakville, Ontario, which is independent of water and wastewater service lines.
The new corporate headquarters are located on a 151 acre site of unserviced land. Because of an absence of municipal sewers, this unserviced location could not otherwise have been used. However, with Zenon's technology, all potable drinking water is obtained from on-site wells, and wastewater is treated on site. So, in addition to being able to build on unserviced land, the advanced water reuse technology also significantly reduces the impact of water discharge on the local environment.
As an example of ZeeWeed effectiveness, some obviously polluted water was poured into a transparent miniature Zenon treatment plant. After the plant started, the treated effluent was directed into a plastic tank containing live goldfish. Long after these opening ceremonies were concluded, the goldfish were swimming happily - a bold, but effective demonstration before a large crowd of water treatment experts.
Dr. Benedek, Zenon Chairman and CEO, spoke of membranes being natural. "ZeeWeed works much the same way as a tree's roots. Membranes operate by removing microorganisms from the water source - not by killing them and leaving dead or partially dead organisms in treated water. The system is even effective against pathogens such as Cryptosporidium, which are difficult to kill by more conventional means."
ZeeWeed ultrafiltration membranes have a pore size of 0.035 microns and act as a barrier to microorganisms, which are 10 to 100 times larger in size. Pathogens such as Cryptosporidium cysts and Giardia oocysts, or smaller microorganisms such as coliforms, including E. coli, are filtered from the water.
"Eighty million people are added to this planet on a yearly basis, causing further strain on an already limited natural resource - water. According to the World Health Organization, there are 3.1 billion people living with no sanitation at all. As a result, approximately 25 million children die each year from waterborne diseases and, in some countries, water quality has been so degraded that it is not even fit for basic industrial use."
This article was abridged from Environmental Science & Engineering magazine, which also contains many more articles not posted on our Web Site. See our home page on how to order your subscription. We regret we can only accept orders from Canada and the United States.