The technology, which is designed for production of ingredient water for carbonated soft drinks (CSD), juices, bottled water and non-carbonated beverages, can process poor quality and challenging source water by removing particulates, microorganisms and total dissolved solids (TDS).
Minnesota, US
GE claims a few major beverage companies have already implemented the system at their facilities, but declined to say who.
Kevin Cassidy, global leader, engineered systems, GE Water & Process Technologies, said Bevpak can handle the most challenging source water for customers.
“By combining UF and RO on a single skid, Bevpak reduces the footprint by up to 30% compared to using those technologies separately,” he said.
“It will give the beverage industry confidence that highly variable raw water can be treated to deliver the required product quality.
GE BEV Series RO tech
"We saw a need in certain beverage plants for a smaller footprint, lower capital expenditures as well as the ability to handle challenging water sources to treat water for ingredient water quality.
"We looked at our existing technologies and began to develop a hybrid solution to combine our ultrafiltration systems with our beverage reverse osmosis system into one integrated system. Because of our experience within the beverage industry, we were able to provide the BEVPAK solution from idea to implementation in about four months."
Bevpak is manufactured at GE Water & Process Technologies' Minnetonka, Minnesota, facility.
The plant produces filters, spiral wound membrane elements and equipment across the spectrum of membranes including RO, nanofiltration, UF and microfiltration for global water treatment and reuse.
The system comes with a GE ZeeWeed 700B horizontal-designed, inside-out UF membrane and GE BEV Series RO technology.
Cassidy added it is ideal for solids tolerance and ingredient water production, and it simplifies the process and removes equipment needed for air scouring.
He said using SevenBore fiber technology, ZeeWeed 700B are blended polyethersulphone membranes, which allow the membrane to stay permanently hydrophilic and reduce the fouling tendency.
“When compared to granular filter media and cartridge filters, the ZeeWeed 700B membrane produces superior water quality and is virtually unaffected by variable raw water quality,” added Cassidy.