Mumbai – “Innovative solutions for water and waste water treatment are gaining in importance in an attempt to use this resource responsibly. LANXESS can make valuable contributions to this in all application areas,” emphasizes Prakash Shanmugam, Head of the Liquid Purification Technologies (LPT) business unit at LANXESS India.
At the international trade show IFAT, which is taking place from October 16 to 18, 2019, in Mumbai, specialty chemicals company LANXESS is presenting its comprehensive range of products and services relating to process water and wastewater. A custom selection of products and technologies is often vital here. In many cases, optimum results can be achieved only with the smart combination of several technologies. LANXESS has many years of combined expertise in this area in the areas of ion exchange, adsorbers, reverse osmosis, and ultrafiltration.
Current trends such as electro-mobility provide LPT’s operations with additional impetus: “Recently implemented improvements to processing technology and process efficiency in the production of ion exchange resins in Leverkusen are already bearing fruit. Thanks to the resulting capacity enhancement, we can successfully satisfy the recent rise in demand from the battery industry, for example, explains Prakash. Numerous ion exchange resins from the Lewatit product range are also being produced at the plant in Leverkusen for use in the food industry.
High-performance (HP) RO membrane elements are a market success.
The range of Lewabrane high-performance (HP) RO membrane elements for energy-efficient brackish water treatment, which was recently launched in the market, is already well established. On the basis of an optimized membrane structure, they offer improved rejection with a higher flux rate compared with standard elements.
The company’s involvement in the Multi-Reuse research project shows just how important reverse osmosis is to LANXESS, especially for wastewater treatment. One aim in this context is to take suitable action to minimize fouling and thereby ensure stable operation in the long term.
On the basis of a sales partnership with French company Polymem SA, which was agreed in 2018, LANXESS has added Gigamem ultrafiltration elements to its portfolio for water treatment. The first projects to result from this cooperation have been successfully launched in the Mediterranean region.
Reverse osmosis and ion exchange go hand in hand.
The combination of reverse osmosis and ion exchange opens up new areas of application for water treatment for which a single technology would be no match. For example, textile effluent recycling using ion exchange resins for hardness removal as well as color and organics removal as a pretreatment to reverse osmosis to enhance the recovery and operating life of membranes This process is already being used successfully in many textile effluent zero liquid discharge (ZLD) plants.
The current version of the LewaPlus software developed by LANXESS that is used for designing combined systems of this kind now also features a cost module for ion exchange, so that, in combination with the integrated cost calculation for reverse osmosis, it is easy to estimate the total investment costs and operating costs.
Arsenic removal from drinking water and wastewater
Arsenic pollution is one of the most dangerous forms of drinking water contamination. Some very high concentrations of arsenic occur in the groundwater in many regions of the United States, South America, and Asia. Elevated arsenic levels are also found in Bangladesh and the north-east of India, for example. Using bayoxide iron oxide adsorbers, LANXESS is providing an efficient technology for the removal of arsenic from drinking water and wastewater. The core of the Bayoxide system is a solid bed of iron oxide beads. The beads have finely structured surfaces that adsorb pollutants when contaminated water flows over them.
The LPT business unit
The LPT business unit is part of the LANXESS Performance Chemicals segment, which generated sales of EUR 1.35 billion in fiscal year 2018.
LPT offers a comprehensive range of tailor-made ion exchange resins and reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration membrane elements for various applications in the field of water treatment. You can find more detailed information about products from the business unit on the website at
LANXESS is a leading specialty chemicals company with sales of EUR 7.2 billion in 2018. The company currently has about 15,400 employees in 33 countries and is represented at 60 production sites worldwide. The core business of LANXESS is the development, manufacturing, and marketing of chemical intermediates, additives, specialty chemicals, and plastics. LANXESS is listed in the leading sustainability indices, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI World and Europe) and FTSE4Good.
Mumbai, October 16, 2019
Forward-Looking Statements
This company release contains forward-looking statements, including assumptions, opinions, expectations, and views of the company or cited from third-party sources. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors could cause the actual results, financial position, development, or performance of LANXESS AG to differ materially from the estimations expressed or implied herein. LANXESS AG does not guarantee that the assumptions underlying such forward-looking statements are free from errors, nor does it accept any responsibility for the future accuracy of the opinions expressed in this presentation or the actual occurrence of the forecast developments. No representation or warranty (expressed or implied) is made as to, and no reliance should be placed on, any information, estimates, targets, or opinions contained herein, and no liability whatsoever is accepted as to any errors, omissions, or misstatements contained herein, and accordingly, no representative of LANXESS AG or any of its affiliated companies or any of such person’s officers, directors, or employees accepts any liability whatsoever arising directly or indirectly from the use of this document.
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