GE’s LEAPmbr technology raises capacity of wastewater treatment plant in North Las Vegas, US

US based General Electric has installed its LEAPmbr membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology to upgrade a wastewater treatment facility in the city of North Las Vegas, US.

Post modifications, the plant will be capable of treating municipal wastewater for more than 300,000 residents. It has been equipped to process nearly 25 million gallons of wastewater every day.

Earlier, North Las Vegas had to depend on Las Vegas city for wastewater treatment services.

In 2012, the city developed the facility featuring GE ZeeWeed membranes and MBR technology. GE's LEAPmbr technology was deployed at the plant later on, to raise its treatment capacity. Covid-19 Report — Updated twice a week Understanding the Covid-19 outbreak, the economic impact and implications for specific sectors Get the free report

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The LEAPmbr aeration technology has been found to bring down membrane air scour costs for the facility and eliminates the need of cyclic valve maintenance.

The facility has also been equipped with advanced SCADA system to facilitate the city of North Las Vegas to control operations of the wastewater treatment plant from remote locations, which reduces the requirement for on-site staff.

North Las Vegas water reclamation facility administrator Dave Commons said: "Environmental and economic concerns led us to upgrade our wastewater treatment plant with GE's LEAPmbr technology, which provided us with a more energy-efficient and cost-effective way to operate our facility.

"The retrofit will give us a 29% energy reduction on membrane aeration and will save more than $100,000 per year in energy and maintenance costs."

The US technology firm had retrofitted the existing membrane cassettes at the facility with the LEAPmbr retrofit kits, which while reducing its air and energy requirements, allowed it to continue with its entire life cycle operation with the originally installed membranes.

Image: The facility has been upgraded to serve wastewater treatment needs for more than 300,000 US residents. Photo: courtesy of General Electric.