Energy Recovery Wins Additional Awards to Boost Sustainability of Chinese Industrial Wastewater Treatment Facilities

SAN LEANDRO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / August 3, 2021 / Energy Recovery, Inc. (NASDAQ:ERII) today announced new awards to support the industrial wastewater treatment operations of lithium-ion battery manufacturing, chemical manufacturing and landfill leachate facilities in China. All three facilities will purchase Energy Recovery's Ultra PX™ energy recovery devices (ERD), while the lithium-ion battery facility will also purchase PX® Pressure Exchanger® (PX) ERDs.

China requires industrial wastewater facilities to adopt Minimal Liquid Discharge (MLD) and Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) treatment processes in which most to all wastewater is purified and recycled, leaving little to no discharge at the end of the treatment cycle.

Multiple energy-intensive treatment stages are needed to achieve MLD and ZLD. Each treatment stage applies increasingly higher pressures to filter the wastewater, starting with pressures lower than seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO), to pressures similar to SWRO, to ultra high-pressures nearly double that of SWRO depending on the application. The Ultra PX and the PX significantly reduces energy consumption, costs and emissions associated with the latter two treatment stages. The PX reduces energy consumption by up to 60 percent for the SWRO stage, and the UItra PX reduces energy consumption by up to 60 percent in the ultra high-pressure stage.

"These awards are evidence that reverse osmosis adoption is accelerating, and with it, opportunities for our PX and new Ultra PX," said Robert Mao, Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer of Energy Recovery. "Heavy industry from battery manufacturing to textiles are working to green their wastewater treatment and meet stringent government regulations. With our versatile pressure exchanger technology, Energy Recovery can help industries meet this challenge and work together to define the ZLD and MLD system of the future."

China's overall industrial sector is expected to grow by almost 8 percent, including many industrial sectors that require wastewater treatment. This is especially true in the water scarce areas of Northern China. Lithium-ion battery production, landfill leachate, and coal-to-chemicals are just a few of the industries facing tremendous pressure to manage their wastewater. China's 13^th Five-Year Plan in 2016 committed to spend around 0.75 percent of its GDP on its water treatment industry. Other countries, notably India, are also moving to strengthen industrial wastewater requirements. Energy Recovery previously announced contracts to supply the Ultra PX to a natural gas plant in China and a chemical manufacturer in India.