Low-Energy, High Recovery Treatment of Pulp and Paper Wastewater

Porifera, Inc.

Recipient

San Leandro, CA

Recipient Location

9th

Senate District

20th

Assembly District

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$2,120,256

Amount Spent

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Active

Project Status

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Project Update

In 2025, the project advanced both pilot operations and commercial system development for the low-energy, high-recovery treatment of pulp and paper wastewater. Early in the year, pilot operations experienced specific flux issues caused by glue and polyacrylamide (PAM) fouling due to ineffective upstream pre-filtration. By mid-year, the upstream glue contamination was successfully resolved (achieving over 95% removal), which allowed the team to shift focus to managing organic biofouling buildup through optimized Clean-In-Place (CIP) procedures. System stability and flux recovery were further improved by addressing elevated feed iron levels with targeted pH adjustments (5.0 to 5.5) and anti-scalant dosing, alongside the development of a refined temperature correction curve to normalize and track performance data. At the same time, commercial system development progressed via updated piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs), electrical bill of materials (BOM) finalization, vendor and SCADA-integration engagements, and the ongoing manufacturing of PFO-275 elements. During the fourth quarter, P&G and Porifera explored adapting the technology directly into their main paper pulp stream rather than solely focusing on the wastewater stream, along with corresponding data analysis.

The Issue

Water is a critical resource, especially in drought-prone California (CA) where industries have been experiencing mounting pressure to implement technologies that enable high purity water reuse. The pulp and paper (P&P) industry is one of the largest users of water in the industrial economy of the United States. It requires an average of 17,000 gallons of water to produce a ton of paper, and almost all phases of manufacturing require water. Furthermore, waste streams from this industry have high levels of suspended solids and organic matter, making it difficult to treat. Traditionally, generating high purity water for reuse is an expensive, energy intensive process that requires high maintenance costs.

Project Innovation

Porifera is installing its Porifera Forward Osmosis (PFO) Recycler system at The Procter & Gamble Paper Products Company (Partner) located in Oxnard, CA to maximize reclamation of hard-to-treat paper pulp wastewater. The project will reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas to maximize reclamation of hard-to-treat paper pulp wastewater, maximize reclamation of high purity water for on-site reuse, reduce chemical utilization and maintenance costs associated with wastewater treatment.

Project Goals

Demonstrate energy use of <12 kWh/1000-gal feed or at least 1.65 kWh/1000 gallons of feed energy use

Demonstrate high quality water for reuse (0-100 TDS and 0-100 COD)

Demonstrate operational costs of <$2500/acre ft of water

Project Benefits

This Agreement will result in the ratepayer benefits of greater electricity reliability, lower costs, and increased safety by increasing water reuse and reducing the energy use for water reclamation. This Agreement will result in new installations for on-site treatment of
hard-to-treat wastewater that could be attractive to similar industries by:
1) Providing unique solutions for water reuse that will increase water availability during droughts while increasing safety of the water supply.
2) Reducing wastewater treatment and reuse costs.
3) Reducing energy demand and costs and associated emissions compared to alternate solutions.
4) Providing unique solutions for decentralized water reuse to support public health and economic development, especially in disadvantaged communities with limited availability of potable water.