Clean Drinking Water Thanks to High-Performance NORYL™ Plastic
Grässlin Plastics for CERAFILTEC Water Filters: SABIC’s NORYLTM Makes a Valuable Contribution to Making Drinking Water Resources Accessible Worldwide
Scientific projections suggest that one of the greatest challenges of the future could be a looming global shortage of drinking water. One way to address this could be to harness vast, previously unusable freshwater reserves, such as those found in many regions of the world—in Australia and Saudi Arabia, as well as in the southern United States and beneath the desert floor of the Sahara. However, these reserves are often heavily contaminated and therefore unsuitable for drinking water because heavy metals such as radium have not yet been effectively filtered out. One solution is an innovative water filtration system from CERAFILTEC, for which Grässlin supplies the appropriate high-performance plastic, NORYL™.
This specialized water filter, including all mounting parts such as screws and clamps, is made entirely from SABIC’s glass-fiber-reinforced polyphenylene ether-polystyrene blend. Grässlin Kunststoffe, as a reliable distributor, guarantees a steady supply. “Our goal is to reliably supply customers with exactly the materials they need for their applications,” says Grässlin Managing Director Thomas Bücker. “We are pleased that, as a partner of SABIC, we can contribute to bringing CERAFILTEC’s innovative solution to life with high-quality plastics.”
The high-performance plastic NORYLTM not only meets all standard requirements for drinking water—especially when used with hot water—but also stands out for its low water absorption and excellent dimensional stability, particularly under heavy loads. NORYLTM is corrosion-free, durable, and can be formed into complex geometries. Its low weight is also a key factor in selecting the perfect material for these innovative water filters. Another advantage is the plastic’s resistance to chemical cleaning, which is regularly used when flushing the system. And from a sustainability perspective, its use is also poised to be a success: The service life of the housing is significantly longer—up to 20 years—thanks to the use of NORYLTM instead of stainless steel, as found in other filter systems. Furthermore, the plastic is recyclable.
“With Grässlin and SABIC, we have two reliable partners with extensive expertise in plastics and logistics and material supply to help us achieve our ambitious growth goals,” said CERAFILTEC founder Kay Gunther Gabriel.
Background: CERAFILTEC is a German manufacturer of technology solutions that specializes in the development and production of high-performance ceramic modules and components. With over 25 years of experience in the water and wastewater industry, the company is now a global leader in the field of ceramic filtration. The technology is used, for example, for drinking water production in Asia, the Middle East, and the United States. In this process, contaminated water is drawn through a ceramic membrane using negative pressure. The filters and plastic housings must be built to withstand these conditions. The innovative system provides excellent filtration and operates with high efficiency. It consumes only one-third of the energy used by conventional systems that operate under positive pressure. It can also be combined with other systems such as reverse osmosis—a physical process for separating water from contaminants. This makes it possible to produce drinking-water-quality water even from heavily contaminated water sources, because virtually all insoluble substances can be filtered out of the water. In addition to its use in the treatment of freshwater reserves worldwide, this technology also offers enormous potential for treating water from industrial sources, landfills, and mines, among other applications.
