Sapphire Water's SIBROM System

As of September 2008, Sapphire Water has aquired the rights to market and manufacture the Integrated Biological and Reverse Osmosis System developed in collaboration with Safe Drinking Water Foundation’s Advanced Aboriginal Water Treatment Team (AAWTT). SIBROM is the result of years of research, pilot testing and successful implementations.

The SIBROM system handles extremely poor quality ground water including high levels of hydrogen sulphide, iron, manganese, dissolved organic carbon, arsenic and ammonium.

Installation of a SIBROM water treatment system will provide Best Available Technology (BAT) for ground water treatment because:

• Low use of chemicals (>10 times lower than comparable manganese greensand + RO system)
• Low use of backwash water (>10 times lower than comparable manganese greensand + RO)
• Number of backwashes decreased by more than 10 times compared with manganese greensand + RO
• Continuous runs (24/7) until filter backwash (with current water use, backwash requirements are less than once per month)
• No need to start up and stop processes more than when backwash is required
• Nutrient and energy sources for bacteria are removed
• High quality, biologically stable water is supplied to the RO membranes (that is no nutrients or energy sources for bacteria are present in the water)
• The integrity of the RO membranes is maintained and harsh chemical cleanings are not required; this has been shown to be a recurring problem with manganese greensand + RO plants
• The RO waste generated by a SIBROM process is environmentally benign
• All RO water is corrosive with low pH, but in the SIBROM process pH is adjusted by running the water through a calcium and magnesium mineral bed. This results in a non-corrosive, neutral pH water, that has the recommended concentrations of calcium, magnesium, alkalinity and hardness (this is still very soft water).
• As there are no nutrient or energy sources for bacteria present in the water, the treated water reservoirs and distribution system will not become overburdened with biofilm-forming bacteria, nor will they become repositories of debris.

Numerous articles about the Biological Filtration pre-treatment system have been published in the Canadian Water Treatment magazine and Western Canada WATER magazine.

Sapphire Water is currently implemeting a project for the Casino Water Treatment Plant at Dakota Dunes, Saskatchewan to supply and install a 1 – 3 L/Sec Integrated Biological & RO Membrane water treatment system.

There have been 3 successful installations in First Nation communities: Yellow Quill, George Gordons and Pasqua.