Surface water is water from above ground sources such as rivers, lakes, wetlands or the ocean and acquires its characteristics from the environment with which it comes into contact. It typically contains various contaminants, such as silts and clays, dissolved minerals and salts, organic material from vegetation and wildlife, algae, bacteria, protozoans, viruses and man-made pollutants.

Water and wastewater reclamation and reuse in industrial applications has become a growing trend in the past decade due to rising water demand and scarcity. In fact, water treatment including the use of RO is estimated at more than 30 percent of all industrial water treatment sales globally. RO is now used to treat recycled cooling tower blowdown in zero-liquid discharge (ZLD) applications as well as to purify boiler feed water.

Digestate is the material remaining after the anaerobic digestion of a biodegradable feedstock. Anaerobic digestion is a complex biochemical process of biologically mediated reactions by various microorganisms (without the presence of oxygen) to convert organic compounds into digestate and biogas.