Premium Natural Mineral Water Treatment System for Laoshan Life Pouch Water

Qingdao Laoshan Mineral Water Co., Ltd. is one of China’s long-established natural mineral water producers, with seven production facilities in the Qingdao area.

4R has maintained a long-term technical partnership with Laoshan Mineral Water for more than 15 years. During this period, 4R has supplied and implemented:

• Five water treatment production systems;
• Two 5-gallon bottled water production lines;
• Two robotic palletizing systems.

This relationship has been built not only on equipment delivery, but also on 4R’s continuing understanding of the client’s water-source characteristics, product positioning, hygiene requirements, plant operating practices, and long-term production objectives.

In 2022, one Laoshan Mineral Water production base developed and commissioned a premium natural mineral water product under its Life pouch-water series.

The product uses a single-use, high-barrier multilayer flexible pouch. The pouch is pre-formed with three sealed sides, filled with finished water, and heat-sealed after filling. During use, a dedicated dispenser uses an automatic piercing probe to access the pouch and dispense water.

This packaging concept helps maintain a relatively closed water path from filling and sealed storage through to final dispensing. Compared with traditional returnable 5-gallon containers, it reduces potential secondary-contamination risks associated with repeated container circulation, washing, ambient-air exchange, and manual handling.

At the same time, this packaging format creates higher requirements for:

• Finished-water microbiological control before filling;
• Source-water and storage-tank hygiene;
• Sanitary piping and buffer-tank design;
• Reliable operation of the treatment and filling system;
• Consistent sanitation verification throughout production.

The source water is high-quality deep-well natural mineral water with balanced mineralization and valuable naturally occurring constituents, including metasilicic acid.

The client’s objective was not to deeply demineralize the water or alter its natural sensory profile through aggressive oxidation. Instead, the project required a natural mineral water treatment system capable of preserving the source water’s characteristic mineral balance and original taste profile while delivering stable, long-term microbiological control.

Based on its previous project experience with Laoshan Mineral Water, 4R was selected as the process-solution provider and engineering implementation partner.

The source water for this project is deep-well groundwater. During process design, the client made a clear decision not to use ozone as the final microbiological control method for finished water.

This decision was driven by two key considerations.

1. Reducing Bromate-Formation Risk

The source water contains a relatively higher bromide level. Under certain water-quality conditions, ozone may react with bromide and create a potential bromate-formation risk.

To avoid adding this control pressure to finished water, the project did not adopt a conventional finished-water ozone treatment route.

2. Preserving the Natural Character of the Mineral Water

The client positioned the product as premium natural mineral water defined by natural quality, mineral balance, and authentic source-water taste.

The process philosophy therefore referenced principles commonly associated with European natural mineral water regulation and premium mineral water production practice:

• Protect the source from contamination;
• Preserve the characteristic composition of the water;
• Avoid using terminal treatment as a substitute for source protection and hygienic system design;
• Control microbiological risk through multiple barriers rather than a single treatment method;
• Maintain sanitary conditions across tanks, pipelines, and critical process points.

For this project, 4R designed an integrated process route based on:

Importantly, ozonated water is used for sanitation of storage and buffer tanks, not as a final microbiological treatment for the finished product.

The complete project included five key systems:

1. Source-water abstraction and protection system;
2. 12 m³/h finished-water treatment system;
3. Pre-filling microbiological control system;
4. High-frequency ozonated-water sanitation system for storage and buffer tanks;
5. CIP cleaning and enhanced sanitation system.

The engineering concept was not based on relying on one sterilization device or one filtration stage.

Instead, the system creates a continuous microbiological-control chain:

For a natural mineral water plant, the wellhead is not simply the beginning of the water-supply line. It is the first critical control point in the entire product-quality system.

The source-water protection system included:

• Fully enclosed sanitary wellhead;
• Wellhead cleaning circuit;
• Bacteria-retentive vent filter;
• Online monitoring for flow, conductivity, pH, and other basic water-quality indicators;
• Reinstalled deep-well transfer piping;
• Deep-well water-level monitoring;
• Variable-frequency drive control for the deep-well pump.

The enclosed sanitary wellhead and bacteria-retentive vent filtration help reduce the risk of airborne particles, dust, insects, and other environmental contaminants entering the source-water system.

Continuous monitoring of water level, flow, conductivity, and pH gives the plant operating visibility over source-water conditions and supports stable downstream process operation.

Variable-frequency control of the well pump helps match source-water supply with the operating rhythm of the downstream treatment system while reducing unnecessary hydraulic shocks during start-up.

Design Capacity: 12 m³/h

The finished-water treatment process was designed to preserve the character of natural mineral water while reducing microbiological and particulate risk.

The main treatment stages include:

• Multimedia filtration;
• Cartridge filtration;
• Spiral-wound ultrafiltration system.

The multimedia filter reduces suspended solids, particulate matter, and colloidal load in the source water, creating more stable feed conditions for the downstream filtration stages.

The cartridge filter acts as a protection stage before ultrafiltration, capturing finer particles and helping reduce membrane fouling risk.

The spiral-wound ultrafiltration system is the core treatment unit for finished-water preparation. It is designed to reduce microbiological risk, colloids, fine suspended matter, and selected macromolecular contaminants while retaining the dissolved minerals and natural taste profile that give the source water its product value.

Compared with reverse osmosis, which is commonly applied when deep desalination is required, ultrafiltration is more consistent with this project’s objective: preserve the defining characteristics of natural mineral water while building reliable hygienic control into the production process.

UV Disinfection Plus Absolute-Rated Bacteria-Retentive Microfiltration

Because ozone is not used as the final microbiological control method for finished water, the pre-filling stage becomes a critical control point.

4R configured a two-stage microbiological barrier:

• UV disinfection unit;
• Bacteria-retentive absolute-rated microfiltration unit.

The UV unit reduces microbiological load before final filtration.

The absolute-rated microfiltration stage serves as the final physical barrier before the filling system, helping control the risk of microorganisms and fine particles entering the product-water path.

This process does not depend on ozone residual in finished water for microbiological stability. Instead, it combines source protection, ultrafiltration, UV disinfection, final bacteria-retentive filtration, sanitary tank design, and hygienic piping to create a multi-barrier microbiological-control system.

Balancing Microbiological Control, Operating Efficiency, and Long-Term Cost

The project includes three 50-ton source-water storage tanks and multiple buffer tanks within the water-treatment system.

These tanks and buffer units are among the process points where microbiological risks can accumulate if sanitation is not managed consistently.

Relying only on frequent hot CIP sanitation or chemical cleaning would be operationally expensive and inefficient.

Hot sanitation requires significant steam or thermal energy. Chemical sanitation requires substantial rinsing with finished water to confirm that no chemical residues remain in tanks, pipelines, or related process components.

To address this operational challenge, 4R designed a high-frequency, high-concentration ozonated-water sanitation system for:

• Three 50-ton source-water storage tanks;
• Water-treatment buffer tanks;
• Associated sanitation loops and related tank connections.

The ozonated-water system is not used for finished-water disinfection. Its role is daily or routine hygienic maintenance of tanks, buffer vessels, and associated circulation loops.

By using high-concentration ozonated water for frequent sanitation, the plant can reduce the risk of microbiological accumulation in these critical storage points without repeatedly interrupting production for energy-intensive or chemical-intensive cleaning cycles.

Key Operational Benefits

• Lower steam and thermal-energy consumption;
• Reduced chemical usage and chemical-management workload;
• Lower finished-water demand for post-chemical rinsing;
• Shorter sanitation-to-production recovery time;
• More practical routine hygiene maintenance for tanks and buffer units;
• Better balance between microbiological control performance and long-term operating cost.

This sanitation logic was particularly valued by the client because it provides a practical balance between hygiene assurance, operating efficiency, and production economics.

High-frequency ozonated-water sanitation does not replace CIP. The two systems work together as a tiered sanitation-management strategy.

The project includes a complete CIP and enhanced-cleaning system comprising:

• Reverse osmosis system for CIP make-up water;
• Complete CIP skid and circulation system;
• Steam generation and supply unit;
• Tubular heat exchanger;
• Temperature-control system;
• CIP supply, return, circulation, and sanitation loops.

The reverse osmosis system provides more stable water for CIP preparation, reducing the effect of raw-water variation on cleaning consistency.

The CIP system is used for standardized intensified cleaning and disinfection of tanks, pipelines, and critical process units when required.

During normal operation, tanks and buffer vessels are maintained through high-frequency ozonated-water sanitation. When monitoring data, microbiological testing, sanitation verification, or plant operating conditions indicate the need for deeper intervention, the plant can initiate hot CIP cleaning or chemical CIP cleaning.

This operating model can be summarized as:

It avoids over-reliance on thermal energy or chemicals while preserving the ability to carry out deeper sanitation when necessary.

The system was commissioned in 2022 and has operated steadily since start-up.

The finished-water treatment system has maintained stable operation, and microbiological control has remained consistently effective.

This project demonstrates several key 4R engineering principles for natural mineral water treatment systems:

• Start microbiological risk control at the source-water stage;
• Reduce secondary-contamination risk through sanitary equipment and piping design;
• Build multiple microbiological barriers instead of relying on a single treatment device;
• Combine ultrafiltration, UV disinfection, absolute-rated microfiltration, and tank sanitation into one integrated control strategy;
• Use routine ozonated-water sanitation and condition-triggered CIP cleaning to balance hygiene performance, operating efficiency, and long-term cost;
• Preserve the mineral characteristics, sensory profile, and commercial value of natural mineral water wherever possible.

A reliable natural mineral water treatment system is not simply a combination of filters, membranes, UV units, and disinfection equipment.

Long-term stability depends on how all elements work together:

• Source-water protection;
• Treatment-process selection;
• Tank turnover and sanitation logic;
• Hygienic piping design;
• Final microbiological barriers before filling;
• CIP validation;
• Online monitoring;
• Automation interlocks;
• Manufacturing quality;
• Site installation and commissioning quality.

For this project, 4R delivered a complete process-engineering solution that included:

• Deep-well source-water protection;
• Gentle spiral-wound ultrafiltration treatment;
• Non-ozone finished-water microbiological control;
• High-frequency ozonated-water sanitation for storage and buffer tanks;
• CIP-based intensified sanitation capability;
• Sanitary design, fabrication, installation, and commissioning across the full water path.

The project demonstrates that natural mineral water producers can build stable and reliable microbiological control without using ozone as the final treatment method for finished water—provided that source protection, treatment design, final barriers, tank sanitation, CIP reinforcement, monitoring, and site execution are engineered as one complete system.