Membrane distillation: Solar and waste heat driven demonstration plants for desalination

The development of small to medium size, autonomous and robust desalination units is needed to establish an independent water supply in remote areas. This is the motivation for research on alternative desalination processes. Membrane distillation (MD) seems to meet the specific requirements very well. This work is focused on experimental studies on full scale demonstration systems, utilizing a parallel multi MD-module setup. Three different plant concepts are introduced, one of them is waste heat driven and two of them are powered by solar thermal collectors. Design parameters and system design are presented. After the analysis of plant operation a comparison among the plants as well as a comparison with laboratory experiments is carried out and discussed. Impact of different feed flow rates, salinities, operating hours and process temperatures are taken into consideration and put into relation. GOR values and specific thermal heat demand are derived and compared. Energy balances of all three plants are given, uncovering heat losses and identifying room for improvemen

Economic Benefits of Waste Pickling Solution Valorization

An integrated hybrid membrane process, composed of a diffusion dialysis (DD), a membrane distillation (MD) and a reactive precipitation unit (CSTR), is proposed as a promising solution for the valorization and onsite recycling of pickling waste streams. An economic analysis was performed aiming to demonstrate the feasibility of the developed process with a NPV of about EUR 40,000 and a DPBP of 4 years. The investment and operating costs, as well as the avoided costs and the benefits for the company operating the plant, were analyzed with an extensive cost tracking exercise and through face-to-face contact with manufacturers and sector leaders. A mathematical model was implemented using the gPROMS modelling platform. It is able to simulate steady state operations and run optimization analysis of the process performance. The impact of key operating and design parameters, such as the set-point bath concentration and the DD and MD membrane areas, respectively, was investigated and the optimal arrangement was identified. Finally, operating variables and design parameters were optimized simultaneously in a nonlinear framework as a tradeoff between profitability and environmental impact. We show how the integration of new technologies into the traditional pickling industry could provide a significant benefit for the issues of process sustainability, which are currently pressing

Characterization and Assessment of a Novel Plate and Frame MD Module for Single Pass Wastewater Concentration−FEED Gap Air Gap Membrane Distillation

Membrane distillation (MD) is an up and coming technology for concentration and separation on the verge of reaching commercialization. One of the remaining boundaries is the lack of available full-scale MD modules and systems suitable to meet the requirements of potential industrial applications. In this work a new type of feed gap air gap MD (FGAGMD) plate and frame module is introduced, designed and characterized with tap water and NaCl–H2O solution. The main feature of the new channel configuration is the separation of the heating and cooling channel from the feed channel, enabling a very high recovery ratio in a single pass. Key performance indicators (KPIs) such as flux, gained output ratio (GOR), recovery ratio and thermal efficiency are used to analyze the performance of the novel module concept within this work. A recovery rate of 93% was reached with tap water and between 32–53% with salt solutions ranging between 117 and 214 g NaCl/kg solution with this particular prototype module. Other than recovery ratio, the KPIs of the FGAGMD are similar to those of an air gap membrane distillation (AGMD) channel configuration. From the experimental results, furthermore, a new MD KPI was defined as the ratio of heating and cooling flow to feed flow. This RF ratio can be used for optimization of the module design and efficiency.BMBF, 02WAV1406E, WavE - Verbundprojekt HighCon: Konzentrate aus der Abwasserwiederverwendung, Teilprojekt

Economic Benefits of Waste Pickling Solution Valorization

An integrated hybrid membrane process, composed of a diffusion dialysis (DD), a membrane distillation (MD) and a reactive precipitation unit (CSTR), is proposed as a promising solution for the valorization and onsite recycling of pickling waste streams. An economic analysis was performed aiming to demonstrate the feasibility of the developed process with a NPV of about EUR 40,000 and a DPBP of 4 years. The investment and operating costs, as well as the avoided costs and the benefits for the company operating the plant, were analyzed with an extensive cost tracking exercise and through face-to-face contact with manufacturers and sector leaders. A mathematical model was implemented using the gPROMS modelling platform. It is able to simulate steady state operations and run optimization analysis of the process performance. The impact of key operating and design parameters, such as the set-point bath concentration and the DD and MD membrane areas, respectively, was investigated and the optimal arrangement was identified. Finally, operating variables and design parameters were optimized simultaneously in a nonlinear framework as a tradeoff between profitability and environmental impact. We show how the integration of new technologies into the traditional pickling industry could provide a significant benefit for the issues of process sustainability, which are currently pressing

Selective Silica Removal in Geothermal Fluids : Implications for Applications for Geothermal Power Plant Operation and Mineral Extraction

Raw material extraction from geothermal fluids often comprises concentrating and cooling steps, which increases the risk of silica scaling formation. However, existing silica removal strategies do not consider the impact on raw material extraction. In this study, the applicability and element-selectivity of three silica removal techniques (seed-induced, lime and caustic precipitation) were tested in batch experiments using synthetic and natural geothermal fluid samples. Increasing the pH-value to 10.5 and the Ca/Si ratio > 1.25 was found to mitigate silica scaling effectively via formation of calcium-silicate-hydrate phases (C-S-H phases). The developed silica removal process does not affect the raw materials and is therefore suitable for brine mining purposes

Brines from industrial water recycling: New ways to resource recovery

Stricter environmental regulation policies and freshwater as an increasingly valuable resource have led to global growth of zero liquid discharge (ZLD) processes in recent years. During this development, in addition to water, the recovery of recyclable materials, e.g. salts, from industrial wastewater and brines is considered more frequently. Within the framework of the HighCon research project, the subject of this study, a new ZLD process with the goal of pure single-salt recovery from industrial wastewater has been developed and investigated in a demonstrational setup at an industrial site. With regard to pure salts recovery, separating organic components is of great importance during the treatment of the concentrate arising from used water recycling. The removal of COD and of ions responsible for scaling worked very well using nanofiltration. The nanofiltration permeate containing the monovalent ions was pre-concentrated using electrodialysis and membrane distillation before selective crystallization for single-salt recovery was performed. An example economic case study for the newly developed ZLD process - based on demonstration results and considering optimization measures for a full-scale design - indicates that the costs are equal to those of a conventional ZLD process, which, however, does not provide inter alia the aforementioned benefit of single-salt recovery

AN INTEGRATED APPROACH FOR THE HCl AND METALS RECOVERY FROM WASTE PICKLING SOLUTIONS: PILOT PLANT DESIGN AND OPERATIONS

Pickling is one of the key steps in the hot-dip galvanizing process, where HCl solutions are largely used to remove metal oxides from metallic surfaces, thus generating spent waste liquors containing high concentrations of metals and acid. Disposal of the industrial pickling waste dramatically affects the hot-dip galvanizing industry economics and environmental footprint. Thus, reducing strong acid waste disposal is one of the most beneficial steps to enhance the process sustainability. Moreover, the continuous regeneration of pickling solutions enhances pickling rate and process performance, also minimizing industrial wastewater disposal and chemicals consumption promoting the circular use of such raw materials. In this work we propose the recovery and recycling process of valuable substances (e.g. acid, metals and aqueous streams) from pickling solutions by coupling two innovative cutting-edge membrane technologies: diffusion dialysis (DD) and membrane distillation (MD). A pilot-scale unit was designed and build following extensive experimental and simulative campaigns carried out the ReWaCEM project. The Demo system consists of a DD module, where HCl is recovered from the waste pickling acid solution, a MD module, where the recovered HCl is concentrated, and a reactive precipitation section, where Fe ions, exiting with the metals-rich retentate brine from the diffusion dialysis, is recovered as iron hydroxide. In this latter stage, also an ammonium hydroxide/zinc chloride solution is produced, to be reused in the fluxing bath of the hot-dip galvanizing plant. The fully-automatized pilot unit is able to operate in continuous, guaranteeing the operation at the optimal pickling conditions in terms of HCl and Fe concentration. Moreover, the use of waste heat (for MD operation) further contributes to enhance process sustainability. The main results of the on-site pilot plant operation are presented. Several experiments were carried out to assess the system operability and the feasibility of fully reducing spent pickling solution disposal and recovering valuable materials. Results have shown that high recovery of acid (80%) can be achieved in the Diffusion Dialysis unit since the presence of iron ions in solution further increases acid recovery, although significant Zn leakage occurs through the membrane. On the other side, the performance of MD is good when operating in the lower range of metals concentration, while it suffers when metal salts are present in large quantities (due to poorer rejection in the DD unit) due to the lower water vapor pressure. On the basis of this first pilot campaign an optimized configuration for the system has been developed and will be tested in the next months

An integrated approach for HCl and metals recovery from waste pickling solutions: pilot plant design and operations

Continuous regeneration of industrial pickling solutions and recovery of valuable materials are implemented in a pilot-scale plant including diffusion dialysis, membrane distillation and reactive precipitation units. The main results of the preliminary assessment of on site operation are presented. Different hydrochloric acid concentration and metals composition were investigated and the performance of the system were analysed in terms of quality of recovered compounds, energy efficiency and environmental footprint