Valorisation of SWRO brines in a remote island through a circular approach: Techno-economic analysis and perspectives

Nowadays, small remote islands rely heavily on desalination technologies to overcome freshwater scarcity. Unfortunately, these technologies are accompanied by the production of brines which can affect the receiving water bodies i.e., the aquatic ecosystem. Yet, it is extremely appealing how such brines constitute an abundant source of valuable raw materials (such as magnesium). In this work, a novel hybrid system is introduced to capture the value of seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) brines produced in the minor Sicilian island of Pantelleria. The “Minimal Liquid Discharge” (MLD) process consists of: (i) Nanofiltration NF (separation of bivalent from monovalent ions), (ii) Mg Reactive Crystal…

Improving efficiency and discharge power of acid-base flow battery via a bi-objective optimisation

High purity recovery of magnesium and calcium hydroxides from waste brines

Direct disposal of concentrate brines, generated by many industrial sectors, causes serious environmental concerns. An industrial sector that produces high concentrate brines is softening water industry, in particular during the regeneration of ion exchange resins. These brines are mainly rich in sodium, magnesium and calcium chlorides, thus, their regeneration, by removal/recovery of magnesium and calcium, can be a valuable option to turn the brine into a source of minerals and reduce disposal costs and environmental concerns. In this regards, one of the goals of EU-funded ZERO BRINE project is to develop a treatment chain for the valorization and regeneration of spent brines from water so…

A porous media CFD model for the simulation of hemodialysis in hollow fiber membrane modules

A computational model was developed to predict the performance of hollow fiber membrane hemodialyzers. Blood and dialysate were modelled as fluids flowing through two interpenetrating porous media. Concerning hydrodynamics, experimental Darcy permeabilities measured for commercial hemodialyzers were used for both compartments. Concerning mass transfer, both diffusion and ultrafiltration were simulated. On the blood side theoretical Sherwood numbers for parallel flow in pipes were adopted. On the dialysate side Sherwood numbers were derived from CFD predictions for regular hexagonal fiber bundles. Solute concentrations on the two sides were alternatively computed in an iterative way and were…

Reverse electrodialysis – Multi effect distillation heat engine fed by lithium chloride solutions

Salinity Gradient Heat Engines (SG-HEs) have been proposed as a promising technology for converting low-temperature heat into electricity. The SG-HE includes two different processes: (i) a salinity gradient process where the salinity gradient between two solutions is converted into electricity and (ii) a thermal regeneration process where low-grade heat (T<100°C) is used to re-establish the original salinity gradient of the two streams. Among the proposed working solutions, aqueous solution of lithium chloride has been identified as one of the most promising thanks to its remarkable solubility and activity. In this work, a process model to study the performance of a SG-HE constituted by …

Experimental assessment of the mixing quality in a circular cross-sectional t-shaped mixer for the precipitation of sparingly soluble compounds

Precipitation processes have been successfully proved to be a feasible route to extract high-value products from wastes. However, reactive crystallization is characterized by fast kinetics, especially when highly concentrated solutions are used or sparingly soluble compounds precipitate, thus requiring a fast mixing of the reactants. In this context, T-shaped mixers have been extensively investigated both experimentally and numerically as a mean to achieve a rapid reactants homogenization. Many research efforts have been focused on the analysis of rectangular cross-sectional T-shaped mixers, while less attention has been devoted to the study of circular cross-sectional ones. In the present …

Magnesium Hydroxide Nanoparticles Production from Natural Bitterns

Magnesium hydroxide nanoparticles are widely employed in numerous industrial applications. Several preparation methods have been proposed using mainly synthetic Mg2+ containing solutions. In the present work, the possibility of producing Mg(OH)2 nanoparticles from real bitterns, the by-product of sea salt production, is investigated. Bitterns are highly concentrated Mg2+ containing solutions whose exploitation can turn a waste into valuable products embracing the circular economy idea. Two bitterns collected from Galia and Margi saltworks of the district of Trapani (Italy) were studied. Galia and Margi bitterns had a 1 M and 2.5 M Mg2+ concentration, respectively. A 2 mm diameter circular-c…

Valorization of saltwork brines for the production of acid and base using electrodialysis with bipolar membranes

Valorization of brines, usually considered as wastes, has become an alternative to extract critical and valuable raw materials, but also for energy recovery and generation of reactants. Within this context, the H2020 SEArcularMINE project aims to recover from saltwork brines Mg(II), Li(I) and some trace elements (B(III), Co(II) and Sr(II), among others), all of them listed as critical raw materials by the European Union [1]. Due to the fact that the technologies devoted to the recovery of the above mentioned elements require acid and bases, the SEArcularMINE project aims to produce them in-situ (HCl and NaOH) from exhausted brines (free of Mg(II) and Ca(II)) using Electrodialysis with Bipol…