Search results for "6. Clean water"
showing 10 items of 418 documents
Techno-economic assessment of multi-effect distillation process for the treatment and recycling of ion exchange resin spent brines
2019
Abstract A treatment chain including nanofiltration, crystallization and multi-effect distillation (MED) is for the first time proposed for the treatment of an effluent produced during the regeneration of Ion Exchange resins employed for water softening. The goal is to recover the minerals and to restore the regenerant solution to be reused in the next regeneration cycle. MED is the most crucial unit of the treatment chain from an economic point of view. A techno-economic analysis on the MED unit was performed and a novel performance indicator, named Levelized Brine Cost, was introduced as a measure of the economic feasibility of the process. Different scenarios were analysed, assuming diff…
New considerations for modelling a MED-TVC plant under dynamic conditions
2019
Abstract The multiple-effect distillation (MED) technology is nowadays the most promising desalination process to be coupled with variable heat sources, thus leading to a more sustainable way to produce water. In order to prove the potential of this, it is of major interest to develop powerful modelling tools to predict the performance of this coupling. Only a few models have been presented so far. They show promising results but were based on some simplifying assumptions and non-physical constraints that could limit the analysis of the dynamic behaviour of a MED plant. This paper presents new considerations for the dynamic modelling of a MED plant associated with a thermal vapour compressi…
Modelling and cost analysis of hybrid systems for seawater desalination: Electromembrane pre-treatments for Reverse Osmosis
2019
Abstract The need to reduce energy consumption in seawater Reverse Osmosis (RO) process has pushed research towards the development of new hybrid systems in which, for example, other membrane processes can be used to pre-treat seawater. Electrodialysis (ED) and Reverse Electrodialysis (RED) can act as a pre-desalting step before seawater enters the RO unit, thus leading to an important energy saving in RO. In this work, two coupled models are proposed for the RED-RO and ED-RO systems. Each process model was validated. Then a sensitivity analysis was performed to assess the effect of the integration on the overall process cost saving. The analysis was performed by changing ED or RED voltage …
Diffusion Dialysis for Separation of Hydrochloric Acid, Iron and Zinc Ions from Highly Concentrated Pickling Solutions
2020
Acid recovery from pickling waste solutions is an important step to enhance hot-dip-galvanizing industry process sustainability. Diffusion dialysis (DD) can be used to separate acids and heavy metals (e.g., iron and zinc) from pickling waters, promoting the circular use of such raw materials. In the present study, a laboratory scale unit operating in batch and a continuous large scale unit, both equipped with Fumasep anionic exchange membranes, were tested. Results obtained show that zinc and iron concentration affect the HCl recovery in opposite ways. Iron chlorides enhance acid recovery, while zinc chlorides considerably tend to diffuse through the membrane because of negatively charged c…
A pilot-plant for the selective recovery of magnesium and calcium from waste brines
2021
Abstract The problem of brines disposal has raised great interest towards new strategies for their valorisation through the recovery of minerals or energy. As an example, the spent brine from ion exchange resins regeneration is often discharged into rivers or lakes, thus impacting on the process sustainability. However, such brines can be effectively reconcentrated, after removal of bivalent cations, and reused for the resins regeneration. This work focuses on developing and testing a pilot plant for selective recovery of magnesium and calcium from spent brines exploiting a novel proprietary crystallization unit. This is part of a larger treatment chain for the complete regeneration of the …
Ionic shortcut currents via manifolds in reverse electrodialysis stacks
2020
Abstract Reverse electrodialysis (RED) is a blue energy technology for clean and sustainable electricity harvesting from the mixing entropy of salinity gradients. Recently, many efforts have been devoted to improving the performance of RED units by developing new ion-exchange membranes and by reducing the detrimental phenomena affecting the process. Among these sources of “irreversibility”, the shortcut currents (or parasitic currents) flowing through alternative pathways may affect the process efficiency. Although such phenomena occur in several electrochemical processes (e.g. fuel cells, bipolar plate cells and vanadium redox flow batteries), they have received a poor attention in RED uni…
CFD Investigation of Spacer-Filled Channels for Membrane Distillation
2019
The membrane distillation (MD) process for water desalination is affected by temperature polarization, which reduces the driving force and the efficiency of the process. To counteract this phenomenon, spacer-filled channels are used, which enhance mixing and heat transfer but also cause higher pressure drops. Therefore, in the design of MD modules, the choice of the spacer is crucial for process efficiency. In the present work, different overlapped spacers are investigated by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and results are compared with experiments carried out with thermochromic liquid crystals (TLC). Results are reported for different flow attack angles and for Reynolds numbers (Re) ran…
Electrodialysis for water desalination: A critical assessment of recent developments on process fundamentals, models and applications
2018
Abstract The need for unconventional sources of fresh water is pushing a fast development of desalination technologies, which proved to be able to face and solve the problem of water scarcity in many dry areas of the planet. Membrane desalination technologies are nowadays leading the market and, among these, electrodialysis (ED) plays an important role, especially for brackish water desalination, thanks to its robustness, extreme flexibility and broad range of applications. In fact, many ED-related processes have been presented, based on the use of Ion Exchange Membranes (IEMs), which are significantly boosting the development of ED-related technologies. This paper presents the fundamentals…
Design of a novel membrane-integrated waste acid recovery process from pickling solution
2019
Abstract Hydrochloric acid pickling is a common practice in steel manufacturing industry. During the process, acid is consumed to dissolve surface oxides and metals ions are accumulated in the solution, which becomes less effective with time. In addition, the costly and risky waste acid disposal is another issue affecting the hot-dip galvanizing industry. In this work, a novel sustainable waste acid recovery process from pickling solutions based on circular approach is proposed to tackle these issues. The innovative system allows (i) the continuous regeneration of pickling solutions to enhance process rate and performance and (ii) minimise the highly expensive and environmentally risky wast…
CFD modelling of profiled-membrane channels for reverse electrodialysis
2014
Abstract: Reverse electrodialysis (RE) is a promising technology for electric power generation from controlled mixing of two differently concentrated salt solutions, where ion-exchange membranes are adopted for the generation of ionic currents within the system. Channel geometry strongly influences fluid flow and thus crucial phenomena such as pressure drop and concentration polarization. Profiled membranes are an alternative to the more commonly adopted net spacers and offer a number of advantages: avoiding the use of non-conductive and relatively expensive materials, reducing hydraulic losses and increasing the active membrane area. In this work, Computational Fluid Dynamic simulations we…