Complex manufacturing wastewater treated by ultra-high pressure reverse osmosis as Saltworks’ Advanced Membrane Plant goes intercontinental
Saltworks Technologies’ ultra-high recovery membrane pilot has successfully completed another tour of duty. After arriving in South East Asia earlier this year, the plant operated continuously around-the-clock for 90 days, achieving 98% water recovery from a complex, mixed industrial wastewater with high organics and variable water chemistry, the company reported.
The advanced pilot plant crossed the Pacific Ocean with a quick turnaround after its cooling tower blowdown trial at an agri-chem facility – for which Saltworks has been designing and building a full-scale, permanent installation.
The Saltworks pilot team operated the plant both on-site and remotely despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Nitto Hydranautics PRO-XP1 membranes were once again employed, alongside Saltworks’ advanced process technologies – including BrineRefine, XtremeUF, ScaleSense and XtremeRO – that enabled the membranes to perform.
The system treated variable water quality originating from multiple streams, consistently achieving 98% recovery and concentrating a sodium sulfate-rich brine to over 200,000mg/L total dissolved solids (TDS). The 2% brine volume is small enough such that direct solidification becomes viable, avoiding the need for an energy intensive evaporator-crystalliser.
As the need for ultra-high recovery industrial water recycling grows, Saltworks’ production facility has been bustling with full-scale build-outs of XtremeUF, XtremeRO, FlexEDR, and SaltMaker plants. End-user industries include range from microelectronics to brackish water desalination, lithium refining, and oil and gas processing.
