Chloride Treatment using Hollow Fiber Supported Liquid MembranesEUROPEAN PROJECT SEMESTER 2013

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The Team

Tobias Slusarek, Germany

Markus Hofmeister, Germany

Rafal Madaj, Poland

William Strömbäck, Finland

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“

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Develop an alternative desalination technique for the Abrera drinking water treatment plant.

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Explore the working principle

Up-scale it to industrial use

Compare the technique to conventional ones

competitivetechnology

eco-nomics

Chem-istry

Table of Contents

I. Water ShortageII. The need for an alternative techniqueIII. Hollow Fiber Supported Liquid Membranes

I. Working principleII. Experimental part and results

IV. Up-scaling to industrial useV. PerspectivesVI. Conclusions

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Water Shortage – The General Problem

The demand for fresh water constantly increases

More than 1.3 billion people are suffering from water shortage

The main cause is the growing world’s population

Three basic approaches to solve the problem

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I. Water ShoI. Water Sho

http://wewastetime.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/agbardesert.jpg

Salinity

Content of dissolved salts

Maximum chloride concentration set by the EU is 250 mg/l (98/83/EC)

Exceeding this limit would cause a bad taste and a higher corrosion rate

El Llobregat has a chloride concentration between 300mg/l and 500mg/l

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I. Water Sho

0

100

200

300

400

500[Cl-], mg/l

Chloride contamination

EU standard El Llobregat

The need for an alternative technique

Reverse osmosis Electrodialysis reversal

Driving force

Pressure Electric potential gradient

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Hollow Fiber Supported Liquid Membranes as an energy-saving

alternativeII. The need for an alternative tech

High energy consumption

Hollow Fiber Supported Liquid Membranes

Hollow fiber Supported liquid membranes

Pores filled with an organic liquid containing carrier molecules (Aliquat® 336)

Barrier between two aqueousphases

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III. Hollow Fiber Supported Liquid Membhttp://www.pall.com/images/Graphic-Arts/crossflow_filtration_figure9.jpg

Transport process

Heat transfer

Extraction

Diffusion

Stripping

chloride ions transfer

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III. Hollow Fiber Supported Liquid Memb

• Determination of the equilibrium constant

• Aliquat® 336 preparation

• Determination of the equilibrium constant

• Aliquat® 336 preparation

Aliquat® 336washing

• First impression of the technique

• Determination of the diffusional transport constant

• First impression of the technique

• Determination of the diffusional transport constant

Flat sheetmembranes • Desired continuous

process

• More complex

• Desired continuous process

• More complex

Hollow fibers

Investigation strategy 10

III. Hollow Fiber Supported Liquid Memb

Experimental set-up

[Cl-] initial ≈ 600 mg/L

Vfeed >> Vstripping

Chloride evolutionmeasured

Different Aliquat® 336 concentrations

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III. Hollow Fiber Supported Liquid Memb

Results of the HFSLM - experiment 12

III. Hollow Fiber Supported Liquid Memb

EU standard

Achievements

Effectiveness proved

Determination of mostefficient operatingconditions

Very general MATLAB model for up-scaling

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III. Hollow Fiber Supported Liquid Memb

Up-scaling process 14

IV. Up-scaling to industr

Agència Catalana de l' Aigua. Planta dessalinitzadora de la conca del Llobregat. Generalitat de Catalunya, 2009.

Current treatment steps

Pretreatment Desalination

Electrodialysis Reversal (8 Modules) Splitted flow

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IV. Up-scaling to industr

Technologies, GE Power & Water - Water & Process. Trihalomethanes (THM) Precursor Reduction of Surface Water by EDR Technology: Abrera Drinking Water Treatment Plant, Barcelona Spain. General Electric Company, 2010.

Possible replacement

by HFSLM

Technical questions

Split the flow or treat all 4m3/s ? Concurrent or countercurrent flow? What are best flow conditions? What concentration of bicarbonate should be used?

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IV. Up-scaling to industr

Concurrent flow Countercurrent flow

Economic aspects

Number of modules Pumping system Bicarbonate concentration

The price we pay is not a production price!

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IV. Up-scaling to industr

Results

35556 modules

arranged paralelly

treating 4m3/s incountercurrent flow

Subject PriceModules 534 mil €

Electricity per year 600 000 €Sodium bicarbonate

for 1st year 30.5 mil €

Sodium bicarbonate for next year 3.9 mil €

Cleaning costs for 1m³ of stripping phase 0.058 €

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IV. Up-scaling to industr

Comparison with competitive techniques

0,139 €

0,059 €

0,020 €

0,000 €

0,020 €

0,040 €

0,060 €

0,080 €

0,100 €

0,120 €

0,140 €

0,160 €

RO EDR HFSLM

Electricity costs to produce 1m3 of clean water

0,270 €

0,230 €

0,263 €

0,000 €

0,050 €

0,100 €

0,150 €

0,200 €

0,250 €

0,300 €

RO EDR HFSLM

Overall costs of producing 1m3 of clean water

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IV. Up-scaling to industr

Summary

Lower electricity andmaintenance costs

Better quality of water due to bicarbonate addition

High equipment purchase costs

Cost efficient only downto 200 ppm of [Cl-]

Requires additional support from competitive technique

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IV. Up-scaling to industr

Improvement potential

Economy of scale

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V. Perspe

0,00

0,05

0,10

0,15

0,20

0,25

0,30

RO EDR HFSLM

Estimated costs for 1m³ of cleaned water

Improvement potential

Developing special membranes for desalination

Investigations on other counter ions

Technique almost unexplored

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V. Perspe

Further investigations

Up-scale or down-scale Clean only drinking water

Explore the functionality for higher chlorideconcentrations New markets like China or India

Long-term study about Aliquat® 336 side effects

Aliquat® 336 is really harmful for all kinds of living organisms

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V. Perspe

Conclusions

The Hollow Fiber Supported Liquid Membrane technique

works

Competitive to other techniques

The energy consumption is even less sustainable!

It is possible to use this technique without electricity

The implementation costs have to be reduced

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VI. Conc

Thank you for your attention.

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