Mineral Recovery Enhanced Desalination (MRED) process: An innovative technology for desalinating hard brackish water

Thomson, Bruce M.; Tandukar, Sugam; Shahi, Ayush; Lee, Carson Odell; Howe, Kerry J.

doi:10.1016/j.desal.2020.114761

Mineral Recovery Enhanced Desalination (MRED) process: An innovative technology for desalinating hard brackish water

Journal Article · Fri Sep 25 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Desalination

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2020.114761· OSTI ID:1849240

Thomson, Bruce M. ^[1]; Tandukar, Sugam ^[2]; Shahi, Ayush ^[3]; Lee, Carson Odell ^[4]; Howe, Kerry J. ^[4]

Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States). Dept. of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering; Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Wood Technical Consulting Solutions, Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States). Dept. of Environmental and Architectural Engineering
Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States). Dept. of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering

Desalination of water containing high concentrations of calcium, dissolved carbon dioxide, sulfate, silica and other sparingly soluble salts is difficult because of the scaling potential. An innovative pre-treatment scheme was investigated at bench scale that selectively removes these constituents and produces a soft water to enable desalination with high feed water recovery. The process first removes dissolved carbon dioxide by air stripping at low pH. Magnesium is removed by precipitation at high pH. Calcium is removed by ion exchange (IX), and sulfate is removed by nanofiltration (NF). Cation regenerant from IX, containing calcium, and concentrate from NF, containing sulfate, is combined to precipitate gypsum. Concentrate from the desalination process consisting of a concentrated NaCl solution is used to regenerate the IX resins. The selective precipitation, IX, and NF processes were tested in laboratory experiments and produced magnesium hydroxide and gypsum at greater than 90% and 95% purity respectively. A process model was developed to calculate process performance, mass and liquid flow rates. Finally, the MRED process offers the following benefits: 1) greater recovery of brackish feedwater by a desalination process, 2) recovery of marketable commodities and 3) reduction in the volume and mass of waste products from the treatment process.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE)

Grant/Contract Number:: FE0030584

OSTI ID:: 1849240

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1665903

Journal Information:: Desalination, Journal Name: Desalination Journal Issue: C Vol. 496; ISSN 0011-9164

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Engineering
Water resources
brackish water desalination
pretreatment
scale forming potential
selective precipitation

Mineral Recovery Enhanced Desalination (MRED) process: An innovative technology for desalinating hard brackish water

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