Industrial Process Water Research Articles

A contribution to understanding ion-exchange mechanisms for lithium recovery from industrial effluents of lithium-ion battery recycling operations

Industrial effluents or process waters generated from spent lithium-ion battery recycling operations often contain high concentrations of lithium ions (Li+). This study characterizes the composition of process water obtained from pre-treatment and concentration operations of LIBs recycling. Ion-exchange experiments are conducted using synthetic lithium solutions (1 g/L) and industrial waters to understand Li+ recovery. Employing four commercial cationic resins, fast Li+ exchange kinetics are observed fitting the pseudo-second order model. The equilibrium isotherm data corresponds to the Langmuir adsorption model and reveals a Li capacity of 30–32 mg/g using Amberlite™ IRC 120 H, 70 mg/g using Lewatit® TP 308 H, 37–40 mg/g using Lewatit® TP 208 Na, and 37–41 mg/g using Lewatit® TP 260 Na. While the resins initially demonstrate moderate affinity for Li+, this can be significantly enhanced by increasing the Li+ concentration. Notably, as LIBs recycling operation effluents typically contain minimal competing ions, these results underscore the potential of employing ion exchange as a viable method to recover and concentrate lithium before precipitation into lithium salts.

Metal Recovery from Wastewater Using Electrodialysis Separation

Electrodialysis is classified as a membrane separation process in which ions are transferred through selective ion-exchange membranes from one solution to another using an electric field as the driving force. Electrodialysis is a mature technology in the field of brackish water desalination, but in recent decades the development of new membranes has made it possible to extend their application in the food, drug, and chemical process industries, including wastewater treatment. This work describes the state of the art in the use of electrodialysis (ED) for metal removal from water and wastewater. The fundamentals of the technique are introduced based on the working principle, operational features, and transport mechanisms of the membranes. An overview of the key factors (i.e., the membrane properties, the cell configuration, and the operational conditions) in the ED performance is presented. This review highlights the importance of studying the inter-relation of parameters affecting the transport mechanism to design and optimize metal recovery through ED. The conventional applications of ED for the desalination of brackish water and demineralization of industrial process water and wastewater are discussed to better understand the key role of this technology in the separation, concentration, and purification of aqueous effluents. The recovery and concentration of metals from industrial effluents are evaluated based on a review of the literature dealing with effluents from different sources. The most relevant results of these experimental studies highlight the key role of ED in the challenge of selective recovery of metals from aqueous effluents. This review addresses the potential application of ED not only for polluted water treatment but also as a promising tool for the recovery of critical metals to avoid natural resource depletion, promoting a circular economy.

Heterogeneous photosensitization for water reuse in cellars: evaluation of silica, spongin, and chitosan as carrier material.

Photosensitization, a powerful oxidation reaction, offers significant potential for wastewater treatment in the context of industrial process water reuse. This environmentally friendly process can be crucial in reducing water consumption and industrial pollution. The ultimate goal is to complete process water reuse, creating a closed-loop system that preserves the inherent value of water resources. The photosensitized oxidation reaction hinges on three essential components: the photosensitizer, visible light, and oxygen. In this study, we assess the performance of three distinct materials-silica, chitosan, and spongin-as carrier materials for incorporating the phthalocyanine photosensitizer (ZnPcS4) in the heterogenous photosensitization process. Among the three materials under study, chitosan emerged as the standout performer in reactor hydrodynamic performance. In the photooxidation process, the photosensitizer ZnPcS4 exhibited notable efficacy, resulting in a significant reduction of approximately 20 to 30% in the remaining COD concentration of the cellar wastewater. Chitosan demonstrated exceptional hydrodynamic characteristics and displayed a favorable response to pH adjustments within the range of 8 to 10, outperforming the other two carrier materials. To further enhance the efficiency of continuous operation, exploring methods for mitigating photosensitizer bleaching within the reaction medium and investigating the impact of different pH values on the process optimization would be prudent.

Stripped: contribution of cyanobacterial extracellular polymeric substances to the adsorption of rare earth elements from aqueous solutions.

The transformation of modern industries towards enhanced sustainability is facilitated by green technologies that rely extensively on rare earth elements (REEs) such as cerium (Ce), neodymium (Nd), terbium (Tb), and lanthanum (La). The occurrence of productive mining sites, e.g., is limited, and production is often costly and environmentally harmful. As a consequence of increased utilization, REEs enter our ecosystem as industrial process water or wastewater and become highly diluted. Once diluted, they can hardly be recovered by conventional techniques, but using cyanobacterial biomass in a biosorption-based process is a promising eco-friendly approach. Cyanobacteria can produce extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) that show high affinity to metal cations. However, the adsorption of REEs by EPS has not been part of extensive research. Thus, we evaluated the role of EPS in the biosorption of Ce, Nd, Tb, and La for three terrestrial, heterocystous cyanobacterial strains. We cultivated them under N-limited and non-limited conditions and extracted their EPS for compositional analyses. Subsequently, we investigated the metal uptake of a) the extracted EPS, b) the biomass extracted from EPS, and c) the intact biomass with EPS by comparing the amount of sorbed REEs. Maximum adsorption capacities for the tested REEs of extracted EPS were 123.9-138.2 mg g-1 for Komarekiella sp. 89.12, 133.1-137.4 mg g-1 for Desmonostoc muscorum 90.03, and 103.5-129.3 mg g-1 for Nostoc sp. 20.02. A comparison of extracted biomass with intact biomass showed that 16% (Komarekiella sp. 89.12), 28% (Desmonostoc muscorum 90.03), and 41% (Nostoc sp. 20.02) of REE adsorption was due to the biosorption of the extracellular EPS. The glucose- rich EPS (15%-43% relative concentration) of all three strains grown under nitrogen-limited conditions showed significantly higher biosorption rates for all REEs. We also found a significantly higher maximum adsorption capacity of all REEs for the extracted EPS compared to cells without EPS and untreated biomass, highlighting the important role of the EPS as a binding site for REEs in the biosorption process. EPS from cyanobacteria could thus be used as efficient biosorbents in future applications for REE recycling, e.g., industrial process water and wastewater streams.

Cr(VI) removal from fiber cement process waters: a techno-economic assessment

Accumulation of Cr(VI) in industrial fiber cement process water may compromise the product quality and cause health issues. Furthermore, it must be removed from process waters to avoid environmental risks. For this purpose, this work evaluates the potential of advanced nanocelluloses and compare it with the efficiency of conventional adsorbents. The analysis of the industrial process allowed to perform a techno-economic assessment on the long-scale implementation. Among the studied adsorbents, granular (GAC) and powdered activated carbons (PAC) and cationic cellulose nanocrystals (CCNCs) removed >99 % of Cr(VI) from real waters. CCNCs efficiency is linked to their large number of cationic groups. The CCNCs reached adsorption capacities up to 90 times higher than GAC in just 5 min by applying an order of magnitude lower dosages. The cost analysis of GAC adsorption revealed that the ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis treatment of backwashing water costed up to 9.5 US$·m−3. To minimize the generated hazardous wastes, the application of evaporation or a second UF and RO treatments reduced costs in 66 % and 71 %, respectively. The use of high-performance membranes and achieving discounts on GAC purchase, 1.6 US$·m−3 would be reached. This suggests that the CCNCs competitive price would be below 22 US$·kg−1.

Antifouling treatment enables membranes to deal with oil and grease

PPG Industries Inc, which supplies paints, coatings and speciality materials, has developed and introduced a high-performance ultrafiltration (UF) membrane and filter elements that help to improve the reuse of industrial process water.

Research of process water of a thermal power plant

The article is devoted to the study of technical water used in thermal power plants. One of the devices of thermoelectric plant are heat exchangers, heat exchangers consist of pipes of different diameters. Heat exchangers used in production plants are made of carbon steel, suitable for high temperatures (up to 565 °C). At the same time inside the heat exchangers used for a certain period of time, a scale is formed in the form of a solid sediment, which reduces the thermal efficiency of heat carriers. Therefore, in this paper, the object of research are the heat transfer fluids of industrial heat exchangers, namely feed and process water. In order to obtain feed water at industrial thermal power plants, special water treatment processes are carried out. That is, its main purpose is to prevent the formation of solid deposits in heat exchangers. The studied water samples were taken directly from the thermal power plant from different stages of water treatment, i. e. raw water entering the chemical shop, treated water entering the deaerator, feed water entering the boiler. As a result of the study, water samples related to the formation of scale on the surfaces of heat exchangers, i. e. dosed amounts, elemental composition and particles were studied. During the study, hourly, daily and monthly dosages of reagents were determined. In addition, the elemental compositions of raw water, pure water and feed water of the thermal power plant were investigated. The results of this study allow to explore ways of economical and effective descaling formed in heat exchangers

CFD analysis of Part-Load operation of an Open-Circuit Induced-Draft cooling tower

Evaporative towers are the most widely used systems for cooling water in industrial processes. These systems, however, are characterized by high energy and water consumptions. Therefore, technologies and operating strategies for optimization of these devices are highly recommended. The heat exchange, which takes place inside an evaporative tower is very complex and not easy to model. In this work, an induced-draft evaporative tower is modelled by means of computational fluid dynamics (CFD), which is relatively new in this field of application. A numerical model, based on the adoption of sub-models for the heat exchange between the water droplets and humid air in the filling region, is developed and validated with experimental data, laying the foundation for further analysis in the future. The achieved results can be considered reliable and accurate as the numerical uncertainty is approximately 4 %. The study aims at evaluating and analyzing the thermo-fluid-dynamic quantities that characterize the heat exchange, with reference to water outlet temperature, cooling capacity, and evaporated water flow rate. In particular, partial load operation are analyzed. The conditions refer to the simultaneous reduction of water and air flow rates. The study shows that both at full load operation and by reducing water and air flow rates to 60 % of the design value while maintaining a constant water/air ratio, the tower process parameters are kept very close to the design ones. Under these conditions, the evaporated water is halved (∼0.05 kg/s instead of ∼ 0.1 kg/s maintaining air flow at full load). Moreover, by adopting lower water and air flow rates a significant reduction of the electric power requested by the fan, from 15 kW at full load to about 8 kW at part load, is achieved.

Online Solid-Phase Extraction–Gas Chromatography–Flame Ionization Detection System for Monitoring Contaminants at Parts-Per-Trillion Concentrations in Process Waters

Online monitoring of odour and taste components that occur at parts-per-trillion (ppt) levels in industrial process waters requires specialized analytical hardware that is generally not compatible with the harsh environmental conditions in these typical industrial settings. An alternative instrumental method is proposed that uses dynamic extraction in combination with gas chromatography (GC) equipped with a simple flame ionization detector (FID) to achieve these extremely low detection limits. The extraction process was fully automated by means of online solid-phase extraction (SPE). The combination of online SPE and GC–FID was used to monitor the quality of process water contaminated with 2-methylisoborneol and geosmin, which are two notorious odour and taste components, in volumes up to 1 L.

Precipitation of struvite using MgSO4 solution prepared from sidestream dolomite or fly ash

Struvite (NH4MgPO4∗6H2O) is a slow-release fertilizer produced from phosphorus and nitrogen-containing wastewater in the presence of Mg salts. Commercial Mg salts are the single most significant cost of struvite precipitation. In this study, H2SO4 formed as an industrial sidestream was used to prepare MgSO4 solution from waste dolomite (DOL) and fly ash (FA). MgSO4 solution was then used to precipitate struvite from a synthetic (NH4)2HPO4 solution and from actual industrial process waters. The best results were obtained with real process waters where over 99% of phosphate and about 80% ammonium removals were achieved with both MgSO4 solutions after 30 min of reaction time. A higher molar ratio between Mg and P improved the phosphate removal efficiency, especially with DOL-based MgSO4 solutions; however, it had no practical effect on ammonium removal. The struvite content of precipitates was 75.49% with an FA-based chemical and 60.93% with a DOL-based chemical; other valuable nutrients (Ca, K, S, Fe, Mn, and Cl) were captured in the precipitates. The results indicate that both sidestream-based reagents perform well in struvite precipitation and that the formed precipitates could be used as fertilizers.

Strategies for reuse and recycling of water and effluents in pulp and paper industries

Currently, concerning to the renewable resources, the decrease in the consumption of raw materials and the research for sustainable operations have been emerging as an urgent demand in all segments of the market, emphatically including, the industry. Among the most diverse industrial segments, the pulp and paper industry is responsible for the consumption of large volumes of inputs, including water. Due to the high uptake of water from water courses and the high volume of effluent discharge, some alternatives have been investigated in order to reduce the impacts caused by this activity. Alternatives are reported for the improvement of water management and wastewater minimization aiming to an integrated way to shut down the water circuits of the production plants. For this closure step, resource management solutions are presented, such as partial water reuse, use of oxidative processes, treatments by using membranes, and enzymatic processes, which reveal techniques that can be sustainably applied to industrial processes, meeting the demands of society and fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goals, therefore preserving the environment and improving life’s quality of populations. In this context, this study aims to analyze, through a systematic review of previously established Brazilian databases, the alternatives and forms of reusing and recycling of water in industrial processes, focusing on closing circuits, with the characterization, benefits, and harms, of the actions performed by the pulp and paper industries.

GIS Mapping for Distribution of Ground Water Quality in Udaipur

Ground water supplies drinking water and important component in many industrial processes and irrigation use. Groundwater resources have been exposed to excessive risk due to overexploitation and inadequate management, making groundwater quality assessment and suitability determination vitally important. The current study has been undertaken with an aim to analyse the ground water quality for drinking by utilizing GIS mapping and graphical presentation of various chemical constituents. Water sample values were taken from ‘Ground Water Year Book 2020-21’ of Central Ground Water Board, Ministry of Jal Shakti. This study has been included 22 locations in Udaipur district with 8 water quality parameters which are Cl, SO4, NO3, Ca, Mg, F, TDS and Alkalinity. The GIS environment was used to create the Water Quality Indices maps. The findings suggest that the calcium, sulphate, and chloride hazards are not a problem. About 72.7% samples of calcium, 95.50% samples of sulphate and 86.40% samples of chlorine are within acceptable limit of BIS. In case of fluoride only 18.20% samples are within the permissible limit 1.0 – 1.5 mg/l, 68.20% are less than 1 mg/l and 13.6% are greater than 1.5 mg/l. In case of nitrate only 31.8% samples are within the permissible limit. The findings show that the ground water in the studied area requires special treatment before it can be used.

Laboratory Development of an AI System for the Real-Time Monitoring of Water Quality and Detection of Anomalies Arising from Chemical Contamination

Monitoring water quality is critical for mitigating risks to human health and the environment. It is also essential for ensuring high quality water-based and water-dependent products and services. The monitoring and detection of chemical contamination are often based around a small set of parameters or substances. Conventional monitoring often involves the collection of water samples in the field and subsequent analyses in the laboratory. Such strategies are expensive, time consuming, and focused on a narrow set of potential risks. They also induce a significant time delay between a contamination event and a possible reactive measure. Here, we developed a real-time monitoring system based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) for field deployable sensors. We used data obtained from full-scan UV-spec and fluorescence sensors for validation in this study. This multi-sensor system consists of (a) anomaly detection that uses multivariate statistical methods to detect any anomalous state in an aqueous environment and (b) anomaly identification, using Machine Learning (ML) to classify the anomaly into one of the a priori known categories. For a proof of concept, we tested this methodology on a supply of municipal drinking water and a few representative organic chemical contaminants applied in a laboratory-controlled environment. The outcomes confirm the ability for the multi-sensor system to detect and identify changes in water quality due to incidences of chemical contamination. The method may be applied to numerous other areas where water quality should be measured online and in real time, such as in surface-water, urban runoff, or food and industrial process water.

Selective flocculation and floc-flotation of iron bearing mineral slimes

The mineral processing of friable iron ores usually generates ultrafine (smaller than 15 µm) particles, normally called slimes, which usually have a high iron grade and are usually disposed into tailings dam. The traditional mineral process techniques for iron ore do not work efficiently with ultrafines; however, selective flocculation is an alternative to concentrate that fraction. The physical-chemical treatment of iron ore slime was studied here, on a bench scale, based on the scientific foundations of selective flocculation and flotation. Samples of slimes from two Brazilian iron ore processing plants (CEII and VGII) and industrial process waters were used in the tests. Complexometric titration of calcium and magnesium indicated that the process waters were adequate for selective flocculation. Only selective flocculation, even under optimum conditions, did not achieve good results. However, its use prior to flotation led to promising results. The VGII sample has stood out, for which the final concentrate achieved 60.1 % of Fe, the mass recovery was 64.5 % and 13.5 % of Fe in the tailing, resulting selectivity index of 6.58, only with one stage of selective flocculation and one stage of flotation.

Roles of Sulfites in Reverse Osmosis (RO) Plants and Adverse Effects in RO Operation.

More than 60 years have passed since UCLA first announced the development of an innovative asymmetric cellulose acetate reverse osmosis (RO) membrane in 1960. This innovation opened a gate to use RO for commercial use. RO is now ubiquitous in water treatment and has been used for various applications, including seawater desalination, municipal water treatment, wastewater reuse, ultra-pure water (UPW) production, and industrial process waters, etc. RO is a highly integrated system consisting of a series of unit processes: (1) intake system, (2) pretreatment, (3) RO system, (4) post-treatment, and (5) effluent treatment and discharge system. In each step, a variety of chemicals are used. Among those, sulfites (sodium bisulfite and sodium metabisulfite) have played significant roles in RO, such as dechlorination, preservatives, shock treatment, and sanitization, etc. Sulfites especially became necessary as dechlorinating agents because polyamide hollow-fiber and aromatic thin-film composite RO membranes developed in the late 1960s and 1970s were less tolerable with residual chlorine. In this review, key applications of sulfites are explained in detail. Furthermore, as it is reported that sulfites have some adverse effects on RO membranes and processes, such phenomena will be clarified. In particular, the following two are significant concerns using sulfites: RO membrane oxidation catalyzed by heavy metals and a trigger of biofouling. This review sheds light on the mechanism of membrane oxidation and triggering biofouling by sulfites. Some countermeasures are also introduced to alleviate such problems.

Application of networked water balance model in refined management of steel industrial park

Abstract Water shortages have become a major constraint on China's industrial development. Iron and steel industrial parks have a huge demand for water resources and complex production technologies. Therefore, it is very important to study the distribution, transfer and loss of water resources in industrial parks in order to improve the ability to refine water resources management. The purpose of this study was to reveal the water flow in industrial parks by using the principle of water balance and to provide a method for quantification and characteristic recognition of water resources in industrial production processes. In this research, an iron and steel industrial park in North China was chosen as the case study. In order to calculate the water balance of the whole steel production processes, the industrial park was divided into four levels and 110 water units according to the pipe network system and production processes. Based on the results of multi-level and multi-node water balance, this paper analyzed the water intake structure and water consumption structure of industrial parks, and provided the methods to optimize the allocation of water resources and reduce the consumption of fresh water in industrial production processes. The results of the study showed that the energy department accounted for 60.8% of the total water withdrawal of the industrial park. There were 6,249 m3/day of fresh water in the industrial park, which could be replaced by reclaimed water from urban sewage. Evaporation and pipe network leakage were the main water consumption factors in the steel park, which contributed 91.3% of the water consumption. Under the guidance of the research results, the evaporation water consumption of the industrial park was reduced by 8,412 m3/day, and pipe leakage was reduced by 600 m3/day. This article demonstrates the application of the water balance principle in complex water use systems, which is helpful for water resources management based on water use processes.

Sustainable tannin-based coagulants synthesized through Mannich reaction using melamine as an amine source for water treatment applications

This study explored the potential of melamine, as the nitrogenating source for the cationization of pulverized quebracho and spruce tannins. The influence of modification conditions on the properties of the coagulants was studied by varying the formaldehyde and melamine ratios with different activation times and temperatures. Based on considerations of charge density and shelf life, the most viable modifications were established as coagulants synthesized with a 1:0.52 formaldehyde to melamine molar ratio at 70 °C. At optimal conditions, the charge density of the quebracho and spruce coagulants was 2.22 meq/g and 1.04 meq/g, respectively, and the residual formaldehyde content in the coagulants was low. The developed synthesis of this study demonstrated a clear advantage over previous methods due to the rapid modification step. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) confirmed the emergence of an amine which signifies a successful Mannich reaction in the coagulant. Although optimal modification conditions for the coagulants were established at 70 °C (5-min activation time), the average molecular weight could not be determined for these conditions. Nevertheless, electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry measurements revealed that the tannin-based coagulants obtained at lower temperatures (23 °C and 45 °C) possessed low average molecular weight (approx. 800–900 Da). Furthermore, ESI-MS and MALDI-TOF spectra showed that the Mannich modification resulted in the depolymerisation of the quebracho tannin, leading to a reduction in units of higher mass fractions in the synthesized coagulant, which contrasted with the spruce tannin. Jar test experiments with surface and industrial process waters demonstrated that the tannin coagulants enhanced particle settling effectively.

Case study on the dairy processing industries and their wastewater generation in Latvia

The objective of the research presented in this Research Communication was to access the environmental impact of the Latvian dairy industries. Site visits and interviews at Latvian dairy processing companies were done in order to collect site-specific data. This includes the turnover of the dairy industries, production, quality of water in various industrial processes, the flow and capacity of the sewage including their characteristic, existing practices and measures for wastewater management. The results showed that dairy industries in Latvia generated in total approximately 2263 × 103 m3 wastewater in the year 2019. The Latvian dairy effluents were characterized with high chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD) and total solids (TS). Few dairy plants had pre-treatment facilities for removal of contaminants, and many lacked onsite treatment technologies. Most facilities discharged dairy wastewater to municipal wastewater treatment plants. The current study gives insight into the Latvian dairy industries, their effluent management and pollution at Gulf of Riga due to wastewater discharge.

Evaluation of Pilot Scale Domestic Wastewater Reuse System in Terms of Irrigation and Industrial Process Waters in Turkey

ABSTRACT It is now inevitable to reuse the wastewater in urban areas in terms of climate change and circular economy. The aim of this study is to evaluate the reuse of secondary treatment as irrigation water and/or industrial process water by pilot-scale ultrafiltration (UF) and reverse osmosis (RO) units. The conductivity, pH, organic matter, heavy metals, micropollutants, coliform bacteria and sodium hazard assessments were analysedduring operation. An average flux of 60.02 ± 16 l/m2.h was obtained in UF system and 12.30 ± 2.93 l/m2.h was obtained in RO system. Both UF and RO permeates were compared with the national and the global irrigational water quality standards. It has been determined that UF effluent is suitable for irrigation, while RO permeate water can be used for industrial processes with UF pre-treatment. The total operation and maintenance (O&M) costs of two pilot plants were calculated at 0.252 US $/m3.

Industrial processing water for an increased output using control intelligent Agent

Industrial processing water for an increased output using control intelligent Agent