I am evaluating Membrane Distillation for desalination of FGD wastewater stream from a power plant, having up to 55,000 ppm of dissolved solids. I need to establish capital and operating costs for the Membrane Distillation process, and compare with Seawater RO, Forward Osmosis, MSF evaporator (Brine concentrator) and Multi Effect Distillation (MED) processes
Any information, please contact me.
Ken Pandya
Office 001 972 733 4404
Starting with the proverbial "It depends" on the source of thermal energy. The advantage of MD is the low temperature operation, which is typically derived from solar or waste heat. Otherwise, the energy consumption is still dominated by the latent heat and heat loss to the cooling side, followed by pumping power, fans for air cooling the recirculating permeate side, etc. At 5.5% TDS, you will be fighting against solubility at lower temperatures. We operated seawater feed (3.4% TDS) at 70C. Recovery was kept low to maintain favorable LSI. However, when recovery is low, pumping energy rises. You can achieve 4-5 LPH/M2 of membrane SA, which means you need to flow 90-100 LPH per M2 of membrane SA. On a small scale, with solar thermal heating, the transmembrane energy loss to the cold side was not a factor. If low grade waste heat is available, operating costs in terms of membrane fouling, etc., are much much lower than any of the other processes. The MD would actually follow the MSFD, when the waste heat cannot be utilized for flash evaporation anymore.
Hope this helps.
Hello, Juzar:
Great information. Very grateful for your insight. I am working with Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI), looking for any meaningful white papers, technical papers, case histories, any reported incidences, good or bad feedback, how the membranes stand up in oxidative environment, wide pH ranges, fouling and scaling conditions, etc. If I use any papers from you, I will need to identify you to make sure you get proper credits. Also we will need permission to use any figures, photographs, tables, etc. This is an excellent opportunity to put your information in front of the right audience- USA power plant owners and decision makers.
Other technologies under consideration include
Forward Osmosis
Reverse Osmosis- seawater RO, brackish RO, wastewarter RO
Close Circuit RO (CCD)
Electro Dialysis Reversal (EDR)
Humidification-dehumidification (HDH)
Thermal desalination processes including MVR, MED
Hybrid processes.
With sincere thanks
Ken Pandya
AWTS, Inc.
pandyaken@aol,com
Office 972 733 4404
Website: www.awtsusa.com
I have covered these topics in my book regarding applications for Graphitic Nanofibers. Most of the work we did at the technology incubator on MD and FO was with advanced techniques using the low cost GNF we produced in house. We experimented with FO membranes fused with electrically reversible hydrogels that had very promising results. Something I am in the process of bringing to commercial status. The list of references in my book is extensive. Many papers on the topics you seek are in the bibliography.
Thanks Juzer
Could you share any white papers, bench studies, pilot studies? Any published data that you may have, would help
I just completed my thesis on "Forward osmosis for wastewater treatment and energy recovery: A technoeconomic analysis," in which I determined the cost of forward osmosis treatment for municipal wastewater. I am happy to send you the .pdf file if you are interested in my results.
Yes, Mr. Buckwalter. I am very much interested to know more about the costs as well as your experience. You can send it to my email address, [email protected]
Thanking you,
Ken Pandya
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Papers