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Industrial wastewater desalination using electrodialysis: evaluation and plant design

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Abstract

Industrial processes usually generate streams enriched with high organic and inorganic components. Due to the complexity of these streams sometimes it is not quite straightforward to predict the performance of desalination technologies. Some technologies are available for the selective removal of salts from aqueous stream, but in general these technologies are applied in high value applications where salts are either the product or limit further purification of the final product is required. These technologies are, however, not widely used in low value applications like wastewater treatment. The aim of this article is to review, improve and perform the design of electrodialysis processes for relevant industrial wastewater applications. It is focused on the determination of the critical design parameters like membrane resistance, current efficiency and limiting current density through lab scale experiments and its further use for industrial scale first approximation design. In this article, the basic equations for design are reviewed and a practical approach to obtain the number of stacks required for a certain separation is introduced. An industrial wastewater stream has been used for lab batch experiment and its following continuous plant design. The results show that it is possible to separate monovalent ions in a high rate (more than 70 %) and divalent ions were less separated (less than 50 %). The energy required for the particular case was evaluated in a range from 6 to 11 kWh/m3 of feed stream depending on the water reclamation rate.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the Institute for Sustainable Process technology (ISPT) in the Netherlands for financial support of this research as well as the companies involved for the financial and experienced support given.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Sustainable Process Technology, ISPT, Groen van Prinstererlaan 37, 3818 JN, Amersfoort, The Netherlands

    Verónica Silva

  2. Cosun Food Technology Centre, Oostelijke Havendijk 15, 4704 RA, Roosendaal, The Netherlands

    Edwin Poiesz

  3. Paques BV, T. de Boerstraat 24, 8561 EL, Balk, The Netherlands

    Peter van der Heijden

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  1. Verónica Silva
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  2. Edwin Poiesz
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  3. Peter van der Heijden
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Correspondence to Verónica Silva.

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Silva, V., Poiesz, E. & van der Heijden, P. Industrial wastewater desalination using electrodialysis: evaluation and plant design. J Appl Electrochem 43, 1057–1067 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10800-013-0551-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10800-013-0551-4

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