Pond Volume Management

Water treatment solutions

Saltworks provides comprehensive solutions for pond volume management & volume reduction. We help you keep your evaporation pond in hydraulic balance by recovering freshwater from incremental to high recoveries, all the way to zero liquid discharge crystallization. Solutions include powerful technologies such as ultra-high pressure reverse osmosis, evaporators & crystallizers, sensors, and intelligent chemical softening.

Managing Pond Volumes 

Managing pond volume is a challenge in industries such as power generation, oil & gas, and mining. Expanding pond capacity can be costly and increases the liability of wastewater stored onsite. We help you reduce pond volume through treatment.

Photo of a mining pit tailings pond
Photo of a wastewater evaporation pond at an industrial site

Volume Reduction Solutions

Ways to reduce pond volume include:

  1. Add less fluid: we can help you optimize upstream assets, such as existing reverse osmosis units, to minimize brine sent to your pond, or selectively remove contaminants that enable pond bypass.
  2. Boost upstream freshwater recovery: we can optimize a plant design to meet your recovery needs, without overdoing it. For example, you may only require 20% recovery and can save notably on costs, Vs. our ultra-high 98% recovery systems.
  3. Recover freshwater from your pond: we can design a plant to generate freshwater fit for re-use or discharge.
  4. Re-use the pond water: in special cases, only one or two contaminants prevent the pond water from being used. We can selectively remove ions such as chlorides, barium, sulfates, metals and more, which may enable you to re-use your pond water.
  5. Achieve zero liquid discharge (ZLD): extract saline brine from the pond, or your process, generating only clean water and solid salt in the process, removing liquid and solids burden from your pond entirely.

Bespoke Solutions

Is your pond water usable other than one or two constituents of concern? Our solutions can target and remove bad actors, enabling you to reuse your water. In some cases, this also enables the production of beneficial by-products. Your pond may hold value in its water.

 

Alternatively, are your pond mechanics driven by too much fluid? Does it make sense to squeeze out more freshwater before the rejected brine total dissolved solids (TDS) are sent to your pond? Is your pond recovery limited by the presence of silica in cooling tower blowdown? We have a specialized solution for that too.

 

We can cost-optimize freshwater recovery and brine management hydraulics of membrane systems—such as reverse osmosis (RO)—providing you with a fit-for-purpose solution. We supply extreme recovery membrane brine concentrators comprised of our XtremeRO products, coupled with our BrineRefine precision chemical softening systems.

Photo of a wastewater evaporation pond
A photo of an upstream pre-treatment skid for a Saltworks FlexEDR electrodialysis reversal pilot plant.

Getting Your Project Right

Prior to starting your project, we can work with you to assess your recovery needs. Do not over-invest in additional freshwater recovery you do not need. Just as you should not waste your efforts on low recovery systems when you need ultra high recovery. Every situation is unique, and our engineers are ready to review your project with rapid options analysis.

 

Do you seek to remove both water and TDS from your pond? Our minimal liquid discharge (MLD) or zero liquid discharge (ZLD) solutions can do just that, producing clean water and minimizing residual waste, see our SaltMaker evaporator and crystallizer products to learn more. We can help you assess different options for waste. Contact us to get started.

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