June 9th 2020
Saltworks is honoured to receive POWER Magazine’s 2020 Water Award for our ground-breaking ‘chloride kidney’ industrial desalination solution. This innovative technology—pilot tested at one of America’s largest coal power plants—involves a novel tweak on 50 year-old electrodialysis desalination technology.
As the world transitions its energy mix, coal-fired stations still provide over 30% of America’s electricity and 60% of China’s. Operators have installed scrubbers to remove sulfur emissions from the exhaust, driven by the need to mitigate air pollution and prevent acid rain. The air emissions are absorbed into water, ultimately generating a unique Flue Gas Desulfurization (FGD) wastewater.
Until now, FGD wastewater has not been widely treated due to its complex chemistry and highly scaling nature. FGD wastewater treatment can be avoided by re-using the water internally. However, this requires removing chlorides.
Saltworks developed a solution that removes up to 90% of chlorides from FGD wastewater, meaning that the water can be re-used rather than discharged. The solution uses Saltworks’ FlexEDR product—with proprietary monovalent-selective membranes—enabling up to 50% cost savings over alternative methods.
The same technology is now being tested by a major international mining company to remove chlorides and boost production from what would normally be a waste product. More information can be accessed by contacting Saltworks or visiting POWER magazine.
In addition to chloride removal for re-use, Saltworks also offers chemical softening, high recovery reverse osmosis, and evaporator solutions for FGD wastewater.
The site pilot work—proving the performance of FlexEDR as a chloride kidney—was made possible thanks to the foresight of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the support of the Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory, as well as advisory services and research and development funding from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP).
About Saltworks
Saltworks Technologies is a leader in the development and delivery of solutions for industrial wastewater treatment and desalination. By working with customers to understand their unique challenges and focusing on continuous innovation, Saltworks’ solutions provide best-in-class performance and reliability on challenging waters. From its headquarters in Richmond, BC, Canada, Saltworks designs, builds, and operates full-scale treatment plants, and offers comprehensive offsite and onsite testing services with its fleet of mobile pilots.
FlexEDR Selective allows you to selectively remove ions and change water chemistry, achieved by using modernized electrodialysis reversal (EDR) with highly selective ion exchange membranes that are both solvent and oxidant tolerant.
Flue gas desulfurization (FGD) systems are used to remove sulfur dioxide air emissions in coal-fired power plants. FGD wastewater is often saturated with calcium sulfate, while containing both metals and chlorides. Saltworks can help to boost FGD water cycles through selective chloride removal, or treat the FGD wastewater to zero liquid discharge.
As regulations on FGD wastewater tighten, additional treatment is required. Often, this is chemically intense, and high cost. The best means to lower treatment costs is to reduce the volume of wastewater generated, usually by increasing internal recycle.
Coal ash pond water may require treatment because leached pollutants from ash pond water pose human health and ecological risks. Consider membrane concentrators, minimal liquid discharge (MLD), and zero liquid discharge (ZLD) technologies to reduce brine volumes from treating leachable pollutants.