Reverse Osmosis (RO) — the world’s dominant desalination technology — uses pressurized, semi-permeable membranes to remove dissolved salts from water. Nanofiltration (NF) uses a slightly more porous membrane and can separate divalent and monovalent dissolved ions.
RO should be considered first in all industrial wastewater and desalination applications as the primary water recovery device for its scalability and lower cost than thermal systems. NF has specialty applications like softening or purifying monovalent salts such as lithium, sodium, and chloride.
Recent technological improvements allow RO and NF to achieve higher freshwater recoveries, reduce brine volumes, and treat more challenging waters such as those with scalants and organics. Ultra-high pressure RO (UHP-RO) membranes can reach brine concentrations of up to 130,000 mg/L total dissolved solids (TDS). Osmotically assisted reverse osmosis (OARO) systems elevate brine concentration capabilities to 200,000 mg/L by cascading RO circuits with salt-permeable membranes in the final stage(s).
Scaling ions and foulants must be controlled to protect RO and NF membrane health, alongside sound hydraulic engineering and digitized diagnosis and self-cleaning. Saltworks offers systems for all of the above.
Saltworks is experienced with complex chemistries and membrane fundamentals—having pioneered in the field of membrane brine concentrators. We offer tight integration with our full suite of advanced technologies to maximize recovery, minimize fouling risk, and enhance membrane longevity and overall reliability and uptime.
Our BrineRefine and XtremeUF platforms remove scaling ions such as silica and calcium, thereby enabling RO recoveries to reach osmotic pressure limits. The selection of RO operating pressure or OARO varies with brine concentration goals.
Saltworks Membrane Concentrator systems are available in four pressure classes:
Saltworks’ packages these unit operations into a total minimal liquid discharge (MLD) solution — fully packaged, automated, scalable, and ready-to-operate. We incorporate intelligent automation and self-diagnostics that maintain membrane health, maximize up-time, and minimize operating costs and design systems with the best RO or NF membranes for your project.
We provide a full suite of XtremeRO™ services to help you achieve the optimal solution for your project, including industrial desalination, brine treatment, volume reduction, lithium refining, and chemical recovery applications.
All systems are thoroughly factory-tested and delivered with comprehensive on-site commissioning, training, and support. We provide custom process design and engineering, including post-treatment options for specialized applications.
Take advantage of our comprehensive pilot testing program including mobile units ready for rapid dispatch. We can also set you up with remote operation capability, remote support for your operators, and spares management.
Contact us to get started on your project.
OARO can achieve brine concentrations of >200,000 mg/L and enable 50-80% higher brine concentration than UHP RO. The technology is at a turning point as membrane manufacturers are now mass-producing OARO membranes.
Saltworks is excited to announce the shipment of two ”competing” membrane-based industrial wastewater treatment plants. Although electrodialysis reversal (EDR) and reverse osmosis (RO) may be viewed as competing desalination technologies, Saltworks offers both and helps clients navigate the fit case for each.
Reverse osmosis-based brine concentrators are reaching new performance levels not seen before. Saltworks is pleased to report that a substantial pilot plant is currently demonstrating 99% freshwater recovery on cooling tower blowdown (CTB).
Treating RO brine should be approached from two directions. First, maximize the recovery of lower cost membrane systems to minimize the volume for later steps. Second, weigh brine disposal options against thermal treatment technology to determine whether you need to concentrate your brine or treat it down to solids.