Durante la celebración de la 13º Edición de IWA Leading Edge Conference on Water and Wastewater Technologie Iwa-LET 2016 que se está celebrando estos días en Jerez, Marina Arnaldos y Beatriz Corzo realizaron una ponencia dentro de un taller sobre desalación sostenible. On occasion of the 13th IWA Leading Edge Conference on Water and Wastewater Technologies (IWA-LET 2016), which is being held in Jerez, Marina Arnaldos and Beatriz Corzo presented two papers in a workshop on sustainable desalination.

1. The 13th IWA Leading Edge Conference
on Water and Wastewater Technologies
DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF SUSTAINABLE
MEMBRANE DESALINATION TECHNOLOGY: REVERSING
WATER SCARCITY AND FAST FORWARDING TO THE
FUTURE
POTENTIAL INNOVATIONS IN CONVENTIONAL
DESALINATION SYSTEMS: APPLICATION EXAMPLES
MARINA ARNALDOS

2. 2
INDEX
 Background
 Enhancing the Sustainability of Desalination
 Improvement of Pretreatment Systems
 Enhanced Monitoring and Control of Reverse Osmosis
 Implementation of Discharge Treatment and Reuse
Systems
 Use of Renewable Energies
 Conclusions

3. 3
BACKGROUND
 Fresh water scarcity
 Increased water demand
 Growing population
 Increased living standards
 Industrialization
 Climate change
 Variation in natural systems
 Need for a sustainable and
economical water
treatment technology!

4. 4
BACKGROUND
 Seawater and brackish water desalination are obvious
options to fulfill water needs
 Reverse osmosis accounts for the majority of water
desalinated worldwide due to its relative energy efficiency

5. 5
BACKGROUND
 Remaining challenges
in RO desalination:
 Reduced energy
consumption
 Reduced chemical
consumption
 Reduced waste
discharge
 Reduced water waste
 In summary…
 Improved economics
 Improved
sustainability
And let’s not forget non-technical
challenges!!

6. 6
BACKGROUND
 Energy and chemical consumption are intimately linked
to the fouling ocurring in the membrane processes of the
systems, both pretreatment and RO
 Particulate fouling
 Colloidal fouling
 Scaling
 Biofouling
 Organic fouling
PERVASIVE AND YET TO BE
FULLY ADDRESSED!

7. 7
BACKGROUND
NORMAL SEAWATER
ALGAE BLOOM
• Building Blocks
• Low Molecular Weight Acids
• Neutral Substances of Low
Molecular Weight
• Biopolymers
• Humic substances
• Polysaccharides (mainly)
BIOFOULING
ORGANIC FOULING
Different
Compounds
Algal EPS

8. 8
BACKGROUND
 Discharge of waste is caused due to:
 Brine production in the RO process
 Cleaning wastewaters from both pretreatment and RO
systems
 Common disposal options: surface water discharge,
deep well injection, evaporation ponds and land
application
 Economic drive to reduce the volume of waste
discharged and disposal costs
 Environmental drive to save water and reduce
environmental pollution

9. 9
ENHANCING THE SUSTAINABILITY OF
DESALINATION
 Optimizing Current
Solutions
 Improvement of pretreatment
processes for colloidal and
dissolved organic matter
removal
 Enhanced monitoring and
control of the RO process
 Implementation of discharge
treatment systems
 Use of renewable energies
 Implementing Emerging
Solutions
 Forward osmosis
 Membrane distillation
 Humidification-
Dehumidification
 Adsorption desalination
 Microbial desalination cell
 Etc.

10. 10
IMPROVEMENT OF PRETREATMENT
PROCESSES
 Conventional processes
 Coagulation-flocculation
 Sedimentation/Flotation
 Filtration
 Microbial inactivation
(chlorine, chlorine dioxide,
bisulphite,…)
 Dispersant/antiscalant
addition
 State of the art
 Microfiltration
 Ultrafiltration
 Nanofiltration
HOW DO WE MOVE FORWARD?

11. 11
IMPROVEMENT OF PRETREATMENT
PROCESSES
 Improved hydraulic design of flotation processes for higher
load and lower energy consumption
Improved design of air
diffusers and contact zone
Design for low-pressure air
diffusing systems
Improved design of water
and sludge collection areas
ULTRADAF®-EVO Design

12. 12
IMPROVEMENT OF PRETREATMENT
PROCESSES
 Combination of membrane processes with adsorption
processes
Improved performance both
in algal bloom and normal
conditions
Results from VETRA® Process

13. 13
IMPROVEMENT OF PRETREATMENT
PROCESSES
 High flux operation of ultrafiltration processes
Estimated Response Surface
Flux=120 LMH and Time for CEB=5 hours
Filtration Time
(min) Backwash Time (sec)
Lower amount of
membranes
required
Decreased
backwash times
Data from HIFLUS Process

14. 14
ENHANCED MONITORING AND CONTROL
OF REVERSE OSMOSIS
 Development of novel online sensors that provide
information on the biofouling of membranes
Data from HYDROBIONETS Platform
Decreased operational
pressure
Cleanings adapted to
process requirements

15. 15
ENHANCED MONITORING AND CONTROL
OF REVERSE OSMOSIS
 Implementation of Big Data to develop better RO system
models, controls and operational rules
Design Detail of the DESALMOD Platform
Adaptation of operation to
feed and process conditions
Improved control over
process failures

16. 16
IMPLEMENTATION OF WASTEWATER
TREATMENT AND REUSE SYSTEMS
 Brine reuse for ultrafiltration pretreatment cleaning
operations
FILTERED WATER
BRINE
Data from HIFLUS Process
Savings in
backwash cleaning
waters
Reuse of
generated brine

17. 17
IMPLEMENTATION OF WASTEWATER
TREATMENT AND REUSE SYSTEMS
 Concentration of cleaning wastewaters from pretreatment
processes
Detail of VERDI® Pilot Plant
Recovery of
backwash cleaning
waters
Concentration of
generates waste
flows

18. 18
IMPLEMENTATION OF WASTEWATER
TREATMENT AND REUSE SYSTEMS
 Treatment of reverse osmosis cleaning waters through
advanced oxidation technologies for onsite irrigation reuse
Estimated Response Surface
Data from CLOSED LOOP Process
Recovery and
reuse of RO
cleaning waters
Reduced
discharge of waste
flows

19. 19
USE OF RENEWABLE ENERGIES
 Renewable energies can power current and improved
desalination systems
Desalination Plant in Adelaide, Australia
Capacity: 300,000 m3/day
Plant designed to be renewables-fueled
Lower dependence
on conventional fuel
sources
Implementation of
desalination in
isolated locations

20. 20
CONCLUSIONS
 State of the art membrane technology can be further optimized
to address current challenges and improve the overall
sustainability of desalination
 Pretreatment systems can be combined with other processes
for improved performance
 Significant energy and chemical savings can be achieved
through improved monitoring and control of the RO process
 Waste discharge can be lowered through further treatment and
onsite reuse can be achieved
 Renewable energies can be added to the sustainability mix

21. 21
Location: Torrevieja, Alicante (Spain)
Capacity: 240,000 m3/day
Biggest in Europe, largest in Spain
Location: Girona, Cataluña (Spain)
Capacity: 20 m3/day
Testing of new processes by R&D
Novel Developments
Innovation Opportunities