72 results about "Zero liquid discharge" patented technology

This invention obtains fresh water and only solid waste from input saline water. This result is commonly known as desalination having zero liquid discharge (ZLD). The current common means of ZLD desalination is to use any common desalination process such as distillation, reverse osmosis, electrodialysis, etc. followed by brine recovery and crystallization which are both based on evaporation of water processes. This invention provides an alternative to the commonly used brine recovery and crystallization processes to produce only solid waste. This invention has major components of (a) new ion concentration process, (b) combinations of prior art desalination processes and new ion concentration processes to produce fresh water and nearly saturated saline water from a saline water input, (c) another combination of prior art desalination and new ion concentration processes to produce fresh water and supersaturated saline water having a salinity in the metastable state zone from a nearly saturated saline water input, and (d) a separate process that precipitates out solids from the supersaturated saline water after seed crystals are introduced. The process also provides a means that prevents long-term buildup of precipitated solids in the ion concentration process that supersaturates the nearly saturated saline water input. The ion concentration process is composed of variations of prior art ion transfer processes where electrodialysis and capacitive deionization are examples.