Introduction

A wide range of industries, such as desalination plants, gas and oil drilling rigs, energy generation plants,
leather tanneries, preserved food, olive, salted food, oil, ham and cured meat manufacturing plants, and
all industries that require high volumes of water (decalcification, demineralization, reverse osmosis, etc.)
generate brines for one reason or another.

Although this saline effluent is not hazardous, it must nevertheless be correctly managed as its
uncontrolled discharge may have a marked environmental impact. This management is not always easy
and the most suitable option always depends on a long list of factors, such as flow rate, concentration,
geographic location, availability of residual energy sources, etc. However, the most environmentally
sustainable of the many possible options for brine management undoubtedly involves some form of
treatment.

Brine production
As the variety of industries that generate saline effluents is broad, the most representative are discussed
below:

I. Desalination of seawater

Desalination involves obtaining fresh water for human consumption or industrial or agricultural use
from seawater or brine. This practice has become widespread in those regions with water deficits,
where supply cannot therefore be guaranteed, over the past few decades The intensive production of
desalinated water at a moderate price is currently possible, thus meaning that this solution is applied in
many cases to solve water supply problems. According to UN Water, the inter-agency mechanism for all
water-related aspects at the United Nations, in February 2014 there were more than 16,000 desalination
plants worldwide, with a production capacity of 70 hm3/day.

Irrespective of the technology used to achieve desalination (Table 1), a fresh water flow and a waste
or rejection flow are generated in all cases. The latter contains a high concentration of salts, which
depends on the raw water being desalinated and the yield of the separation, which itself depends on the
technology used. Those techniques that result in a high separation yield generate a rejection flow with a
very high salt concentration, and vice versa.

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II. Textile industry

The textile industry is characterized by high water use, and this water must be of high quality. The
water used, whether obtained from the distribution network or from other sources, is subjected to a
purification, normally a softening, process. Ion-exchange resins, the regeneration of which generates an
effluent with a high salt concentration, have traditionally been used to eliminate water hardness.

Moreover, high salt concentrations are required in the medium used for textile fiber dyeing process to
ensure that the pigment is fixed to the fabric. These dyeing waters have a high salt content even after
treatment.

III. Landfill

Municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill sites generate leachate effluents, which must be treated so that they
can be discharged with no environmental impact. Generally, after various processes, the treated effluent
is subjected to a reverse osmosis process in order to obtained a pure water flow that can be reused or
discharged and a smaller flow containing the concentrated contaminants. This effluent has a high salt
concentration as it contains all the salts originally present in the leachates.

IV. Foodstuff preparation

Salting and brine-preservation techniques have traditionally been used to ensure that foods can be
stored for long periods of time without being attacked by microorganisms. The brines are usually
prepared from cold water, sodium chloride, sodium nitrite and flavoring substances.

In order for the brine to have a preserving effect, the salt concentration in the product must be between
15% and 20%. As a result, the salting and food preservation industries in general produce effluents with
a high salt concentration.

The preparation of pickles (olives, gherkins, carrots, onions, etc. marinated in brine and vinegar) is an
activity that generates effluents with an organic burden as well as high salinity. These effluents must be
treated prior to discharge and it is advisable to recover the maximum amount of water possible for reuse
in the process.

V. Effluents from water-treatment plants

A wide variety of industries need a source of high quality (ultra-pure) water for use in their production
processes, especially the pharmaceutical, food and textile industries, etc. Such industries typically use
ion-exchange resins to soften water or membrane-based processes (nanofiltration or reverse osmosis)
for more complete treatments. The effluents generated by these processes concentrate all the salts and
impurities removed from the crude water. A high water consumption in the process generates high waste
effluent flows characterized by a high concentration of dissolved salts.

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VI. Leather tanning industry

The leather tanning industry is characterized by its high contamination potential due to both the
reagents used and the effluents generated in the different processes.

Generally, the processes used in the tanning of animal skins are salting (with NaCl), softening (using
sodium sulfide, sodium polysulfide or sodium carbonate), unhairing (using sodium sulfide, sodium
hydrosulfide, amines, calcium hydroxide and caustic soda), liming (in a bath of caustic soda), deliming
(using hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, boric acid, ammonium chloride, ammonium acetate and cyclic
esters), pickling (chromium salts and formaldehyde), tanning, lubrication, drying, conditioning and
finishing (using dyes and aniline). The chemicals used in the different processes are incorporated into
the wastewater as they are used.

The technologies used in these processes are increasingly clean, water-saving and reuse effluents,
thereby reducing final contamination of the water. Finally, treatment of the waters removes most of the
contamination. However, the dissolved salts present in the effluents are not removed, thus meaning that
they remain unaltered upon exiting the treatment plant and these waters have salt concentrations of
up to 10,000 mg/L. As a result, these waters, with this salt content, cannot be discharged into either the
sewage network or public watercourses.

VII. Treatment of water for energy-generation plants

Energy-generation plants need water of the highest quality to operate. This water is transformed into
high temperature steam, which moves the alternator. The ultra-pure water used is generally obtained
by subjecting water from the distribution network, or from other sources, to a treatment process. This
process generates a waste effluent that concentrates all the impurities removed from the water. Such
effluents are characterized by their high salt concentration and must therefore be treated prior to
discharge.

VIII. Gas and oil wells

The gas and oil industry is also capable of producing significant brine effluents. A large number of gas
and oil wells are found close to seams of rock salt. The technique used to extract oil comprises drilling
wells into which fresh water, which dissolves the salt and returns to the surface as a brine, is injected.
Oil is recovered by displacing it towards the surface by injecting water or brine. The excess brine must
be treated or discharged into the sea in the case of an underwater field.

Brine treatment
Brine management is not a simple task in the majority of cases. Factors such as flow rate, geographic
location, the presence of contaminants other than salts, etc. all affect the choice of treatment technique.
The only solution in many cases is the treatment of brines, although other management routes may be
available depending on the characteristics of each case.

An analysis of the different possible management options available, with particular emphasis on the
techniques that allow brine treatment, can be found below.

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Deep injection (DWI)

The deep-well injection (DWI) technique involves injecting the waste liquid into the subsoil via a
deep well. It can be used to manage both brines and other liquid wastes provided that there is no
environmental impact on the subsoil. This is the case under the following four conditions, which are
necessary and sufficient:

-There is a permeable formation able to take the waste.

-There is an impermeable formation that keeps the waste trapped for a sufficient period of time until it
-becomes harmless.
-The conditions of both operations do not change during the operation.
-The DWI operation does not compromise other, more important resources.

As such, this management technique is only viable when these four conditions are fulfilled and when
the brine flow is sufficiently high to justify it on economic grounds.

Evaporation ponds

The technique of confining brines in pond is an option used in dry regions where sufficient land is
available. The surface area and minimum depth of the pond can be designed on the basis of the brine
flow. One of the main drawbacks of this technique is environmental contamination of neighboring
aquifers due to the possible leakage of leachates.

Recovery of valuable products

Another means of managing brines is to treat them to obtain sodium chloride, calcium sulfate,
magnesium hydroxide and calcium chloride using different sequential evaporation processes. This
option can be used when the brine is of marine origin and production thereof is moderate.

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Treatment of brines using a zero-waste system (ZWS)

This option tends to be the viable management alternative in the greatest number of different situations,
can be adapted to any brine production scale and is undoubtedly the most environmentally friendly.

The aim of a zero-waste plant for treating brine effluents is to covert the saline residue into a flow
of high-quality water and salts in a solid, crystalline form. This water can be reused in the process
itself due to its high quality, or in any other application, and the crystallized salts can be managed for
possible recovery. As such, a zero-wast system transforms the liquid waste into two different, harmless,
recoverable and easy-to-manage flows.

Depending on the initial concentration of salts in the brine, treatment comprises initial concentration
of the effluent by reverse osmosis. If the concentration of the brine is already high, the reverse osmosis
step can be omitted. The concentrated brine is then subjected to a vacuum-evaporation process in
which it is concentrated yet further and which generates a water flow that can be mixed with that
produced by reverse osmosis. Finally, the salts are obtained in a solid, dry and crystalline form by
way of a crystallization process (figure 1). These salts can be recovered for use in road gritting, resin
regeneration, etc.

The reverse osmosis process can be replaced by an electrodialysis system, which would also allow the
brine effluent to be concentrated and produces a flow of water with a very low salt concentration.
If a residual energy source is available, this can be taken advantage of in the vacuum-evaporation
process, thereby giving excellent results at a highly competitive price.

The management of saline effluents using a zero-waste system is particularly advantageous when
other difficult-to-treat contaminants are present in addition to salts. This is the case for effluents from
municipal solid waste landfill leachates, effluents generated by the leather tanning industry or those
produced during pickle manufacture. It is also an ideal option for water-treatment plants for producing
ultra-pure water, especially in those cases in which residual energy that can be used in the vacuum-
evaporation process is generated.

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Conclusions
A wide variety of processes generate significant effluents of brine, a liquid waste that cannot be
discharged directly into the environment.

A competitive means of managing this effluent is not always easy to find. The different management
alternatives include deep injection, evaporation ponds, the production of recoverable products and
brine treatment using a zero-waste system. The latter of these alternatives is the most universal as it can
be used in most situations, is the most environmentally friendly, does not result in discharges into the
environment, generates a flow of high-quality water which can be reused in the production process and
crystallized salts that can be recovered are obtained.

Table 1.Desalination process technologies

Membrane-based Thermal processes Ionic charge-based processes

processes

• Flash evaporation • Ion exchange

• Reverse osmosis • Multiple effect
• Electrodialysis evaporation
• Vapor compression

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