Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Zero Liquid
Zero liquid discharge (ZLD) is an
approach to water treatment
Discharge?
where all water is recovered and
contaminants are removed as solid
waste.
Do you need zero liquid discharge? Before considering zero liquid discharge, understand
your treatment goals, economics, and regulatory
requirements. For example, concentrating wastewater
to a lower volume brine that can be sent for disposal
may be more cost effective than producing zero liquid
discharge solids.
Tip: Limit chemical Tip: Maximizing Tip: Watch for scaling Tip: Compare total
pre-treatment to reduce membrane recovery has issues that result in system costs of pre-
overall treatment costs. the greatest impact on evaporator downtime treatment + crystallizer
More chemicals now lowering total treatment and increased treatment + dryer to advanced
means more solids later. cost. RO is usually the costs. Consider robust, one-step crystallizer
Consider downstream best option if it suits self-cleaning technology + bagging system.
equipment that requires your water chemistry, to limit the high quantities Plan for blowdown
less pre-treatment. but consider EDR if your of chemical pre-treatment of problematic low
water contains high that will likely be required solubility residuals, such
organic content to limit by scaling waters. as nitrates.
pre-treatment.
Decreasing waste volume $$$
$$
Freshwater
Brine Freshwater
Brine
Solids
Typical cost Cost CRO = $0.5–2/m3 inlet Cost CEVAP = $18-35/m3 inlet Cost CCRYS = $25-50/m3 inlet
$40 USD
Example = $1 USD = $20 USD × (1− 0.7) = × (1− 0.6) × (1 − 0.7)