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Reuse of RO Desalination Plant Reject Brine

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Abstract

In this work we try to study the feasibility of salt production from a reject brine coming from a desalination plant in Skhira in the south of Tunisia, This plant treats 22,008 m3/day of raw water to produce 9984 m3 of fresh water and 12,024 m3 of rejected water and has the advantages of being environmentally friendly and producing commercial products in crystalline, slurry, and liquid forms. The process involves an application of the solubility diagrams in order to valorize the reject brines. These solutions are considered as strongly concentrated brines and containing several elements such as: Na+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+, Cl−, and SO4 2−. This observation leads us to consider the complete hexary system Na+, Mg2+, K+, Ca2+/Cl−, SO4 2−//H2O which includes four quinary systems. A number of physico-chemical analyses were employed (Potentiometry, complexometry, gravimetry, XRD, and SEM). At the end of an isothermal and isobaric evaporation of the reject brine, we could recover various salts (NaCl, KCl, CaSO4·2H2O, MgSO4·7H2O…) very useful for industry and agriculture.

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Acknowledgments

Authors would like to express their gratitude to all the people who have participated in this work. Part of the mentioned study was supported by the Tunisian Chemical Group (GCT). Finally we also wish to thank the technical team for helpful assistance with the XRD and SEM analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. LVRNMR, National Centre of Research in Materials Science; Technologic Park of Borj Cedria, B.P. 95-2050, Hammam-Lif, Tunisia

    Ferid Hajbi, Halim Hammi & Adel M’nif

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  1. Ferid Hajbi
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  2. Halim Hammi
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  3. Adel M’nif
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Correspondence to Halim Hammi.

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Hajbi, F., Hammi, H. & M’nif, A. Reuse of RO Desalination Plant Reject Brine. J. Phase Equilib. Diffus. 31, 341–347 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11669-010-9727-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11669-010-9727-3

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