AWWA MTC64574

As the potential application of brackish water desalination increases, efforts to improve its water recovery are becoming increasingly important. Concentrate management (especially for inland applications) is often the decisive factor that determines the viability of a desalination project because of regulatory, environmental and economic issues. Currently the recovery from conventional configurations and application of desalting processes (including reverse osmosis (RO), electrodialysis reversal (EDR), and thermal evaporation processes) is limited, and 20 to 50 percent of the feed stream is wasted as concentrate. This study presents a hybrid approach employing membrane based treatment steps to improve water recovery of brackish water desalination. The study is funded through Awwa Research Foundation (Project #3030: Desalination Product Water Recovery and Concentrate Volume Minimization). Includes 30 references.