Case study · Mining · 2008
RO-reject brine concentration at full industrial scale
Petro Sep delivered a full-scale AQUA-SEP® brine concentration plant in China, treating reverse-osmosis reject and high-TDS industrial wastewater past the practical limits of conventional pressure-driven membranes.
- Industry
- Mining
- Location
- China
- Year
- 2008
- Technology deployed
- VMD
Outcomes
The numbers that mattered.
Independently verified at commissioning, tracked in operation.
- Plant type
- Full-scale
- Brine concentration on RO reject and high-TDS feeds.
- RO reject TDS handled
- Up to 25%+
- Far beyond RO's 6 to 8 percent practical limit.
- Recovery vs. RO standalone
- ~95% combined
- RO at ~40 percent plus AQUA-SEP at the tail.
01
Why RO reject needs an AQUA-SEP tail
Reverse osmosis recovers 35 to 45 percent of a typical industrial feed before the reject stream hits a TDS ceiling (roughly 6 to 8 percent) where membrane fouling and osmotic backpressure stop further recovery. The reject is typically too dirty for direct discharge and too dilute for crystallization. AQUA-SEP®, operating on a vacuum membrane distillation principle, runs well past 20 percent TDS. Paired with the upstream RO, the combined train delivers roughly 95 percent recovery on the original feed, with crystallization (where required) reduced to a much smaller, more economic stage.
02
Build and deployment
The full-scale plant was designed at Petro Sep Canada, fabricated through our supply chain, and integrated on site. Subsequent membrane skid testing extended through 2014 on related industrial waste and brine concentration streams; the China deployments are among the earliest large-scale demonstrations of AQUA-SEP® on high-TDS industrial feeds.
03
Outcomes
The plant has been operational since 2008, treating reverse-osmosis reject and high-TDS industrial wastewater at full scale. The deployment validated the operational regime (cleaning frequencies, membrane life, energy targets) that informs every subsequent AQUA-SEP® brine concentration project Petro Sep has scoped.
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