THE ISRAEL ELECTRIC CORP. Ltd.

Environmental licensing and protection unit

Blow Down cooling water system Is ZLD the optimal process?

Ella kotlar (M.Sc.) Environmental Licensing & Protection Unit Israel Electric Corp.

Content
Background - IECs project Available Solutions for power stations cooling towers Blow down Environmental aspects and cross media effects of ZLD Summary

Gezer power station ZLD system,Ilan Malester Phd

Background
IECs project included three Combined Cycle Electric Power generation units of 370MW (Gezer & Alon Tavor Power stations) The combined cycle units are cooled by industrial induced draft wet cooling towers The water source for the cooling has been set as reclaimed municipal waste water and raw water as backup.

Background
IEC's project was the first major project using municipal treated wastewater in induced draft wet cooling towers in the Israeli industry. In order to achieve the demanded water quality for the cooling towers, IEC built a tertiary treatment plant including nitrification, softening and filtration. Blow down of cooling water must be preformed due to evaporation and rising salts concentration in the cooling towers. The project raised the challenge of determining the best solution for the disposal of the cooling tower Blow down. The cooling tower Blow down treatment plant must operate at varies feed water composition.
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nitrification

filtration

ZLD treatment plant Blow down tank softener

Dovrat - Tertiary and ZLD treatment plant

Blow down cooling water system

50 - 150 m3/hr per unit Approximately 50 container trucks per day per unit

Solutions for cooling tower Blow down

Discharging Blow down to the sea using tankers (50 tankers per day per unit) Discharging Blow down to the sea by a brine discharge pipeline from the inland site to the sea Operating the cooling towers on a low number of cycles and discharging the Blow down to the Ayalon River Operating the cooling towers on a low number of cycles and discharging the Blow down to wastewater reservoirs Treating the Blow down in a Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) plant

ZLD and near ZLD Blow down treatment alternative technologies

1. Full Thermal technology - Evaporator system(brine

concentrator) followed by a Crystallizer + filter press 2. Semi Thermal technology - Brine Concentrator + Concentrated brine truck disposal

GE Crystallizer

GE Seeded slurry brine concentrator

ZLD and near ZLD Blow down treatment alternative technologies

3. Combination of membrane and Thermal

technologies - Chemical Pretreatment + RO systems + Brine Concentrator + Crystallizer + filter press 4. Combination of membrane and Thermal technologies - Chemical Pretreatment + RO systems + Brine Concentrator + Concentrated brine truck disposal 5. Full membrane Filtration technologies - Concentrated brine truck disposal

Recovery is in the range of 92%-98%

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ZLD treatment plant Blow down treatment technology

Most ZLD facilities in the world that treat Blow down from power plant cooling towers use thermal technologies (with/without RO as a pretreatment for reducing the blow down capacity). Evaporator system (brine concentrator) followed by a crystallizer

HPD Seeded slurry brine concentrator

ZLD treatment plant - Gezer power station (Ilan Malester, Phd) 11

Main reasons for adopting ZLD process

Environmental compliance High operating cost (blow down disposal)

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Environmental aspects and cross media effects

High energy consumption (electric and steam) Solid waste / Concentrated Brine disposal Usage of chemicals (pretreatment processes) Main environmental Cross media effects Prevention of water body pollution disposal of the waste (ground water, sea, river) Water reuse (recovered water is returned to the cooling tower or to the deminerlized water production system) Air pollution (from electricity/steam generation, transportation) Chemicals (Hazardous chemicals) Land use
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Estimated Environmental parameters*

Inlet (Blow down): 100-200 m3/hr
Outlet: Energy consumption (kWh) Brine disposal (m3/hr) Salt cake disposal (kg/hr) % Recovery Full Thermal technologies 3,000 0 1,000 98% Semi Thermal technologies 2,500 3 0 97%

* for two 375MW Units, According to RFI answers

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Solid waste (Salt)

Disposal
Concentrated brine

Gezer power station (Ilan Malester, Phd)

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Disposal of the waste

Concentrated brine: - discharged to a near water body, when available - discharged to the waste water area treatment system - evaporating in evaporation ponds Solid waste ("salt") from the crystallizer: Usually dumped in landfills, local abandoned quarry sites etc.

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Liquid and solid residual disposal in Israel

Because of unique environmental conditions regarding land and groundwater salinity, land filling of the solid waste and discharging the brine into the river or to waste water reservoirs is prohibited. According to Israel environmental authorities, the solid waste and the concentrated brine must be discharged to the sea.

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Estimated air Emissions (Ton/year)*

Full Thermal technologies CO2 NOX PM 18,000 44 1.3
Unit 21 (148MW) Semi Thermal Gezer PS technologies (2011) 140,000 15,000

37 1.1

114 4.7

includes emissions from: Electricity generation, steam generation and transportation

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Summary

Solutions for treatment of cooling tower Blow down depends essentially on; - Local conditions - Local regulatory demands Due to the local conditions, treating the Blow down up to a concentrated brine may be the optimal solution.

Alon Tavor power station, Ilan Malester, Phd 19

Thank you

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