WAIV- Wind Aided Intensified eVaporation for

volume reduction of desalination brine and

generating mineral byproducts.
Lilach Katzir and Jack Gilron
Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Beer-Sheva/Sede-Boker, Israel

Katzir EDS May 2009 1

 Overview
• Introduction
– A brief review on concentrate disposal options
• Presentation of WAIV concept
• Result from the WAIV pilot studies at Sede-
Boker
– Different feeds-BWRO ,BWRO-ED
• Large scale plant
• Economic projections
• Conclusions
• Future work

Katzir EDS May 2009 2

 Brine disposal options
• Surface - to sea, lakes and rivers
• Sewer system
• Land applications - including irrigation of
halophytic crops
• Deep well injection
• Zero liquid discharge
• Evaporation ponds

Introduction
Katzir EDS May 2009 3
 Evaporation ponds - challenges
• Evaporation ponds were used for 6% of
RO installations before 1993, and just 2%
since then
• Why? Large land area required.
– increased environmental impact
– increased costs – both for land
purchase and double lining
– Efficiency drops with pond area
Adapted From M. Mickley, USBR, 2001

Introduction
Katzir EDS May 2009 4
 WAIV Concept

• Involves increasing
the evaporative
capacity per
Main
footprint area by wind
close packing direction
vertically mounted
and wet surfaces.

Introduction
Katzir EDS May 2009 5
 WAIV-driving forces
• The temperature
gradient drive the
evaporation heat
transfer

• The vapor pressure

gradient drives the
evaporation mass
transfer

Introduction
Katzir EDS May 2009 6
 WAIV Concept – evaporation rate and
wind
• Evaporation from body of water as function
of wind velocity and mass driving force

E  N e  u r  e  ea  *
W 
E [mm/day]- evaporation rate
e [mbar]- vapor pressure
ur [m/s]- wind velocity
Ne [mbar-1]- Constant from the evaporative mass transfer
coefficient

Introduction
Katzir EDS May 2009 7
Results from the WAIV pilot studies in
Sede- Boker

• BWRO brines- 75% recovery

• Brine from BWRO-ED hybrid (~10% TDS)

Methods
Katzir EDS May 2009 8
 BWRO-75% recovery
• Feedwater was treated in a batch mode
• Four BWRO elements (ESPA-2)
• Flux of 20 L/m2-h to reach 75% recovery
• 1600 L well-water were treated to produce
400 L of concentrate

Methods
Katzir EDS May 2009 9
 Volume Concentration Factor vs. Relative
Humidity over the solution-88% recovery
WATER VCF vs. R.H OVER THE SOLUTION

120 vcf 50 R.H in sde-boker

100
THE SOLUTION
R.H OVER

80

60

40

20

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
VCF OF H20

With BWRO recovery of 88% we can get up to VCF of 50

and still be able to evaporate.
Results
Katzir EDS May 2009 10
 VCFnom vs. R.H, driving force and evaporation
rate [mm/d] based on WAIV footprint
VCF nominal VS. R.H

120 6

driving force mbar H 2O

100 5
%P/P0, R.H,E mm/d

80 4

60 3

40 2

20 1

0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25
VCF nom
p/p0- solution R.H.- air
evaporation rate [mm/day] driving force

Clear correlation between the relative humidity difference (p/po- RHair) to

the evaporation rate and the driving force. Results
Katzir EDS May 2009 11
 Magnesium enrichment by WAIV

7
Mg/Na
6 Mg/Ca

5
10*Mg/Na, mg/mg
Mg/Ca, mg/mg

0
Desal Conc After WAIV

BWRO - 75% recovery

Results
Katzir EDS May 2009 12
 Near ZLD BW desalination process based on ED-RO-
Crystallizer and WAIV-recovery 97-98%

Korngold et al., Desal, 172(2005),63. Gilron et al., Euromed, 2008.

Methods
Katzir EDS May 2009 13
 Evaporation rate TDS=10%
Cumulative volume evaporated vs. time

900
y = 40.94x + 142.40
800 R2 = 1.00

700
cumulative volume

600
y = 68.12x - 31.19
500 R2 = 0.99

400

300
y = 4.67x + 14.47
200
R2 = 0.91
100

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Tim e from start of run [day]
ED concentrat pan evaporation rate
3‫סידרה‬ )pan evaporation rate( ‫ליניארי‬
The )ED concentrat(
cumulative ‫ ליניארי‬evaporated
volume )3‫(סידרה‬
from ‫ליניארי‬
BWRO-ED is
higher than evaporation pond by factor of 11.5 Results
Katzir EDS May 2009 14
SEM and XRD analysis from BWRO-ED
brine

Wt%

Ca, 5.39 O, 12.2

Ca, 2 O, 9.69

shows that the minerals Na, 24.07

that precipitate are Halite Cl, 51.94

Mg, 1.35
S, 5.04
Cl, 51 Na, 34.32
(NaCl) and Gypsum
(CaSO4*2H2O) Mg, 1.14
S, 1.84

Results
Katzir EDS May 2009 15
Large Pilot plant-Lesico Cleantech
• The plant is located in North-America in a
semiarid zone.
• Net WAIV footprint: 8*10-3 hectare footprint
• Total fabric area: 0.16 hectare fabric
• This WAIV unit is evaporating ~730 m3/day per
hectare of WAIV unit footprint.
• Evaporation from evaporation pond is ~35
m3/day per hectare

Results
Katzir EDS May 2009 16
 Large Pilot plant (Lesico – Cleantech)

Results
Katzir EDS May 2009 17
 Large Pilot plant
Cumulative volume WAIV vs. Pan Evap. / footprint [L/m2]

3000 Amount evaporated at WAIV unit vs . pan evaporation

2500
[L /m 2-day]
2000
[L/M ]
2

1500
1000 300
[L/m2-day]

500
200
0
100 23/02/09 06/03/09 17/03/09 28/03/09 07/04/09
13/02/09

0 WAIV evap. /footprint

Accum. Acum. Pan evap. / footprint
13/02/09 24/02/09 08/03/09 20/03/09 01/04/09 12/04/09

Footprint WAIV unit evaporation Footpint pan evaporation

Results
Katzir EDS May 2009 18
 Economic projections- Base case for
comparison
• Mashabe Sadeh well-water
• RO (used BW30-LE) – 88% recovery
• Electricity costs – 0.072 €/kWh
• Annual capital charge rate- 8.00%
• RO production costs (incl. pretret)- 0.302 €/m3
product
• Brine to evaporation ponds – 1.4 €/m3

Katzir EDS May 2009 19

 Economic projections- Base case for
comparison
• Mashabe Sadeh well-water
• RO (used BW30-LE) – 88% recovery
• BWRO-ED hybrid 97-98% recovery

(based on economic data from P. Glueckstern and E. Ramon)

Brine removal costs-by evaporation 1.40 €/m3 brine

ponds
Brine removal costs- by WAIV 1.05 €/m3 brine

Katzir EDS May 2009 20

Economics (100 m3/h feed, 98% recovery)
350000

300000
Annual costs, Euro/m3

250000

200000

150000

100000

50000

0
RO- 75%
Base
1 2 3
RO+ED
83% 4 88% 5
APS- RO+ED RO+ED
RO Options
RO ED Brine Total

Katzir EDS May 2009 21

 Conclusions
• Efficiency of the evaporation rates from WAIV
can reach 50% - 90% relative to open ponds

• It is feasible to get an enrichment of the

magnesium salts for RO and ED brine

• WAIV increased ED brines from TDS of 10% to

29.2% and enhanced MgCl2 content for
potential recovery

Conclusions
Katzir EDS May 2009 22
 Conclusions
• Evaporation rates tend to drop after brine
reaches TDS of 15% due to a decrease vapor
pressure
• There is a clear correlation between vapor
pressure, driving force and evaporation rate
• This process is more economical than
conventional RO (88%) and brine disposal by
20,000 – 40,000 €/y for a plant producing 2400
m3/day.

Conclisions
Katzir EDS May 2009 23
 Acknowledgements
• Lesico Cleantech and Mr. E. Ramon for information on
large WAIV pilot
• Dr. Rosa Fainshtain for analytical support.
• ZIWR technical staff - Mr. Isaac Lutvak, Michael
Waisman, Nisan and Naftali Daltrophe for support on
WAIV unit.
• Mr. Yuval Shani and Dr. Naftali Lazarovitch-
meteorological and data equipment support.
• Financial support was provided by BMBF-MOS project
grant WT 0504, "Near-ZLD Strategy for Optimal
Management of Inland Brackish Water Desalination",
MEDINA (MEmbrane Desalination – an INtegrated
Approach) project (EU FP6 grant #036997)
• Bauer and Rosoff Prize for Excellence in Research.

Katzir EDS May 2009 24

 Future work
• WAIV operation on BWRO concentrate with 88%
recovery containing antiscalant

• WAIV operation on BWRO-ED concentrate with

initial TDS of 10%

• Goal is to reach Mg concentration>8%.

Katzir EDS May 2009 25

Katzir EDS May 2009 26