The concentrate of a reverse osmosis is water more or less concentrated in minerals.
The reuse limits relate to its salt concentration and its potentially very encrusting nature.
The direct use of concentrate is therefore rarely possible except in special cases of softened water upstream of reverse osmosis where the concentrate is certainly highly mineralized but compatible with certain uses (washing floors, cleaning, etc.).
Irrigation is rarely possible directly, the mineral content being incompatible with the growth of plants and the behavior of the soil over time (salinization)
The production of distilled water in evaporation processes is possible but the energy cost and the investment are dissuasive for current uses, these solutions are reserved for sites forced to respect zero liquid discharge.
Chemdoc Water develops reverse osmosis concentration stage systems allowing 50 to 70% of the water from reverse osmosis concentrates by producing demineralized water of a quality compatible with its direct use in many applications.
The possible yield depends essentially on the mineral composition of the concentrate and on the solubility limits of the saline species present in the water (calcium, bicarbonate, fluorine, silica, etc.). In some cases, the use of additional acidification and/or dosage of sequestrant is required.
This equipment is easily inserted downstream of existing installations, the overall efficiency of reverse osmosis typically increases from 75 to 90%, with maximized water recovery and reduction of water intake and discharge.
A pre-feasibility study can be carried out by our engineers with some input data:
- origin and quality of the inlet water on the existing reverse osmosis, (analysis with complete ionic balance of the water)
- existing physical and chemical pre-treatment
- conversion rate (yield) of the existing installation
- instantaneous production flow and average volume produced per day
