In industrial water treatment, the «reject» stream from a primary Reverse Osmosis (RO) system is often viewed as unavoidable waste. For a major facility in Apodaca, Mexico, managing this discharge was a costly challenge. This is where CCRO Brine Recovery technology changes the equation.
Unlike primary systems that treat raw water, this project focused on a harder task: recovering water from the concentrated brine of an existing primary RO system. The goal was not just to recover volume, but to ensure the recovered water was of high quality suitable for reintroduction into the process.
The Limitation of Standard Recovery
Treating brine is difficult. The water is highly concentrated with salts and minerals.
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Standard RO Limit: A conventional Reverse Osmosis system applied to this type of brine can typically recover only 35% of the water before scaling occurs.
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The Quality Risk: Often, pushing standard RO limits on brine results in poor quality permeate (high conductivity), making the water unusable for critical applications.
The CCRO Brine Recovery Solution
UAT Team implemented a secondary system utilizing DuPont™ DesaliTec™ Closed Circuit Reverse Osmosis (CCRO) technology specifically designed as a «Recuperator.»
Because CCRO operates in a closed loop with flexible recovery settings, it creates a cleaner separation. The result is a high volume of recovered water that meets strict quality standards, free from the high salt passage typical of stressed standard RO membranes.
Apodaca Project Results
The data from Apodaca demonstrates a massive leap in both efficiency and purity:
Why This Matters for Industry
Achieving 75% recovery on brine with high quality is effectively «creating» new premium water out of waste.
- Purity Standards: The recovered water is not «grey water»; it is high-quality permeate that can be blended back to the head of the plant or used in cooling towers.
- Double the Efficiency: We are recovering more than double the water compared to a standard solution (75% vs 35%).
- Cost Reduction: Every gallon of high-quality water recovered is a gallon that doesn’t need to be purchased.
Conclusion
The Apodaca project proves that CCRO Brine Recovery delivers both quantity and quality.
Is your primary RO system wasting too much water? Contact UAT Team to analyze your reject stream and discover how much high-purity water you can recover.
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