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Perspective in resource recovery from reverse osmosis brines: the case for sustainable seawater refineries for small islands

Acevedo, DiegoOrcid icon; Mijts, EricOrcid icon; John, Nigel; 
El Bouzidi, Mohamed
; 
van der Bruggen, Bart
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Keyword
Desalination
Resource recovery
Brines
Magnesium
Lithium
Rubidium
Industrial ecology
Location research
Date
2023
Language
English
ISSN
0268-2575
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Summary in English.pdf
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Samenvatting in het Nederlands.pdf
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Resumen na Papiamento.pdf
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Abstract
Reverse osmosis has become the dominant technique for desalination while at the same time there is a steady increase in reliance on desalination systems for water production globally. Resource recovery and mitigation of adverse effects from brine discharge are important factors and are increasingly being considered by researchers and industrial actors. The island nation of Aruba, with over 100 years of commercial desalination history, is used as a case study to illustrate the possibilities of shifting from centralized seawater desalination plants to seawater refineries in which freshwater is considered only one of the possible products. We identify possible economic value from desalination plants of medium scale (as is the case in Aruba) from the pro- duction of magnesium, caustic soda, chlorine-based products and rubidium and possible energy recovery possibilities through osmotic gradients and/or hydrogen storage while at the same time highlighting the insufficient potential for lithium harvesting from seawater desalination brines. We have found that the economic value from resources recovered from brine may be even larger than the value of the freshwater produced by these plants. Furthermore, reduction of salinity and quantity of brine can reduce the overall ecological impact from current brine effluent.
Citation
Acevedo, D., Mijts, E., John, N., El Bouzidi, M., Van der Bruggen, B. (2023). Perspective in resource recovery from reverse osmosis brines: the case for sustainable seawater refineries for small islands. Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology 98(10). pp 2359-2364 (doi: 10.1002/jctb.7469)
Sponsorship
This publication was funded by the European Union (FED/2019/406–549).
Publisher
Wiley
Journal
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URI
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14473/1011
DOI
doi: 10.1002/jctb.7469
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