Goal and Strategy
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Develop a more energy-efficient method to remove water from kraft pulp mill black liquor.
Technologies to address the following barriers to membrane separation:
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Photo courtesy of Veolia Water Technologies
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High-Priority Projects
Robust Membranes to withstand high temperature, high pH environments
Phase II - Development of RO membrane for rejection of salts, scale-up, and optimization, as well as completion of the business case based on actual performance parameters.
Status: NF membranes with high rejection rate for lignin were developed in the prior phase of this work. Funding for phase II is being negotiated.
PI: Sankar Nair, Georgia Tech
Sacrificial Coatings to provide required flux and fouling resistance
A Teledyne Scientific project to develop a commercially viable membrane-based separation system for black liquor concentration.
This project leverages research and materials from a previously developed, low-cost coating process and apply the research to lower cost polymer membranes that are already used in established markets, such as municipal water treatment and water desalination. The coating will make it difficult for various foulants in the WBL to adhere to the membranes while also providing protection from harsh conditions. The coating process enables a thin 2–5 nanometer coating, both on the membrane surface and within the membrane pores, allowing the coating to chemically protect the membrane effectively and prevent fouling. Detection of a critical pressure difference across the membrane can be used as a trigger to activate a backwash for removing the loosely-bound foulants. The coating can also be periodically reformed in-situ using apparatus that is standard practice in membrane-based separations.
Status: Launched in 2012; Mill pilot planned for late 2017
PI: Vivek Mehrotra
Bench-Scale Membrane Testing with Characterization of Streams
There are some promising commercially available membranes that might work with black liquor. They need to be tested at industrial conditions to conclusively demonstrate that a membrane-based concentration technology can produce a permeate stream suitable for combining with evaporator condensate for ultimate use in pulping washing operations.
Status: Launched September 2017. Candidate membranes acquired; benchmarking started.
PI: Scott Sinquefield, Renewable Bioproducts Institute-Georgia Tech
Robust Membranes to withstand high temperature, high pH environments
Phase II - Development of RO membrane for rejection of salts, scale-up, and optimization, as well as completion of the business case based on actual performance parameters.
Status: NF membranes with high rejection rate for lignin were developed in the prior phase of this work. Funding for phase II is being negotiated.
PI: Sankar Nair, Georgia Tech
Sacrificial Coatings to provide required flux and fouling resistance
A Teledyne Scientific project to develop a commercially viable membrane-based separation system for black liquor concentration.
This project leverages research and materials from a previously developed, low-cost coating process and apply the research to lower cost polymer membranes that are already used in established markets, such as municipal water treatment and water desalination. The coating will make it difficult for various foulants in the WBL to adhere to the membranes while also providing protection from harsh conditions. The coating process enables a thin 2–5 nanometer coating, both on the membrane surface and within the membrane pores, allowing the coating to chemically protect the membrane effectively and prevent fouling. Detection of a critical pressure difference across the membrane can be used as a trigger to activate a backwash for removing the loosely-bound foulants. The coating can also be periodically reformed in-situ using apparatus that is standard practice in membrane-based separations.
Status: Launched in 2012; Mill pilot planned for late 2017
PI: Vivek Mehrotra
Bench-Scale Membrane Testing with Characterization of Streams
There are some promising commercially available membranes that might work with black liquor. They need to be tested at industrial conditions to conclusively demonstrate that a membrane-based concentration technology can produce a permeate stream suitable for combining with evaporator condensate for ultimate use in pulping washing operations.
Status: Launched September 2017. Candidate membranes acquired; benchmarking started.
PI: Scott Sinquefield, Renewable Bioproducts Institute-Georgia Tech