BOR 2019 Pitch to Pilot

Researching treatment methods to prevent high salinity wastewater

Thanks to funding from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Pitch to Pilot Desalination Research Program, Garver tested and advanced the use of a zero-liquid discharge (ZLD) process train to reclaim the saline blowdown from a 600-ton commercial cooling tower at Red Rocks Community College in Lakewood, Colorado. The project team included Dr. Mike Mickley and more than 12 water industry technology and service providers. Treated water from the 1.5 GPM pilot system, consisting of electrocoagulation (EC), ultrafiltration (UF), granular activated carbon (GAC), and reverse osmosis (RO) was returned to the cooling tower to improve recirculation water quality and prevent the high saline wastewater from entering the sewershed. The saline concentrate from the RO was treated with vacuum-assisted electro-distillation (VAED) where it produced distilled water and a saturated salt slurry, which was then evaluated as a feedstock for on-site sodium hypochlorite generation.