WAIV – Wind Aided Intensified eVaporation
Product Description:
A state-of-the-art enhanced evaporation technology for treating brine, particularly reverse osmosis rejected waste. The device is operated by the wetting of evaporation surfaces, mounted on suitably constructed modules. A pump brings the water from small holding pond or storage tank to a distribution network on top of the vertical surfaces from which the vertical strips are fed by gravity.
The device uses the driving power of the wind, which drives away excess humidity from the surfaces to intensify the evaporation process by a magnitude of 15-20 times more than a conventional evaporation pond!
Technology Rationale:
Despite the availability of vast inland water reservoirs, inland desalination plants have few or no cost-effective disposal methods. Using reverse osmosis, the most widespread membrane based desalination method, Inland desalination plants generate vast amounts of byproduct concentrate that requires economical and environmentally sustainable disposal.
The WAIV serves as an alternative to brine disposal management methods such as evaporation ponds – with the important advantage of a drastically reduced footprint. Such a reduction in area leads to an inherently reduced interface with the environment as well as a concomitant reduction in risks of leakage and contamination.
WAIV not only help users comply with stringent regulations, but result in substantial savings in real estate, installation and operational costs. In many cases WAIV can provide enabling solution to otherwise economically unfeasible inland desalination projects.
Addressed Market Need:
Following more than three decades of continuing expansion of sea water desalination capacity at coastal sites, considerable interest has now shifted to inland water sources.
Many inland desalination facilities possess ample underground reservoirs of saline water; however, as they generate large volumes of rejected waste, the disposal of this brine places a heavy burden on the cost of a cubic meter of potable water.
The WAIV serves as a cost effective and sustainable solution for large scale industrial processes which produces considerable volumes of wastewater such as desalination, mining and more.
In many places additional environmental and other constraints make such plants presently unfeasible.
Competitive Advantages:
- Reduction of up to 50% in treatment costs of RO rejected waste!
- Reduction of acquisition (drastically reduced footprint) and operation costs of inland liquid discharge installations
- Modular and scalable designs facilitating highly cost effective solutions for any production capacity
- WAIV can be used in production (minerals harvesting) where product is much more valuable than the water removed.