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Abstract
Considering the fact that many oil-rich regions are located on the coastlines and islands, desalination units need to be established in these regions in order to supply required fresh water. In desalination units, a stream of concentrated saline water is also produced in addition to fresh water. This concentrated saline water is returned to the sea and may cause severe environmental problems in the region. Applying proper operations on the output-concentrated saline water from the desalination units not only prevents the salinity shock, as well as the thermal shock to the marine ecosystem, but it could produce two valuable products of fresh water and refined salt. In this study, first, the output-concentrated saline water from a desalination unit in Pars Special Economic Energy Zone, situated in south of Iran, is chemically treated to decrease the level of calcium and magnesium. Then, this purified concentrated saline water is concentrated in an electrodialysis machine to increase the salt level to about 20%. Then, the output concentrated solution is directed from electrodialysis into a crystallizer, in which it is heated to reach a saturated or supersaturated concentration, in order to form salt crystals. The slurry of the produced salt crystals and saline water is directed from the crystallizer to a centrifuge in order to separate salt crystals from the saline water. The separated salt crystals are dried and then analyzed. The analysis reveals that a high-quality salt is produced by this method.
Acknowledgment
This study was supported by Pars Special Economic Energy Zone Org., Iran.