MATERIALS HANDLING
New tools to tackle calcium sulphate scale in minewater membrane filtration plants. By Gregory Gibson, Stephen Chesters & Max Fazel
G PREVENTING
to treat seawater and brackish water. However, as the global population increases[1]
R
everse osmosis (RO), nano- filtration (NF) and ultra-filtration (UF) membranes have long been used in the desalination industry
, making more fresh, clean
water available is imperative. Tat’s why Genesys International has turned its expertise to providing antiscalants and cleaners to a less traditional industry – mining. According to a 2012 article by
Paulina Szyplinska, mining is the fourth largest consumer of water worldwide[2]
,
but 90% of minewater is recyclable using technologies such as RO or NF. Although this is still a comparatively new
application of water filtration membrane technology, the number of plants associated with mining operations has increased dramatically over the past 10 years.
Tere is a specific challenge that affects gypsum.
minewater filtration plants – high levels of total dissolved solids (TDS), which leads to a strong tendency for scale to form, especially calcium sulphate (CaSO4
) or
Tese conditions fall outside membrane manufacturers’ recommended operating parameters. For that reason, the membrane technology industry has traditionally dismissed the mining sector as a source of business, considering it just too challenging to be worthwhile.
YPSUM SCALE
However, despite that, it seems that mining operators are increasingly investing in RO and NF membrane filtration, attracted by the benefit of enhanced metal recovery as well as the ability to clean up wastewater. Trough Genesys International’s own research, it has identified as many as 389 mines currently using membrane filtration, 301 of them commissioned since 2009. Te company believes that, with the right chemistry and an open mind, it’s possible not only to inhibit complex scale but also to clean fouled and scaled membranes effectively to restore their performance. And it seems like others are beginning to catch on. Te team at Genesys were recently encouraged to see
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