Thursday, November 10, 2022

Time: 8:00 AM – 12:00 Noon

W-1A: Water Treatment 201* (repeat)
Dennis McBride, Burns & McDonnell, Kansas City, MO

This workshop is a great introductory course covering many of the basic concepts of industrial water treatment. It will address unit operations (clarification, filtration, lime/soda ash softening, iron and manganese removal, membrane filters, and roughing demineralizers) used in water preparation for industry with emphasis on power, chemical industry, and refineries. It includes treatment of cooling water systems as well as boiler water makeup. Wastewater generated by these unit operations and their treatment and disposal will be discussed. Basic water chemistry requirements for low, medium, and high pressure boilers will also be discussed.

 

W-6A: The Wonderful World of RO* (repeat)
Jane Kucera, Nalco Water, an Ecolab Company, Plainfield, IL

Reverse osmosis (RO) has become a very popular and useful water demineralization tool, for both water and wastewater applications. Understanding the fundamentals of RO, particularly as applications become more challenging in the environment of reduce, reuse, and recycle, is critical to optimal operations. However, during the growth or RO applications, some of the basics have been lost in shuffle. And many times professionals and operators familiar with other demineralization technologies are now faced with operating RO systems with little or no training. Hence, this Workshop covers the basics and best practices of RO technology, from sound design to proper operating techniques. Fouling and concentration polarization, data collection and normalization, pretreatment (including membrane filtration), cleaning, and storage are just some of the topics included in this Workshop. This Workshop is intended for all who need to understand the essentials of RO to help obtain optimal performance of this technology.

 

W-10: Concentrate Management for Industrial Desalination
John Korpiel, P.E., and Mark Nicholson, Veolia Water Technologies, Wexford, PA

This workshop will provide an overview of the options for managing the concentrate generated from industrial desalination processes and their associated challenges. The workshop is intended for engineers, technologists, managers, and operators who want to gain a better understanding of concentrate management, but will also serve as a refresher for those who already have experience in this area.

As fresh water sources become increasingly scarce throughout the world, industries are becoming more reliant on desalination technologies to operate in a reliable and sustainable manner. Desalination technologies are essential in industrial applications for treating challenging water and wastewater sources to generate a quality of water that is suitable for process needs and for meeting regulatory discharge water quality requirements. However, all desalination technologies generate a brine byproduct, also referred to as the concentrate or reject stream. Typically, brine has undesirable characteristics such as high salinity, high scaling and fouling potential, is corrosive, and contains concentrated contaminants and/or residual chemicals. As a result, brine is challenging and costly to concentrate, handle, treat, and dispose, and can be harmful to the environment, if not managed properly. A major challenge of applying any desalination technology in a cost-effective and sustainable manner is implementing an appropriate concentrate management strategy.

The following topics will be discussed in the workshop:

• Overview of brine management options available for disposal and beneficial reuse, including surface water discharge, deep well injection, evaporation ponds, land application, and zero liquid discharge (ZLD)
• Strategies for brine minimization using conventional and proprietary membrane-based technologies for minimum liquid discharge (MLD) applications
• Thermal technologies for reduced liquid discharge (RLD) or ZLD applications; the latter of which eliminates the brine stream, generating a solid byproduct that is suitable for disposal in a landfill or for beneficial reuse
• The benefits, issues, and limitations of each of the brine management options and technologies
• Examples of integrated MLD and ZLD systems will be presented
• Emerging technologies for brine minimization
• Factors to consider for evaluating the options and selecting the appropriate concentrate management approach for a given application.

 

W-11: Arsenic & Selenium Removal
John Schubert, HDR Inc., Sarasota, FL

Changes in regulations in the coal-fired power industry and existing standards in the mining industry are but two examples of increased regulatory attention on arsenic and selenium. These ions have not been the focus of wastewater treatment historically. Many new technologies are being promoted for use in arsenic and selenium treatment. However, it is difficult to assess the real potential of treatment technologies to cost-effectively achieve the desired goals without substantial background in this area. This course provides a sound basis for those concerned with arsenic, selenium or both to make sound decisions about treatment options. The course reviews the chemistry, sources and regulatory basis for these elements. The various treatment approaches currently available, included physical/chemical, biological, membrane, and adsorption processes, are thoroughly discussed. The attendee can expect to gain a better understanding of the sources of arsenic and selenium in the environment, their chemistry and the approaches available to them for treatment of contaminated water.

 

W-12: Electrodeionization
Jonathan Wood, Evoqua Water Technologies, Lowell, MA

Electrodeionization (EDI) is a hybrid of two well-known processes, ion-exchange deionization (IX) and electrodialysis (ED). It was developed to allow the production of deionized water without the use of the hazardous acid and caustic that is required to regenerate ion exchange resins. EDI is now over 30 years old and is used extensively in many industries, especially in the production of deionized water for pharmaceutical formulations, power generation and manufacture of microelectronics/semiconductor devices. It is usually employed as a polishing demineralization step with reverse osmosis (RO) upstream as the roughing demineralizer.
This workshop will start by reviewing the principles of the EDI process, how it differs from IX, how EDI modules are constructed, and EDI feed water requirements. It will then focus on practical aspects of EDI system design, operation, maintenance and troubleshooting. This is an introductory course that requires no prior exposure to electrodeionization or electrodialysis. Some prior knowledge of basic water chemistry will be helpful.

 

W-13: My DEMON Demineralizer is not Working
Donald Downey, Purolite, Paris, Ontario, Canada

In the water treatment plant, the ion exchange demineralizer units can be your best friend or worst enemy. Demineralizers provide very high-quality water, on a regular basis between regenerations. In today’s world of automation, there is less hands on by operations, compared demin trains of two or three decades ago. Operators do not retain the day-to-day routine of regenerating demineralizer and can become less familiar with how to trouble shoot problem. When a demineralizer does not work properly, it could take months into proper operation.

This paper will discuss some of the author’s +45 years of experience with trouble shooting and repairing various ion exchange demineralizer in North America. It will cover cases involving resin problems, mechanical failure inside the vessels and changes in feed water quality.

 

Time: 8:30 AM – 2:30 PM

W-TOUR: RO Membrane Autopsy Workshop

 8:30: Bus departs from Hilton Hotel

9:30 – 10:00 AM Discussion about different autopsy techniques

10:00 – 11:30 AM Breakout session (groups of 4)

• Performance testing of membrane element
• Integrity testing of membrane element
• Visual inspection of unravelled membrane
• Elements
• Foulant Collection and chemicalsolubility
• Tests

11:30 – 12:30 PM Lunch

12:30 – 2:30 PM Breakout session (groups of 4)

• Scanning Electron Microscopy and Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy(SEM/EDS) for inorganic foulant identification
• Fourier Transform Infra-Redspectroscopy (FTIR) for organic foulant analysis
• Contact Angle Testing – hydrophobic vs hydrophilic surfaces
• Flat-sheet cell testing and dye testing

2:30 PM approx – Bus returns to Hilton Hotel

 

Time: 1:00 – 5:00 PM

W-2A: IX Technology & Practical Operating Processes* (repeat)

Wayne Bernahl, W. Bernahl Enterprises, Elmhurst, IL

Ion exchange technology is not new yet most industrial ion exchange systems do not operate at top efficiency. Ion exchange technology is often not well understood by operating personnel.

The participant of this workshop will:

• Better understand basic ion exchange equipment, operations, and resins used for water treatment operations
• Better understand what can go wrong with ion exchange systems
• Develop a logical troubleshooting approach to discover and correct operating problems.

 

W-14: Wet FGD Chemistry and Operational Impacts on Wastewater Quality Discharge
Bryan Hansen, Burns & McDonnell, Centennial, CO

This workshop will provide an overview of wet FGD chemistry and operating factors that will affect the wastewater quality. The various subsystems of the wet FGD system will be discussed including reagent handling, reagent preparation, absorber internals, recycle slurry, slurry spray headers, mist eliminators, primary dewatering, secondary dewatering, and wastewater treatment. The workshop will discuss the operational chemistry involved in removal of SO2 from the flue gas and highlight how operating parameters like pH, conductivity, ORP, and other issues affect the overall process. The workshop will address how operation of the wet FGD system can affect the quality of the wastewater being discharged. The workshop will provide troubleshooting tips for the operation of the wet FGD system.

 

W-16: MVR Vapor Compressor Technologies
Jason Stoklosa, Howden Roots, Connersville, IN

Vapor Compressors are the heart of a Mechanical Vapor Recompression (MVR) system. This workshop will provide descriptive and comparative insight to the different vapor compressor technologies available in the market today including Rotary Blowers, Turbo Fans, Turbo Compressors, and Screw Compressors for both technical and non-technical personnel. The workshop will provide insight to the design, operation, installation, and maintenance differences between the technologies, and will explore the implications to CapEx, OpEx, maintenance, and reliability across the compressor types for both evaporator or crystallizer applications. An outline will be provided to participants to aid in identifying, specifying, and evaluating design, scope, features, and considerations of these technologies which may be used by specifiers, buyers, and users in making practical equipment decisions for their process or plant.