The originator of the Closed Circuit Desalination (CCD™) technology, Desalitech Ltd, announced on 30 June 2011 that it will work with mineral and water drilling and treatment company Layne Christensen to design and build an innovative desalination system.
The 43,000 gpd (167,000 L/d) brackish-water reverse-osmosis (BWRO) unit will feature CCD.
Municipal water with a total dissolved solids content of up to 1,055 ppm will be desalinated at up to 90% recovery with an energy consumption level of less than 2.3 kWh per 1,000 gal (0.60 kWh/m³) of permeate to supply water for industrial use.
Rick Stover of Desalitech told D&WR that the new unit will be built and run in Layne Christensen’s shop in Phoenix, Arizona.
“It is a demonstration, its primary purpose being to lead to larger projects,” said Stover.
The new unit will be operated alongside an existing BWRO unit to demonstrate that the CCD process consumes up to 35% less energy than a conventional process using the same high-pressure pump and membranes. The new BWRO-CCD process also features exceptionally low capital expenditure, maximum permeate recovery, reduced scaling and membrane biofouling, and extreme flexibility that enables automatic adaptation to substantial variations in feed water quality and customer requirements.