Ionic resource recovery for carbon neutral papermaking wastewater reclamation by a chemical self-sufficiency zero liquid discharge system

Yangbo Qiu; Sifan Wu; Lei Xia; Long-Fei Ren; Jiahui Shao; Jiangnan Shen; Zhe Yang; Chuyang Y Tang; Chao Wu; Bart Van der Bruggen; Yan Zhao

doi:10.1016/j.watres.2022.119451

Ionic resource recovery for carbon neutral papermaking wastewater reclamation by a chemical self-sufficiency zero liquid discharge system

Water Res. 2023 Feb 1:229:119451. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2022.119451. Epub 2022 Dec 2.

Authors

Yangbo Qiu¹, Sifan Wu², Lei Xia³, Long-Fei Ren¹, Jiahui Shao⁴, Jiangnan Shen⁵, Zhe Yang⁶, Chuyang Y Tang⁶, Chao Wu⁷, Bart Van der Bruggen⁸, Yan Zhao⁹

Affiliations

¹ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, No. 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai 200240, PR China.
² College of Chemical Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, PR China.
³ Division of Soil and Water Management, KU Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 20, 3001 Leuven, Belgium.
⁴ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, No. 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai 200240, PR China. Electronic address: jhshao@sjtu.edu.cn.
⁵ College of Chemical Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, PR China. Electronic address: shenjn@zjut.edu.cn.
⁶ Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, SAR 999077, PR China.
⁷ Department of Chemical Engineering, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200F, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium; Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai 200092, PR China.
⁸ Department of Chemical Engineering, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200F, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium.
⁹ Department of Chemical Engineering, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200F, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium. Electronic address: yan.zhao@kuleuven.be.

PMID: 36493701
DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2022.119451

Abstract

Papermaking industry discharges large quantities of wastewater and waste gas, whose treatment is limited by extra chemicals requirements, insufficient resource recovery and high energy consumption. Herein, a chemical self-sufficiency zero liquid discharge (ZLD) system, which integrates nanofiltration, bipolar membrane electrodialysis and membrane contactor (NF-BMED-MC), is designed for the resource recovery from wastewater and waste gas. The key features of this system include: 1) recovery of NaCl from pretreated papermaking wastewater by NF, 2) HCl/NaOH generation and fresh water recovery by BMED, and 3) CO₂ capture and NaOH/Na₂CO₃ generation by MC. This integrated system shows great synergy. By precipitating hardness ions in papermaking wastewater and NF concentrate with NaOH/Na₂CO₃, the inorganic scaling on NF membrane is mitigated. Moreover, the NF-BMED-MC system with high stability can simultaneously achieve efficient CO₂ removal and sustainable recovery of fresh water and high-purity resources (NaCl, Na₂SO₄, NaOH and HCl) from wastewater and waste gas without introducing any extra chemicals. The environmental evaluation indicates the carbon-neutral papermaking wastewater reclamation can be achieved through the application of NF-BMED-MC system. This study establishes the promising of NF-BMED-MC as a sustainable alternative to current membrane methods for ZLD of papermaking industry discharges treatment.

Keywords: Bipolar membrane electrodialysis; CO(2) capture; Nanofiltration; Papermaking wastewater; Zero liquid discharge.

MeSH terms

Carbon
Carbon Dioxide
Membranes, Artificial
Sodium Chloride
Sodium Hydroxide
Waste Disposal, Fluid / methods
Wastewater*
Water Purification* / methods

Substances

Wastewater
Carbon
Sodium Chloride
Carbon Dioxide
Sodium Hydroxide
Membranes, Artificial