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Engineering partner for a technical cooperation on reducing the operational costs of liquid waste processing by replacing / supporting conventional atmospheric evaporators with membrane unit is sought

Country of Origin: Czech Republic
Reference Number: TOCZ20170407001
Publication Date: 7 April 2017

Summary

A Czech research institute has developed and tested solution for lowering operational costs of liquid waste processing line by replacing/supporting conventional atmospheric evaporators with membrane unit. The solution offered can be used for preparing clean water to be reused in the process and/or reducing waste waters volume. Solution is applicable both for radioactive and non-radioactive liquid waste.
Technical cooperation agreement for a development of industry-scale solution is sought.

Description

A Czech research institute has a broad experience in developing ideas, creative solutions and implementation of current technologies in new applications. After successful lab-scale or pilot-plant scale tests (based on own design) the Czech research institute is missing means for a final engineering to implement the ideas successfully into the practice. However, (thanks to the acquired knowledge during the tests and prototype creation) Czech research institute can contribute widely to the development of engineering solution.

In the particular examined case, the evaporators were used for the concentration of boric acid (H3BO3) solution from a primary coolant at nuclear power plants to produce clean concentrate for further re-use.Membranes from three different manufacturers were evaluated during the non-radioactive testing and proved to be of comparable separation performance, which proves the independency of phenomena and eliminates the risk of relying on the one particular product. The primary coolant pre-concentration led to lowering volume needed to evaporate and thus reducing costs. Pumping of the waste liquid through the membrane unit is 10-times cheaper than evaporating the same volume.

The technology offered is less energy demanding and more flexible in terms of start-up and shut-down than conventional atmospheric evaporator. Furthermore, the risk of handling hot waste (106°C boiling point) is eliminated since the membrane separation runs at room temperature. Although this example might seem specific, it brings this membrane solution to the broader scope of application. Any subject using evaporators for concentrating process/waste solutions can benefit from this technology.

A Czech research institute offers an alternative low-cost solution, which has been successfully tested at a nuclear power station and offers this know-how for developing this technology in an industrial scale. The role of the partner sought will be design and development of equipment for liquid waste processing for different types and compositions of water solutions together with the research institute in order to jointly introduce customized solutions to the market. There is also an interest of Czech research institution to use an opportunity to support the development by joining one of the public-funded projects (e.g. Horizon2020 etc.) together with an engineering company as the industrial partner.

Advantages and Innovations

- The technology offered reduces evaporators energy demand by pre-concentration of the feed solution
- Purified water can be recycled and reused more specifically in the process
- Technology is easy to operate without need of highly-trained operators
- Technology can operate under high safety requirements of nuclear facility
- Hazards related to hot-liquid handling has been eliminated

Stage Of Development

Field tested/evaluated

Stage Of Development Comment

The technology has been tested in the institute’s laboratory and few field-tests have been carried out at the power plant. The technology can be easily-operated and satisfy the high safety requirements of the nuclear power plant.

Requested partner

Type of partner sought: engineering company
- Company providing solutions for their clients or clients who have a specific requirement for the technology
- Company developing universal solution to be part of their standard portfolio

Specific area of activity of the partner:
- chemical industry
- nuclear industry
- electric power generation
- waste water treatment

Task to be performed by the partner sought: Technical cooperation agreement
The Czech research institute offers know-how for projecting this technology in an industrial scale and customized solutions for different types and compositions of water solution.

Cooperation offer is closed for requests