New Membrane Technology for Reuse at a Zero Discharge Power Plant

An excessive process waste water inventory is threatening the operation of a zero discharge power plant due to the limited available storage capacity. The goal of this project is to reduce water storage inventory by 750 million gallons by treating waste process water to reuse quality. Reusing water internal to the system permits a reduction of raw water introduced to the system and thus a reduction in the stored water inventory. Pressurized semi-permeable membrane separation was the best available treatment technology for economically treating this particular water source. Vibratory Sheer Enhanced Processing (VSEP) is an emerging membrane technology that was pilot tested to achieve this goal. Due to the encouraging preliminary results of the pilot, phase I construction of a full scale VSEP reuse treatment plant began prior to completion of the piloting effort. Phases II and III will provide the full treatment capacity required to meet the process water inventory reduction goal within 4-5 years.