CRESCENDO – Corrosion Resistant Salt Concentration and Dewatering Operation

Short general project overview

Corrosion Resistant Salt Concentrating and Dewatering Operation technology (CRESCENDO) is a further development of the GaLiCos (Gas Liquid Contact System) technology, which was developed by the Dutch company Najade. GaLiCos is an innovative, maintenance-free technology that allows concentrated streams to be thickened using low-grade residual heat. The operation is based on the fact that unsaturated air has the ability to absorb water from a liquid. An important limitation of GaLiCos is that the resistance of materials is the limiting factor when thickening concentrated streams up to the saturation limit. CRESCENDO has been developed to enable thickening of these streams to the level of crystallization. By using high-quality plastic, it can be used within a wide operational window. The plastic is fully recyclable and therefore durable.

Wastewater has often become more concentrated through the use of membranes, but also through a reduction in water consumption in the production of products. Environmental awareness and higher population density mean that, on the other hand, the standards for the disposal of wastewater have become increasingly strict. In regions where the regulations regarding emissions have been/will be implemented later, a lot of heat is often also cooled away to the environment by means of cooling towers. CRESCENDO can put this residual heat to good use for "zero liquid discharge" projects and thus limit the emission of wastewater and the thermal load on surface water.

With the project at Fenghua, the consortium expects to establish a first well-functioning reference in China, a potentially very interesting sales market. The collaboration allows the technology partners to use the reference for commercial purposes and thus value it in other ways.

Goal of the project

The objective of the project is to demonstrate the functioning of the ‘Corrosion Resistant Salt Concentrating and Dewatering Operation’ technology (CRESCENDO) at Changzhou Fenghua Environmental Protection Co., Ltd (Fenghua) in China.

The project is a first important step towards developing the market for CRESCENDO in China. The composition of the consortium is based on the complementary knowledge, expertise and experience that the partners have in relation to each other.

Initial activities and results of the project

Activities:

• Design and construction of the pilot installation;
• Determination of reference situation (0 measurement);
• Implementation and testing of the CRESCENDO pilot plant at Fenghua;
• Demonstration of the CRESCENDO pilot installation for two years;
• Optimization and validation of the CRESCENDO pilot installation;
• Sharing of knowledge arising from the project.

Results:

• Installing and integrating the CRESCENDO pilot plant in Fenghua's process without disrupting Fenghua’s process;
• Scientific underpinnings based on operational process data that demonstrate that the 'CRESCENDO process' operates and functions in a stable manner;
• Understanding the specific design criteria for the full-scale;
• Understanding the time and money required for the operations and maintenance of CRESCENDO;
• Problem owners (potential customers) in China have been introduced to the CRESCENDO technology and have taken note of the application possibilities, performance, benefits and costs;
• Multiple requests from Chinese companies in particular that have an issue regarding the resolution of liquid waste streams that can be solved with the help of CRESCENDO. At least 40 serious tender requests will be considered during the implementation of the project.

Remark

Due to the transparency with regard to the IATI projects, a non-ODA country is mentioned in this project.