Membrane Distillation and Membrane Crystallization for recovery of water and minerals from waste streams

The overall aim with the project is to develop improved and cheaper membranes for membrane crystallization by additive manufacturing (3D printing), which can bring this process closer to commercialization and use at industrial scale. Since membrane crystallization can recover fresh water and minerals from complex waste streams, this project can push the state-of-the-art within zero-liquid discharge in industrial processes. Beside development of new membranes, the project involves two case-studies; one on lithium recovery from brine from RO desalination and phosphorus recovery from lake waters. These specific case-studies are selected based on the potential to achieve zero-liquid discharge in industrial processes utilizing membrane crystallization as an environmental friendly and economical feasible process. Sequential separation of minerals in the two case-studies are of utmost importance and will ensure that the solid products obtained from the streams are high-value products, which can act as raw materials in other processes in the logic of circular economy.