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US 12,625,063 B2Granted
Optical concentrate monitoring for membrane scaling mitigation
AssigneeColorado School of Mines
InventorsJohan Vanneste, Alexander Schwiebert, John Arthur Bush
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Abstract
Methods and systems are described herein for early detection of scaling during processing of liquid solutions. Particularly, the methods and systems described herein provide detection of the onset of scalant crystallization, so that measures can be deployed in a way that avoids significant scaling of membranes or other separating elements.
Claims15
A method of detecting scaling during processing of a liquid solution, comprising:
- providing a separation system comprising:
- a separation module comprising a separating element that separates one or more solutes from a liquid solution and concentrates the one or more solutes into a concentrate stream;
- an optical turbidity monitor comprising an optical signal source and at least one optical sensor;
- supplying a feed stream of the liquid solution to the separation module at a pressure and a flow rate;
- measuring turbidity of the concentrate stream using the optical turbidity monitor to determine a turbidity value of the concentrate stream;
- calculating a first derivative of the turbidity value with respect to time to generate a turbidity derivative;
- determining a setpoint that corresponds to a concentration of a scalant mineral in the feed stream below which scaling of the separating element by the scalant mineral does not occur;
- comparing the turbidity derivative to the setpoint;
- and
- performing a preventative measure to avoid further scaling by the scalant mineral if the turbidity derivative equals or exceeds the setpoint.
7 more elements
A method of detecting scaling during processing of a liquid solution, comprising:
- providing a separation system comprising:
- at least one separation module comprising a separating element that separates one or more solutes from a liquid solution and concentrates the one or more solutes into a concentrate stream;
- an optical turbidity monitor comprising an optical signal source and at least one optical sensor;
- supplying a feed stream of the liquid solution to the at least one separation module;
- measuring turbidity of the concentrate stream using the optical turbidity monitor to determine a turbidity value of the concentrate stream;
- calculating a first derivative of the turbidity value with respect to time to generate a turbidity derivative;
- determining a setpoint that corresponds to a concentration of a scalant mineral in the feed stream below which scaling of the separating element by the scalant mineral does not occur;
- and
- comparing the turbidity derivative to the setpoint.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.