Scaling risk assessment in nanofiltration of mine waters

Nanofiltration can be applied for the treatment of mine waters. One of the main problems is the risk of crystallization of sparingly soluble salts on the membrane surface (scaling). In this work, a series of batch-mode nanofiltration experiments of the mine waters was performed in a dead-end Sterlitech® HP 4750X Stirred Cell. Based on the laboratory results, the concentration profiles of individual ions along the membrane length in a single-pass industrial-scale nanofiltration (NF) unit was calculated, assuming the tanks-in-series flow model inside the membrane module. These calculations also propose a method for estimating the maximum achievable recovery before the occurrence of the calcium sulfate dihydrate scaling in a single-pass NF 40″ length spiral wound module, simultaneously allowing metastable supersaturation of calcium sulfate dihydrate. The performance of three membrane types (NF270, NFX, NFDL) has been evaluated for the nanofiltration of mine water.