PH2o Eco Solutions, llc. Forward Water Technologies

Whether treating industrial, brackish, or seawater, one of the biggest challenges in using reverse osmosis (RO) is the management and disposal of produced concentrate. The cost of disposing of concentrate is related to its volume, so the answer is make less of it.

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Unfortunately in high TDS feed streams, simply adding more RO stages to reduce concentrate, results in increased operating pressures and increased fouling and/or scaling due to low shearing concentrate flow rates.

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Some applications try combining RO with a thermal evaporator, allowing the RO to run at lower recovery rates, with the thermal evaporator doing the bulk of the work in reducing concentrate volume. The RO-Thermal evaporator treatment works, however, it comes at a price:  higher capital and operating costs with increased CO2 emissions.

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The solution in reducing brine management costs, CO2 emissions and maximizing water recovery is Forward Water Technologies MAX-FO™ system capable of operating up to 260,000 ppm total dissolved solids.

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The MAX-FO™ is not constrained by limits and challenges commonly associated with reverse osmosis (RO) and thermal evaporators (TE) as the MAX-FO™ is driven by forward osmosis (FO), not pressure or "bulk boiling" as with RO and TE's.

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FO is a unique process that is not pressure driven but uses osmosis as the mechanism in which to extract clean water from brine across a membrane. FO operates with a “draw” or salt solution on one side of the membrane and brine on the other.

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As the salt solution used is significantly higher in osmotic energy than the brine being treated, clean water is spontaneously drawn across the membrane and into the salt solution. Separation of the clean water from the draw solution is achieved by applying a low-grade heat (60°c-90°c) (140°f-175°f) to the solution, causing the draw solution to phase change out of solution as a gas, leaving pure water behind.

The result a system capable of operating up to 260,000 ppm TDS, brine concentrations up to 95%, energy reduction up to 45%, water recovery up to 95% and more....​

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PH2O Eco Solution and Forward Water Technologies offers MAX-FO™ the most advanced and efficient industrial forward osmosis (FO) technology on the market today when water recovery and reuse is critical in meeting your environmental and production goals. Oil & Gas operations are challenging, making MAX-FO™ industrial FO systems ideal when operating in high-fouling, high scaling, and high TDS environments. With robust operations and a wide operating range, PH2O and FWT offers the most efficient, sustainable, and cost-effective solutions for the most demanding of application needs. When conventional technology falls short, FWT rises above offering technologies, services, and support to ensure your success.

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• ​Operates in high fouling/high scaling environments

• ​Up to 45% less energy than conventional thermal evaporator

• ​Up to 50% smaller footprint

• ​Up to 95% water recovery

• ​Lower OPEX due to simple and robust operations