LCI Corp
Achieve zero liquid discharge

Achieve Zero Liquid Discharge

Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) is a process in which all liquids are treated and recycled, leaving zero discharge of liquid waste at the end. The primary goals of ZLD are to maximize effluent recycling, minimize environmental impact, and comply with environmental regulations.

Benefits of Zero Liquid Discharge in Industrial Processes

  • Environmental Protection: ZLD eliminates the discharge of industrial effluents into water bodies, reducing water pollution and protecting ecosystems.
  • Water Conservation: By recycling and reusing water, ZLD significantly reduces freshwater consumption, which is critical in water-scarce regions.
  • Regulatory Compliance: Many industries are required to meet stringent environmental regulations. ZLD helps companies comply with these regulations and avoid penalties.
  • Resource Recovery: Valuable by-products such as salts and solvents can be recovered and reused from the waste streams.
  • Reduced Waste Management Costs: ZLD reduces the volume of waste that needs to be managed and disposed of, lowering waste management costs.

How Can Thin Film Evaporators / Dryers Help Achieve ZLD

A Thin Film Evaporator (TFE) plays a role in ZLD systems through its efficiency in handling viscous and heat-sensitive liquids. Here's how a TFE can help achieve ZLD:

  • Efficient Concentration: TFE efficiently concentrates waste streams by evaporating the liquid content, leaving behind concentrated solids. This reduces the volume of liquid waste that needs further treatment.
  • Handling High Viscosity: TFEs are designed to handle high-viscosity materials, utilizing a high-speed rotor, providing rapid surface renewal, making them ideal for concentrating waste streams with a high solid content.
  • Energy Efficiency: TFEs utilize high heat transfer coefficients, making them more energy-efficient compared to other evaporation technologies.
  • Reduced Scaling and Fouling: The thin film created on the heated surface by the rotor minimizes the chances of scaling and fouling, which are common issues in other evaporator types, and often encountered when processing a waste stream.
  • Flexibility: TFEs can be used with a wide range of feed compositions, making them versatile for different industrial applications.

In a ZLD system, the TFE is typically used in conjunction with other technologies such as reverse osmosis (RO), crystallizers, and various dryers to achieve complete water recovery and solid waste minimization. The concentrated brine from the TFE can be further treated in a crystallizer to produce solid salts, leaving no liquid waste.

Your Solution Technology

Thin Film Evaporators

Thin Film Evaporators

An LCI agitated thin film evaporator (TFE) or wiped film evaporator (WFE or "wiffe") provides short residence time and open, low pressure drop configuration, allowing continuous, reliable processing of many heat sensitive, viscous, or fouling materials without product degradation.
Short Path Evaporator

Short Path Evaporators

Short path evaporation is excellent for gently processing heat sensitive, high boiling products. Short path evaporation perfectly complements LCI's thin film evaporation technology program, allowing us even greater capability to provide the right solution for your separation problems.
LCI’s high viscosity processor

High Viscosity Processor

LCI’s high viscosity processor is ideal for various polymers, resins, highly viscous food products and many others because it provides higher heat and mass transfer rates for viscous fluids and reliability when compared to other types of evaporation equipment.
Indirect Contact Dryers

Thin Film Dryers

LCI Thin-Film Dryers concentrate slurries, suspensions, and solutions such as catalyst or salt solutions and crude glycerin with indirect heat transfer and mechanical agitation of the thin product film under both vacuum and positive pressure conditions.

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