
Frozen crystallization wastewater treatment technology
Frozen crystallization: Separation of high-salt and high-organic wastewater with high efficiency and low consumption, and recycling water and resources.
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Solution maturity
Early adoption / Process verification
Cooperation methods
Applicable industry
Applications
Key innovations
This technology uses low-temperature crystallization to separate water, organic matter and salt, and consumes much less energy than traditional high-temperature methods. It significantly reduces VOCs emissions, is less corrosive, achieves high-salt and high-organic wastewater treatment and resource utilization, and has unique physical separation advantages.
Potential economic benefits
This technology has remarkable economic benefits. The energy consumption is low, only 1/6 of the incineration method and 1/3 of the oxidation method, which greatly reduces operating costs. Equipment has less corrosion and long life, reducing maintenance investment. The advantages of initial investment and operating expenses are obvious. High COD removal rate and concentration ratio improve treatment efficiency.
Potential climate benefits
This technology treats wastewater through freezing crystallization, and the energy consumption is much lower than traditional high-temperature treatment methods (such as one-sixth of incineration), directly reducing energy consumption and related carbon emissions during the treatment process. At the same time, recycling water resources in wastewater reduces the energy consumption of fresh water acquisition, treatment and transportation, and achieves indirect carbon reduction.
Solution supplier
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East China University of Science and Technology
East China University of Science and Technology: Focus on the intersection of multiple disciplines such as chemical industry and materials, cultivate innovative talents, and serve national strategies and social development.
Shanghai,China
Solution details
It mainly introduces the following aspects:
1. Project Introduction
Frozen crystallization wastewater treatment technology realizes the separation of water, organic pollutants and salt during the growth process of ice crystals and salt crystals in a water-organic-salt multi-component system at low temperatures. Water molecules repel non-aqueous components during crystallization at the freezing point. As the ice crystals grow, the liquid water content in the system gradually decreases, and the salt in the system gradually condenses and separates out. The key to the technology is to meet the process control in terms of mass transfer and heat transfer of freeze concentration crystallization. It is suitable for solid-liquid separation technology under the conditions of freeze concentration crystallization technology to achieve efficient solid-liquid separation of crystallization compounds, ice crystals and concentrates. This technology has the characteristics of low corrosion to equipment, long operating life, safety and no explosion risk, low VOCs emissions, and low operating costs. It is suitable for the treatment and resource utilization of process waste mother liquor or wastewater containing high salt and high organic matters.
2. Cooperation content
(1) Brief introduction of the main relevant technologies involved
Freezing concentration wastewater treatment technology is based on the solid-liquid equilibrium theory in physical chemistry. It is a new concentration technology that realizes concentration of solutes while obtaining recycled water. At low temperatures, the freezing point of the solute in the solution is lower than the freezing point of water. The water in the solution is first separated out in the form of solid ice crystals, while the solute remains in the form of an aqueous solution in the concentrate. Then the ice crystals (purified water) and the concentrate are separated by a certain solid-liquid separation method to obtain purer ice crystals (purified water), and the concentrate is further processed.
Taking ethylene waste lye (a kind of wastewater with high organic concentration and difficult to biodegrade) as an example, when the original waste liquid COD reaches 264000mg/L, after three-stage freezing treatment (the ice-forming rates of the three stages are 80%), the COD of the third-stage effluent is only 9200 mg/L, and the COD removal rate reaches 96.5%; the COD of the first-stage concentrate is 657000mg/L, and the concentration ratio is 2.5.
Since the latent heat of condensation of water is 3.35×10<sup>5</sup>J/kg, only its latent heat of vaporization is 2.4×10<sup>6</sup>One-seventh of J/kg, the energy required by the freezing process itself is much lower than that of other waste liquid treatment methods that require high temperatures (such as wet air oxidation, incineration, etc.). In addition, freezing treatment of waste liquid also has great advantages in terms of equipment number, primary investment, and operating costs.
In addition to having great advantages in energy consumption, this green technology also has the characteristics of low corrosiveness to equipment, long operating life, safety without explosion risks, low VOCs emissions, and low operating costs. It is suitable for treatment and resource utilization of process waste mother liquor or wastewater containing high salt and organic matter.
(2) Proposed cooperation areas and partners
Frozen crystallization wastewater treatment technology is suitable for regions and enterprises that need the treatment and resource utilization of process waste mother liquor containing high salt and high organic matters or high-concentration refractory organic wastewater. It is especially suitable for areas with insufficient water resources. The water resources in wastewater and waste liquid can be efficiently recycled through frozen crystallization wastewater treatment technology to reduce the consumption of water resources in the production process.
This green technology generally adopts the "design-procurement-construction" business model. It can be entrusted by the owner to implement the whole process or several stages of contracting the design, procurement, construction, commissioning, etc. of the engineering construction project in accordance with the contract, and under the total price contract conditions, be responsible for the quality, safety, cost and progress of the contracted project.
3. Cooperation cases
This green technology has established freeze concentration projects for high-concentration and high-salt wastewater from the pharmaceutical intermediates and resin industries in Shanghai Huayi Group and Guangdong Sanben Chemical, with a treatment scale of 20t/d.
IV. Environmental impact assessment
Due to the unique technical characteristics of this green technology, the energy required by the freezing process itself is much lower than that of other waste liquid treatment methods that require high-temperature operation.(such as wet air oxidation, incineration, etc.), the energy consumption for wastewater and waste liquid treatment can be greatly reduced compared with traditional technologies, which is about one-sixth of that of incineration and about one-third of that of oxidation methods; Due to the low temperature of the treatment process, fully enclosed equipment, and small VOCs emissions, the environmental impact is much less than that of traditional wastewater and waste liquid treatment technologies; In addition, freezing methods also have great advantages in treating wastewater and waste liquid in terms of equipment quantity, primary investment, and operating cost.
Last updated
10:02:43, Nov 04, 2025
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