DESAL+ LIVING LAB incorporates a brine concentration pilot plant into its brine valorisation open testbed

Thanks to funding of Cabildo de Gran Canaria – SPEGC, ITC Water Department has been developing during the last year a testing and verification area for brine valorisation technologies at its Pozo Izquierdo facilities in Gran Canaria, linked to the DESAL+ LIVING LAB platform. The latest addition is a pilot plant for brine concentration using the Osmotically Assisted Reverse Osmosis (OARO) membrane technology. This pilot plant joins the infrastructure that forms the experimental testing area of ITC in the field of brine valorisation from seawater desalination plants, which already includes reverse osmosis (RO), forward osmosis (FO), and nanofiltration (NF) technologies. In August of this year, the Turkish company Hyrec won the tender launched by the ITC in June titled “Supply, installation and commissioning of a brine concentration pilot plant for seawater desalination plants using OARO (Osmotically Assisted Reverse Osmosis) technology”. The OARO technology allows the concentration of monovalent ion-rich brine from a nanofiltration process to levels exceeding 200 g/L, with significantly lower specific energy consumption (SEC) compared to thermal processes. This high-concentration and purity brine can be used in different brine valorisation processes, successfully converting this waste into a high-value resource, either through the production of salts, minerals, or chemicals relevant to the Canary Islands market, in line with circular economy strategies. This initiative is part of the SEIDI2NEW_AGUA Project (Investment in infrastructure and equipment in technological entities contributing to the development of R&D&I activities related to the exploitation of marine resources on the island of Pozo Izquierdo). The project is 100% funded by Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad, according to the Collaboration Agreement of November 13, 2018, between Cabildo de Gran Canaria and Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (now Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación).