Treatment Technologies for Cooling Water Blowdown: A Critical Review

Abstract

Cooling water blowdown (CWBD) generated from different industries and district cooling facilities contains high concentrations of various chemicals (e.g., scale and corrosion inhibitors) and pollutants. These contaminants in CWBD streams deem them unsuitable for discharge into surface water and some wastewater treatment plants. The pollutants present in CWBD, their sources, and the corresponding impacts on the ecosystem are discussed. The international and regional (Gulf states) policies and regulations related to contaminated water discharge standards into water bodies are examined. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the existing and emerging water treatment technologies for the treatment of CWBD. The study presents a comparison between the membrane (membrane distillation (MD), reverse osmosis (RO), nanofiltration (NF), and vibratory shear enhanced membrane process (VSEP)) and nonmembrane-based (electrocoagulation (EC), ballasted sand flocculation (BSF), and electrodialysis (ED)) technologies on the basis of performance, cost, and limitations, along with other factors. Results from the literature revealed that EC and VSEP technologies generate high treatment performance (EC~99.54% reduction in terms of silica ions) compared to other processes (membrane UF with reduction of 65% of colloidal silica). However, the high energy demand of these processes (EC~0.18–3.05 kWh/m3 and VSEP~2.1 kWh/m3) limit their large-scale applications unless connected with renewable sources of energy.