METHOD FOR PRODUCTION OF MAGNESIUM HYDROXIDE FROM SEA WATER
In the production of magnesium hydroxide Mg(OH)2 from sea water, the existing processes in some way need a chemical base to reach the end product. Current processes for recovery of magnesium from sea water make use of lime or dolomite as the alkaline reagent. In the existing production there is a considerable CO2 emission from the production of burnt dolomite, and in addition raw materials have to be transported to the plant as dolomite.
The existing processes need chemicals corresponding to a chemical equivalent amount of base to that of sodium hydroxide (NaOH). A precipitation process with use of NaOH may be a simple way to reach the product if the price on NaOH is low enough.
The object of the invention is thus to produce magnesium hydroxide from sea water in a cheap and efficient way. Another object is to eliminate the drawbacks of already existing methods.
These and other objects of the invention are achieved by the method for production of magnesium hydroxide as described below. The invention is further described and characterised by the enclosed patent claims.
The invention concerns a method for production of magnesium hydroxide from sea water, where magnesium hydroxide is precipitated with sodium hydroxide produced from the same sea water by use of electrodialysis (ED). The magnesium hydroxide could be used as raw material for production of magnesium metal. The feed to the electrodialysis unit is treated by nanofiltration to remove divalent ions, which can interfere with the electodialysis membrane. The resulting sea water is fed to an electrodialysis membrane plant to produce NaOH instead of using the conventional chlor/alkali electrolysis, whereafter magnesium hydroxide is precipitated from the sea water with NaOH solution from the
electodialysis plant. It is preferred to remove humic substances and silicates or other naturally occurring substances in sea water which can foul or poison the electrodialysis membrane by a membrane process. It is preferable to concentrate the feed to the electrodialysis unit by reverse osmosis (RO) and/ or nanofiltration. The reverse osmosis may take place before or after the nanofiltration. The ED-stack preferably consists of repeating ED-cells which are based on a 3-chamber system consisting of a bipolar membrane, a mono-ion selective cation permeable membrane and an anion permeable membrane in a repeating sequence. The alkaline chamber adjacent to the bipolar membrane has a feed solution with low concentration of divalent ions, below 2 mg/l for Mg and Ca. It is preferred that the feed to the other chambers will be sea water or alternatively NF treated sea water. The sea water can be stripped with HCI or acid sea water to remove CO2 before the precipitation step.
The new method will be further described with reference to the accompanying figures 1 -3, where
Figure 1 shows a flow sheet for a process producing NaOH for precipitation of
Mg(OH)2 from sea water with removal of Ca Mg by a nanofiltration unit in the sub stream from the precipitation process to the electrodialysis plant.
Figure 2 shows a flow sheet for a process producing NaOH for precipitation of
Mg(OH)2 from sea water with use of nanofiltration in front of the precipitation stage.
Figure 3 shows the robust construction of the electrodialysis cell and the flow to the different chambers.
The proposed method is based on the use of sodium hydroxide to precipitate magnesium hydroxide from sea water. The important part of the invented method is to produce also the sodium hydroxide from the sea water. One has surprisingly found that it is possible to produce sodium hydroxide directly from the sea water by use of electrodialysis. This has been considered a difficult task because divalent ions will destroy the electrodialysis membranes in a basic environment. However, by combining the electrodialysis (ED) with nanofiltration (NF), it is possible to remove divalent cations to avoid scaling in the ED-process. One of the advantages by using sodium hydroxide would be the
homogeneous reaction for the precipitation, with a straight forward filtration of the product and the minimum impact on the environment.
The feed to the electrodialysis plant may be performed in several ways. In the proposed method it is important to remove the divalent ions which may interfere with the electrodialysis membranes. The method employs nanofiltration for the removal of divalent ions and particles and organic compounds in the sea water. In a large scale plant the particulate and organic composition of the sea water may be considered best to be removed by micro filtration or other methods.
The first alternative is to use the permeate from nanofiltration of sea water for the NaOH-production, that is a raw feed with 29-35 g/l NaCI. Since the efficiency of an electrodialysis cell is very dependent on the conductivity of the electrolyte, the proposed method also includes the possibility of concentrating the sea water to 70-100 g/l NaCI.
Two possible concepts based on precipitation with caustic produced from sea water are presented in the following text:
In figure 1 is presented a process with the use of electrodialysis (ED) for the production of sodium hydroxide to be used in the precipitation process. The feed sea water is treated in a stripper with HCI or acid sea water to remove CO2. The sea water feed-stream is then led to the precipitation process where Mg(OH)2 is precipitated with NaOH-solution from the ED-plant. Then a sub-stream of used sea water from the filtrate and/or clarified process liquid is sent to a nanofiltration unit for the separation of divalent ions.
This option has the advantage that Mg is already removed from the stream to the electrodialysis unit. The focus may therefor be on removing Ca2+ in the feed to the ED-plant. The removal of calcium is based on a nanofiltration unit with high retention of Ca2+ and low retention of NaCI. The sea water sub-stream to the ED-plant is taken from the permeate side of the nanofiltration unit. In this way the Ca2+ and rest of
Mg2+-concentration is reduced by 90% or more, which may reduce the main problems with scaling in the ED-plant. Further scaling problems will be reduced with the use of an antiscalant. The ED-plant may produce HCI or acid sea water dependent on whether the ED-cell is based on a two or three compartment system.
In figure 2 is shown a second process alternative for the use of electrodialysis for the production of sodium hydroxide to be used in the precipitation process. The feed sea water is treated with HCI or acid sea water to remove CO2. Then the feed is sent to a nanofiltration unit for the separation of divalent ions before the precipitation. The residual sea water, which is concentrated in divalent ions, is further sent to precipitation of Mg(OH)2 using NaOH produced in the ED-plant. The sea water sub-stream to the ED-plant is taken from the permeate side of the nanofiltration unit. In this way the Ca+2 and Mg2+ -concentration is reduced by 90% or more which may reduce the main problems with scaling in the ED-plant. Residual scaling problems may be reduced with addition of antiscalant. The advantage of this alternative is that the flow to the precipitation plant is reduced with the same production of Mg(OH)2.
In both alternatives there are options with concentrating of the streams also with respect to the concentration of NaCI. For optimal operation of the ED-unit, regarding to the power consumption, it is beneficial to concentrate the sea water to a higher NaCI concentration. Concentration of the sea water may be desirable in both of the previously presented process configurations. In figure 1 is shown a combined reverse osmosis/ nanofiltration unit (RO/NF) In figure 2 the concentrating of NaCI (by reverse osmosis ,RO) may take place both before and after the nanofiltration unit.
Moderate concentration of sea water by reverse osmosis is conventional technology. Reverse osmosis membranes are semipermeable membranes that are permeable by water but not salts. If a high operating pressure is applied to sea water that is fed to one side of the membrane, freshwater will appear on the opposite side of the membrane. The maximum salt concentration that can be reached by reverse osmosis with regular commercial membranes is about 70 g/l. For further concentration of the salt solution, the reverse osmosis can be combined with nanofiltration to obtain concentrations in the order of 100g/l.
The electrodialysis cell is of an unusual construction to serve spesial purposes and to be robust in operation as shown in figure 3. The ED-stack consists of repeating ED-cells, which are based on a 3-chamber system consisting of a bipolar membrane (B), a mono-ion selective cation permeable membrane (CM) and an anion permeable membrane (A) in a repeating sequence.
Chamber 1 between the bipolar membrane and the mono-ion selective cation permeable membrane will have a feed of NaCI-solution with low concentration of divalent ions. The feed will come from the nanofiltration unit and the concentration of Ca2+ and Mg2+ should be below 2 mg /I according to equipment suppliers. We expect that much higher concentration of Ca2+ may be tolerated if precipitation with certain anions like CO3 2" and SO4 2" can be avoided. This will give a cheaper process. Into chamber 3 between the mono-ion selective cation permeable membrane and the anion permeable membrane the feed will be precipitated and clarified sea water. In chamber 2 between the anion permeable membrane and the acid side of the bipolar membrane, a stream will be circulated with feed of precipitated sea water and bleed of acid sea water. The acid sea water may be used to adjust the pH in chambers 2 and 3.
By using a mono-ion selective membrane between chamber 1 and 3 an alkaline solution is produced by transferring sodium from sea water with low transport of divalent ions. By using a purified sea water stream in chamber 1 without recirculation, the concentrating of the divalent ions in the alkaline product is avoided and sufficient electrical conductance is obtained. By using a three chamber system with sea water flow in chamber 3 the current efficiency with respect to base production is increased.
Results from laboratory experiments.
In laboratory experiments with recirculation the following parameters are measured:
Table 1. Results from test with electrodialysis.
In the laboratory tests the feeds to chambers 2 and 3 had the composition of sea water to demonstrate the separation degree for divalent ions. In the proposed process the feed concentration of divalent ions will be much lower due to the precipitation process and the nanofiltration step.
Nanofiltration of sea water by use of a membrane from DOW, NF-45 gave the following retentions at two different pH.
Table 2. Results from nanofiltration tests on sea water. Retention for several ions.