WO2013058761A1

WO2013058761A1 - Waste water treatment system

Info

Publication number: WO2013058761A1
Application number: PCT/US2011/057236
Authority: WO
Inventors: Dong Donald Nguyen; Paul Nels WICKSTROM
Original assignee: Compass Water Solutions, Inc.
Priority date: 2011-10-21
Filing date: 2011-10-21
Publication date: 2013-04-25

Abstract

A waste water treatment system is presented that for use in reducing pollutant levels in vinaza waste streams, i.e., tequila distillery waste water streams. The system is particularly effective in reducing total suspended solids (TSS), total dissolved solids (TDS), biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) values below acceptable limits. The waste water treatment system includes the interconnected components of a coarse suspended solids removal unit, a coarse filtration unit, an ultrafiltration unit, a nanofiltration unit, and a reverse osmosis network. The output from such a system may meet drinking water standards.

Description

WASTE WATER TREATMENT SYSTEM

The present invention is directed generally to improvements in the treatment of aqueous waste streams having a significant content of organic matter and, more particular, to a system for that substantially reduces the amounts of various pollutants from distillery waste steams.

BACKGROUND

Water pollution can be defined when a body of water is adversely affected due to the addition of some sort of unwanted materials into that body of water. Discharges containing large amounts of material released into the environment can result in various types of pollution which can damage soil, aquifer, or surface water bodies. One type of pollution is the release of toxic materials that directly damages or even destroys the top soils and the subsurface aqueous ecosystem site. Another type of water pollution is the release of relatively high concentrations of nutrients, i.e., non-toxic materials, that result in stimulating population blooms of various decomposer organisms. These population blooms may result in using up a great deal of oxygen during their growth which leads to oxygen depletion in the aqueous ecosystem. This lack of oxygen not only results in killing aquatic organisms but further aggravates the situation in that as the aquatic organisms die the decomposer break down these dead aquatic organisms which leads to further depletion of the oxygen.

As a result, organic waste streams often need to be treated in some manner before they are properly released into the aqueous environment. Organic waste streams, such as those in conventional municipal waste and wastewater plants, food manufacturing facilities, industrial factories, and animal farms, are typically treated either physically, chemically, and/or biologically before routing their respective effluents back into the environment.

In part, due to increased public demand, lobbying, legislation and regulatory oversight, technologies to treat these organic waste streams have progressed significantly in recent years. Sometimes these treatment technologies have even been resulted in developing treatment techniques that result in realizing new and useful byproducts from these waste streams. Oftentimes these treatment technologies are geared towards minimizing cost and energy consumption.

With increasing demands for cellulosic distillery products, a concomitant increasing pressure to upgrade, modify, or supplement their waste stream treatments arises. Distillery wastewater, also termed stillage or vinaza, is the aqueous by-product from the distillation process of ethanol production followed by fermentation of carbohydrates.

Water usage at distilleries can generate millions of gallons of wastewater daily. Disposal of the wastewater adds substantially to the cost of the product. Additionally, distillery wastewaters impose substantial pollutant loads on down-stream publicly owned treatment works due to high levels of color, chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD) and suspended solids.

Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a system and method that can be used to effectively and efficiently remove contaminants from wastewater especially in waste streams distillery products.

SUMMARY The presently described waste water treatment system, according to the principles of the present invention, overcomes a number of the shortcomings of the prior art by providing a novel system for use in reducing various pollutant levels in a vinaza waste stream. The system is particularly effective in reducing total suspended solids (TSS), total dissolved solids (TDS), biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) values below acceptable limits. The waste water treatement system includes the interconnected components of a coarse suspended solids removal unit, a coarse filtration unit, an ultrafiltration unit, a nanofiltration unit, and a reverse osmosis network. The output from such a system may even meet drinking water standards.

Numerous other features and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading of the following detailed description of presently preferred, but nonetheless illustrative, embodiments of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompany drawings. In this respect, before explaining the current embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the

phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.

As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

DRAWINGS

The invention will be better understood and aspects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 shows a waste water treatment system of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following detailed embodiments presented herein are for illustrative purposes. That is, these detailed embodiments are intended to be exemplary of the present invention for the purposes of providing and aiding a person skilled in the pertinent art to readily understand how to make and use of the present invention.

Accordingly, the detailed discussion herein of one or more embodiments is not intended, nor is to be construed, to limit the metes and bounds of the patent protection afforded the present invention, in which the scope of patent protection is intended to be defined by the claims and their equivalents thereof. Therefore, embodiments not specifically addressed herein, such as adaptations, variations, modifications, and equivalent arrangements, should be and are considered to be implicitly disclosed by the illustrative embodiments and claims described herein and therefore fall within the scope of the present invention. Additionally, it is important to note that each term used herein refers to that which a person skilled in the relevant art would understand such term to mean based on the contextual use of such term herein. To the extent that the meaning of a term used herein, as understood by the person skilled in the relevant art based on the contextual use of such term, differs in any way from any particular dictionary definition of such term, it is intended that the meaning of the term as understood by the person skilled in the relevant art should prevail.

Referring now to the drawings, and in particular FIG. 1 , one preferred

embodiment of the present invention is shown and generally designated by the reference numeral 10. One preferred embodiment of the waste water treatment system 10 comprises a coarse suspended solids removal unit 20, a coarse filtration unit 60, an ultrafiltration unit 70, a nanofiltration unit 80, and a reverse osmosis network 130. The pretreatment unit 30 comprises of large-scale front end solids removal units. The coarse suspended solids removal unit 20 is configured to be fluidly connected to a pre- treatment unit 30 to receive a waste stream 40. The coarse filtration unit 60 is fluidly connected to the coarse suspended solids removal unit 20 to receive treated output 21 from the coarse suspended solids removal unit 20. The ultrafiltration unit 70 fluidly is connected to the coarse filtration unit 60 to receive treated output 61 from the coarse filtration unit 60. The nanofiltration unit 80 is fluidly connected to the ultrafiltration unit 70 to receive treated output 81 from the ultrafiltration unit 70. The reverse osmosis network 130 fluidly connected to the ultrafiltration unit 70 to receive treated output 71 from the nanofiltration unit 80. The pretreatment unit 30 can be a band filter, a hydroclone, a centrifugal filter, a rotating screw press, a filter press, or a multimedia bed filter. One preferred

embodiment of the pretreatment is a multi-media bed filter on which the compost from vinaza can be spread as the top layer. The coarse suspended solids removal unit 20 can be any known commercially available coarse suspended solids removal unit 20 such as those selected from the group consisting of a filtration coarse suspended solids removal unit 20, a centrifuge coarse suspended solids removal unit 20, a dissolved air flotation (DAF) coarse suspended solids removal unit 20, an Electrocoagulation unit, and a coagulation flocculation coarse suspended solids removal unit 20. One preferred embodiment of the coarse suspended solids removal unit 20 is that it is a dissolved air flotation (DAF) coarse suspended solids removal unit 20 in which DAF coarse suspended solids removal unit 20 is configured to inject air into the waste stream 40 which acts lift suspended solids in the waste stream 40, and the DAF coarse suspended solids removal unit 20 is configured to skim off the suspended solids away from the waste stream 40.

The DAF coarse suspended solids removal unit 20 may also be configured to add a flocculant 100 into the waste stream 40 in which the coagulant 100 may any known coagulant 100 such as those selected from the group consisting of aluminum sulfate, polyaluminium chloride, ferrous chloride, ferric chloride, ferrous sulfate, ferric sulfate, aluminium chlorohydrate, alum, aluminasol. The DAF coarse suspended solids removal unit 20 may also be configured to add a flocculant 1 10 into the waste stream 40 in which the flocculant 1 10 may be any known flocculant 1 10 such as those selected from the group consisting of polyamines, polyacrylamide, polydiallyldimethylammonium chloride (polyDADMAC), a cationic polymer, an anionic polymer, a nonionic emulsion polymer, polyethylenimine acetates, polyethylenimines, acrylamide-acrylic-acid copolymers, and mixtures thereof.

The coarse filtration unit 60 may be any known commercially available coarse filtration unit 60 such as those selected from the group consisting of a duplex bag coarse filtration unit 60, a hydrocyclone coarse filtration unit 60, and a sand filter unit 60. One preferred embodiment of the coarse filtration unit 60 is that it is a duplex bag coarse filtration unit 60.

The ultrafiltration unit 70 may be any known commercially available ultrafiltration unit 70 having a semipermeable membrane 120 in which the semipermeable membrane

120 may be made from any commercially available material such as those selected from the group consisting of polysulfone, polyethersulfone, polyvinylidene fluoride, polyacrylonitrile, polyvinylidene flouride (PVDF), and mixtures thereof. The membrane can be selected also from a line of UF ceramic membrane 120 with capability to backflush.

The nanofiltration unit 80 may be any known commercially available nanofiltration unit 80 having a semipermeable membrane 121 in which the semipermeable membrane

121 may be made from any commercially available material such as those selected from the group consisting of polysulfone, polyethersulfone, polyvinylidene fluoride (PCDF), polyacrylonitrile, an aromatic polyamide, and mixtures thereof, wherein the aromatic polyamide is selected from the group consisting poly (paraphenylene terephthalamide), poly(4,4'-benzanilide terephthalamide), poly (paraphenylene-4,4'- biphenylene dicarboxamide), poly(paraphenyle-ne-2,6-naphthalene dicarboxamide), a poly(arylene ether amide), heterocyclic amide polymer, poly(m-xylylene adipamide- isophthalamide), poly(2,4,6-triaminocaproic acid 1 ,3,5-triazine), poly(N,N'-(1 ,3- phenylene)isophthalamide), polybenzimidazole, poly(trimellitic anhydride chloride-co- 4,4' methylenedianiline), poly(trimellitic anhydride chloride-alt-benzidine),

poly(hexamethylene isophthalamide), poly(hexamethylene terephthalamide), poly(heptamethylene pimelamide), poly(m-xylylene adipamide), poly(p-xylylene sebacamide), poly(2,2,2-trimethyl hexamethyiene terephthalamide), poly (p-phenylene terephthalamide), poly(metaphenylene isophthalamide), and mixtures thereof.

One preferred embodiment is that the ultrafiltration unit 70 is composed of a polyvinylidene flouride (PVDF) semipermeable membrane 120 and the nanofiltration unit 80 is composed of an aromatic polyamide semipermeable membrane 121 .

The reverse osmosis network 130 utilizes RO membranes to removes the final traces of BOD. The RO membranes 131 can be structured as thin film composite with the top layer made of cellulose acetate, polyamide, polyimide, or polyacrylonitrile. The top layer can be impregnated with various amounts of zeolites or other inorganic fillers to improve flows and rejection limits of solutes. The reverse osmosis network 30 may be any known reverse osmosis network 130 such as being a single or a multi stage reverse osmosis network 130. One embodiment of the reverse osmosis network 130 is a single stage reverse osmosis network 130 that comprises a first reverse osmosis unit 140 fluidly connected to the nanofiltration unit 80 to receive treated output 81from the nanofiltration unit 80. Another embodiment of the reverse osmosis network 130 is a multi stage reverse osmosis network 130 that comprises: a first reverse osmosis unit 140 fluidly connected to the nanofiltration unit 80 to receive treated output 81 from the nanofiltration unit 80; a second reverse osmosis unit 150 fluidly connected to the first reverse osmosis unit 140 to receive treated output 141 from the first reverse osmosis unit 140; and a third reverse osmosis unit 160 fluidly connected to the second reverse osmosis unit 150 to receive treated output 151 from the second reverse osmosis unit 150 . Yet another embodiment is that reverse osmosis network 130 also comprises a first reverse osmosis unit 40 fluidly connected to the nanofiltration unit 80 to receive treated output 81 from the nanofiltration unit 80; a second reverse osmosis unit 150 fluidly connected to the first reverse osmosis unit 140 to receive treated output 141 from the first reverse osmosis unit 140; a third reverse osmosis unit 160 fluidly connected to the second reverse osmosis unit 150 to receive treated output 51 from the second reverse osmosis unit 150 ; and a fourth reverse osmosis unit 170 fluidly connected to the third reverse osmosis unit 160 to receive treated output 161 from the third reverse osmosis unit 160.

The waste stream 40 may be any aqueous based waste stream 40 such as those included in the group consisting of a cellulosic ethanol distillate waste stream 40, an ethanol distillate waste stream 40, a fruit juice waste stream 40, an agave nectar waste stream 40, and a tequila distillate waste stream 40. One preferred waste stream 40 is that it is a tequila distillate waste stream 40 which is also known as vinaza.

One embodiment involves routing reject streams 22, 72, and 82 from the coarse suspended solids removal unit 20, the ultrafiltration unit 70, the nanofiltration unit 80, and the reverse osmosis unit back to the pre-treatment unit 30.

An optional flash evaporator 250 may be added to the system 10 in which the optional flash evaporator 250 may be fluidly connected to the reverse osmosis network 130. The optional flash evaporator 250 may be configured to receive and to flash evaporate a portion of the reject concentrates 142, 152, and 162 from units 140, 150, and 160 of the reverse osmosis network 130 and 82 from the nanofiltration unit 80 to return non-volatile components back into the either the nanofiltration unit 80 or the DAF unit 20.

An optional pH monitor 180 may be added to the system 10 in which the optional pH monitor 180 may be configured to measure pH in treated flow from at least one of the coarse suspended solids removal unit 20, the coarse filtration unit 60, the

ultrafiltration unit 70, the nanofiltration unit 80, and the reverse osmosis network 130.

An optional conductivity monitor 190 may be added to the system 10 in which the optional conductivity monitor 190 is may be configured to measure conductivity in treated flow from at least one of the coarse suspended solids removal unit 20, the coarse filtration unit 60, the ultrafiltration unit 70, the nanofiltration unit 80, and the reverse osmosis network 130.

An optional turbidity monitor may be added to the systems 70, 80,and 140 in which the optional turbidity meter is may be configured to measure turbidity in treated flows 71 , 81 , and 141 from the ultrafiltration units 70, the nanofiltration 80, and the first RO unit 140. An optional compost solids bin 200 may be added to the system 10 in which the optional compost solids bin 200 may be configured to receive skimmed-off suspended solids from the waste stream 40. An optional carbon filter 210 may be added to the system 10 in which the optional carbon filter 210 may be fluidly connected to the reverse osmosis network 130 to receive treated output 50 from the reverse osmosis network 130.

An optional degasser 220 may be added to the system 10 in which the optional degasser 220 may be fluidly connected between the coarse suspended solids removal unit 20 and configured to be fluidly connected to the pre-treatment unit 30 to receive the waste stream 40.

An optional ozone generator 230 may be added to the system 10 in which the optional ozone generator 230 may be configured to be fluidly connected to the reverse osmosis network 130 to receive treated output 162 from the reverse osmosis network 130.

An optional pH balancing unit 240 may be added to the system 10 in which the optional pH balancing unit 240 may be fluidly connected to the reverse osmosis network 130 to receive treated output 162 from the reverse osmosis network 30 and the pH balancing unit 240 is configured to pH adjust treated output 50 from the reverse osmosis network 130.

Example

Vinaza is the by-product from tequila distillation process. Sugar from Blue Agave is extracted and fermented to produce Tequila. The production of one liter of Tequila can generate about seven liters of vinaza. Vinaza is rich in BOD, COD, alcohol, and solid residues which are carried over from the cooking, grinding, and pressing processes that extract the sugar from the Blue Agave. Vinaza liquor is processed by first removal of the solids, the dissolved solids and finally the alcohols. Presently, the governmental regulations mandate that waste stream 40 disposal contains no more than 75 ppm. It is thought that the residual alcohols in vinaza account for the majority of the high BOD values.

The raw vinaza is collected in a pond. From the pond, the raw vinaza can be filtered, centrifuged, or chemically treated, and then stored in the filtered vinaza pond. The filtered vinaza can be fed to the DAF unit from the vinaza pre-treatment unit 30.

Coarse suspended solids can be removed by filtration, centrifuge, dissolve air flotation, coagulation, flocculation, or any combination of these technologies as required by the particular work site conditions. The goals of cleaning up the vinaza or any other comparable waste stream 40 is to reduce the Total Suspended Solids (TSS) and total Dissolved Solids to somewhere less than 1000 ppm prior to any membrane treatment.

Using the dissolved air flotation (DAF) coarse suspended solids removal unit 20 is a preferred method for separating fine suspended solids from the tequila distillate vinaza waste stream 40. A portion of the treated outlet from the subsequent reverse osmosis network 130 is returned, i.e., recycled, back to the DAF coarse suspended solids removal unit 20 after being saturated with air at 70 psi using an air-water mixing pump. Such air-saturated water is released into the incoming stream of the DAF coarse suspended solids removal unit 20 to close to ambient pressure, which allow the reformation of microscopic air bubbles. The air bubbles agglomerate with small solids to float them up to the top, which are then skimmed off using a skimmer. Not only TSS, but also a significant amount of TDS can be skimmed off especially if a coagulant 1 10 is used. The DAF coarse suspended solids removal unit 20 treatment is followed by a duplex bag coarse filtration unit 60 which offers a positive barrier to protect the down stream ultrafiltration unit 70 from receiving any unwanted large debris which might have escaped the DAF coarse suspended solids removal unit 20.

Ultrafiltration is next used to separate remaining fine suspended solids from the filtrate, i.e., the treated outlet from the duplex bag coarse filtration unit 60. To reduce the down stream membrane fouling potential, a submersible ultrafiltration unit 70 is used in which periodic backwashes and cleaning operations are performed to minimize fouling. The ultrafiltration unit 70 can reduce the TSS to less than 350 ppm and reduce the TDS concentration to about 15% of the original TDS concentration in vinaza.

The filtrate, i.e., treated output 50, from the ultrafiltration unit 70 (UF) is mostly clear of visible solids but it still is strongly colored and contains relatively high

concentrations of organics. A nanofiltration unit 80 (NF) is next used at this point to remove the large organic materials and colors to protect the downstream

semipermeable membrane 120s of the reverse osmosis network 130 from being fouled.

Once colors, remaining sugars, large molecular dissolved organics and inorganics are removed, then the treated waste stream 40, i.e., the filtrate or treated output 50, from the nanofiltration unit 80 is treated by the reverse osmosis network 130 comprising a series of a first reverse osmosis unit 140 (RO1 ), a second reverse osmosis unit 150 (RO2), and a third reverse osmosis unit 160 (RO3). Use of this reverse osmosis network 130 successfully drives down the BOD and COD

concentrations to acceptable levels. Results are summarized in the following table of the chemical analysis of Feed Composition of Each Stage of the Process. It should be noted that the DAF stage was not included since experimental results were not available.

The system 10 flow Rates, Pressure, and Recovery for Each Stage are summarized as below.

* This value corresponds to pressured UF membrane at 70 psi which must be converted to the equivalent submersible membrane.

While a number of embodiments of the waste water treatment system device has been described in detail, it should be apparent that modifications and variations thereto are possible, all of which fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention. With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of the invention, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by the present invention.

Claims

CLAIMS We claim

1 . A waste water treatment system comprising:

a coarse suspended solids removal unit configured to be fluidly connected to a pre-treatment unit to receive a waste stream;

a coarse filtration unit fluidly connected to the coarse suspended solids removal unit to receive treated output from the coarse suspended solids removal unit;

an ultrafiltration unit fluidly connected to the coarse filtration unit to receive treated output from the coarse filtration unit;

a nanofiltration unit fluidly connected to the ultrafiltration unit to receive treated output from the ultrafiltration unit; and

a reverse osmosis network fluidly connected to the ultrafiltration unit to receive treated output from the nanofiltration unit.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the coarse suspended solids removal unit is selected from the group consisting of a filtration coarse suspended solids removal unit, a centrifuge coarse suspended solids removal unit, a dissolved air flotation (DAF) coarse suspended solids removal unit, an electrocoagulation coarse suspended solids removal unit, and a coagulation flocculation coarse suspended solids removal unit.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the coarse suspended solids removal unit is a dissolved air flotation (DAF) coarse suspended solids removal unit.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the dissolved air flotation (DAF) coarse suspended solids removal unit is configured to inject air into the waste stream which acts lift suspended solids in the waste stream, and the DAF coarse suspended solids removal unit is configured to skim off the suspended solids away from the waste stream.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the DAF coarse suspended solids removal unit is configured to add a flocculant into the waste stream.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the coagulant is selected from the group consisting of aluminum sulfate, polyaluminium chloride, ferrous chloride, ferric chloride, ferrous sulfate, ferric sulfate, aluminium chloro hydrate, alum, aluminasol.

7. The system of claim 3, wherein the DAF coarse suspended solids removal unit is also configured to add a flocculant into the waste stream.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the flocculant is selected from the group consisting of polyamines, polyacrylamide, polydiallyldimethylammonium chloride (polyDADMAC) , a cationic polymer, an anionic polymer, a nonionic emulsion polymer, polyethylenimine acetates, polyethylenimines, acrylamide-acrylic-acid copolymers, and mixtures thereof.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the coarse filtration unit is selected from the group consisting of a duplex bag coarse filtration unit, a hydrocyclone coarse filtration unit, a vibrating screen coarse filtration unit, an automatic back flushing screen coarse filtration unit, a ceramic cartridge back flushing coarse filtration unit, a self cleaning screen coarse filtration unit, a pleated cartridge coarse filtration unit, a woven cartridge coarse filtration unit 60, a molded cartridge coarse filtration unit, a diatomaceous earth coarse filtration unit, a sand coarse filtration coarse unit, a coarse self cleaning candle coarse filtration unit, a multimedia bed coarse filtration unit, and a rotating screw press coarse filtration unit, a filter press coarse filtration unit, and a sand filter unit.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the ultrafiltration unit comprises a semipermeable membrane selected from the group consisting of polysulfone, polyethersulfone, polyvinylidene fluoride, polyacrylonitrile, polyvinylidene flouride (PVDF), and mixtures thereof, wherein the membrane can also be ceramic materials with back capability and be selected from the group consisting of a ceramic membrane, a hollow fiber membrane, UF disc membrane, and a vibrating membrane.

1 1. The system of claim 1 , wherein the nanofiltration unit comprises a semipermeable membrane selected from the group consisting of polysulfone, polyethersulfone, polyvinylidene fluoride (PCDF), polyacrylonitrile, an aromatic polyamide, and mixtures thereof, wherein the aromatic polyamide is selected from the group consisting poly (paraphenylene terephthalamide), poly(4,4'-benzanilide terephthalamide), poly

(paraphenylene-4,4'-biphenylene dicarboxamide), poly(paraphenyle-ne-2,6-naphthalene dicarboxamide), a poly(arylene ether amide), heterocyclic amide polymer, poly(m- xylylene adipamide-isophthalamide), poly(2,4,6-triaminocaproic acid 1 ,3,5-triazine), poly(N,N'-(1 ,3-phenylene)isophthalamide), polybenzimidazole, poly(trimellitic anhydride chloride-co-4,4' methylenedianiline), poly(trimellitic anhydride chloride-alt-benzidine), poly(hexamethylene isophthalamide), poly(hexamethylene terephthalamide), poly(heptamethylene pimelamide), poly(m-xylylene adipamide), poly(p-xylylene sebacamide), poly(2,2,2-thmethyl hexamethyiene terephthalamide), poly (p-phenylene terephthalamide), poly(metaphenylene isophthalamide), and mixtures thereof.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the ultrafiltration unit comprises a polyvinylidene flouride (PVDF) semipermeable membrane and the nanofiltration unit comprises an aromatic polyamide semipermeable membrane.

13. The system of claim 1 , wherein the reverse osmosis network can be structured to have a thin film composite with a top layer made of cellulose acetate, polyamide, polyimide, or polyacrylonitrile in which the top layer can be impregnated with various amounts of zeolite or other inorganic fillers to improve flows and rejection limit of solutes.

14. The system of claim 1 , wherein the reverse osmosis network is a single stage reverse osmosis network comprising a first reverse osmosis unit fluidly connected to the nanofiltration unit to receive treated output from the nanofiltration unit.

15. The system of claim 1 , wherein the reverse osmosis network is a multi stage reverse osmosis network comprising: a first reverse osmosis unit fluidly connected to the nanofiltration unit to receive treated output from the nanofiltration unit;

a second reverse osmosis unit fluidly connected to the first reverse osmosis unit to receive treated output from the first reverse osmosis unit; and

a third reverse osmosis unit fluidly connected to the second reverse osmosis unit to receive treated output from the second reverse osmosis unit.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the reverse osmosis network further comprises a fourth reverse osmosis unit fluidly connected to the third reverse osmosis unit to receive treated output from the third reverse osmosis unit.

17. The system of claim 1 , wherein the waste stream is a tequila distillate waste stream which is also known as vinaza.

18. The system of claim 1 , wherein the waste stream is selected from the group consisting of a cellulosic ethanol distillate waste stream, ethanol distillate waste stream, a fruit juice waste stream, a lime juice vinaza waste stream, a lemon juice vinaza waste stream, an agave syrup vinaza waste stream, and tequila distillate vinaza waste stream.

19. The system of claim 1 , wherein portions of reject streams from the ultrafiltration unit, the nanofiltration unit and the reverse osmosis unit are routed back to the pre- treatment unit.

20. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a flash evaporator fluidly connected to the reverse osmosis network in which the flash evaporator is configured to receive and to flash evaporate a portion of the reject streams from the reverse osmosis network and to return non-volatile components back into the nanofiltration unit.

21 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a pH monitor configured to measure pH in treated flow from at least one of the coarse suspended solids removal unit, the coarse filtration unit, the ultrafiltration unit, the nanofiltration unit, and the reverse osmosis network.

22. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a conductivity monitor configured to measure conductivity in treated flow from at least one of the coarse suspended solids removal unit, the coarse filtration unit, the ultrafiltration unit, the nanofiltration unit, and the reverse osmosis network.

23. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a turbidity monitor may be added measure turbidity in treated flow from the ultrafiltration unit, the nanofiltration unit, and the first RO unit.

24. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a compost solids bin configured to receive skimmed-off suspended solids from the waste stream.

25. The system of claim , further comprising a carbon filter fluidly connected to the reverse osmosis network to receive treated output from the reverse osmosis network.

26. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a degasser fluidly connected between the coarse suspended solids removal unit and configured to be fluidly connected to the pre- treatment unit to receive the waste stream.

27. The system of claim 1 , further comprising an ozone generator fluidly connected to the reverse osmosis network to receive treated output from the reverse osmosis network.

28. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a pH balancing unit fluidly connected to the reverse osmosis network to receive treated output from the reverse osmosis network and the pH balancing unit is configured to pH adjust treated output from the reverse osmosis network.