Whitewater recovery process

摘要

Whitewater recovery processes, and associated systems and components, are generally described. Certain embodiments relate to whitewater recovery processes in which ion exchange is used to remove dissolved ions from the whitewater, which can reduce the degree to which chemical additives are used in the process. In certain embodiments, flocculation and/or filter components can be employed to aid in the removal of suspended solids from the whitewater.

主权项

1. A method of treating whitewater, comprising:
exposing a liquid input stream comprising whitewater or derived from whitewater and containing cations and suspended solids to a flocculent such that agglomerations of flocculent and suspended solids are formed; removing at least a portion of the agglomerations from the liquid input stream to produce a supernatant stream containing a lower quantity of suspended solids than the liquid input stream; filtering the supernatant stream to produce a retentate stream and a filtrate stream containing a lower quantity of suspended solids than the retentate stream; and reducing an amount of total dissolved solids within the filtrate stream by performing reverse osmosis and/or nanofiltration on the filtrate stream.