Friday, May 30, 2025
Project "MiningWater": field trial at phosphate mine
As part of the project “MiningWater” in the Middle East Regional Water Research Cooperation Program (MEWAC), BFI has set up successfully together with the technology provider CERAFILTEC Germany GmbH for ceramic flat sheet filtration and the Jordan water treatment plant builder Irshaidat Co. a field trial at a Jordan phosphate mine.
In the field trial, a solid free filtrate was produced from a feed flow with a solid content of about 30 volume %, as mandatory step before the following softening and desalting of the water. Focus of the demonstration under operational conditions is the recovery of phosphate solids as valuable material as well as the water to decrease the freshwater consumption, based on a in lab trials determined technology combination. The combination consists of an under-pressure filtration with ceramic flat sheet membranes followed by a selective nanofiltration for sulphate removal and a membrane based capacitive deionisation for Hashtag#desalting, producing a water composition fulfilling the requirements for an internal reuse.
The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
