How Do I Seperate Salts from Other Solids?

Could you not wash the salt out of the solids with some sort of agent like some sort of solvent or perhaps hot water, then let the agent evaporate. This should leave just the salt that was extraced from the solids.

The salt was origionally in solution. I distilled the water and the salt is now in the solids that were left.

Solar evaporation ponds? That's the cheapest in energy terms. Otherwise an awful lot of process heat is going to be needed from elsewhere....

What about not putting these salts into the liquid waste stream in the first place?

The salt and other naterials are in solution to begin with. My waste stream is the flow back water from the frac process in LNG drilling. I am cleaning the water by distillation and the salts are in the dried solids that are left. I am trying to seperate the salt so it can be used and reduce my disposal cost.

If the other solids are insoluble, how about filtering, settling, and/or centrifuging them out; and then evaporating the water from the remainig soluble salts?

If all the solids and salts are soluble, I'm guessing it would be more complicated, say by using a sequence of selective precipitant chemicals--but that sounds like adding to the problem....

All the material is soluble to begin with. I am evaporating the water to create the solids waste that is left. My starting waste stream is the flow back water from the frac process in LNG drilling. I am trying to separate the salt so it can be used and reduce my disposal cost.

Once the material is dried, what about a fluidized bed? The heavier material will fall and the lighter one will rise forming two distinct layers in the mass of material. This could allow you to scoop a large amount of the lighter material out of the mass. I like this idea (but then again I thought of it - LOL) and would give it a try out.

Or what about a cyclone separator? Lummy - without knowing what materials CR4 is actually dealing with, virtually any separation technique could be used. What about a garden sieve, perhaps?

Definitely we need to know all the elements involved. Ones that are magnetic can be separated out by magnetic means. Ones that are conductive can be separated out by galvanic means. Ones that are heavy can be separated out by gravity, or a centrifuge. Done in the correct order, you will eventually end up with all the elements separate.

Just like in the petroleum industry, where different things come off at different temps and pressures.

There are to many elements to name and they very from job to job. My beginning waste stream is the flow back water from the frac process in LNG drilling. I am cleaning the flow back water by distillation and the solids are the materials left behind. I am trying to re-use the salt and reduce the disposal cost. Fractional distillation is to expensive.

If fractional distillation is too expensive, and you have tons of this mix, have you considered selling it as road salt? A mix of salts and sands would be perfect for icy roads.

Yes we have and that is why we are trying to get some of the other things out so it will not cause an EPA problem.

Now we're getting somewhere. If you can list the materials you want to separate from the stuff acceptable for road use, maybe we can come up with some ideas.

If you are already going to the expense of distilling, maybe there is a place in the process where we can extract the bad boys.

Mike

I do not know how to attach a file to one of these posting. If can email me at

griggsdak@acttelco.net I will send you the lab report on the waste stream.

That would not do any good. I'm not a chemist. If the elements are listed here, folks much smarter than I can advise you.

There's salt, then there's salts. Is this margarita salt or ?copper chloride?

What's in the waste stream?

It would make things a lot easier if it were margarita salt. It is actually a combination of salts. The waste stream is the flow back water from the frac process in LNG drilling. I am distilling all the water and the salt is in the solid material left behind.

Perhaps a molecular sieve type device?