Waste Stream Routing for Low-Concentration Material Recovery
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Solution Overview
Problem
Coal-fired power plants' waste streams contain low concentrations of valuable materials like rare earth elements and hazardous metals, making extraction economically infeasible due to the need for large volumes of treatment and the use of hazardous compounds, which results in additional waste and costs.
Innovation Solution
An automated method and system that monitors input and output streams for the presence and concentration of materials of interest, directing streams with sufficient concentrations to a byproduct path for recovery and those without to a waste path for disposal, thereby increasing material concentrations and reducing treatment volumes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If known treatment processes are used to extract materials of interest from waste streams, then materials can be recovered, but the processes require hazardous compounds and large volumes of waste treatment, making them uneconomical
Solution Approach 1:
The waste stream is divided into multiple segments or zones within the reactor, allowing different treatment conditions to be applied to different portions. This enables selective concentration and recovery of materials without treating the entire waste volume uniformly, reducing the need for hazardous compounds.
Solution Approach 2:
An intermediary substance or catalyst is introduced that facilitates material recovery without requiring hazardous compounds. This intermediary enables the extraction process to proceed under milder, more economical conditions while maintaining effectiveness.
2Quantity of substance
If large volumes of waste streams are treated to recover meaningful quantities of materials, then material recovery increases, but treatment costs and hazardous chemical usage increase
Solution Approach 1:
The process selectively discards or bypasses portions of the waste stream that do not contain significant concentrations of materials of interest, while concentrating and recovering materials from the relevant portions. This reduces the overall volume requiring treatment and minimizes hazardous waste generation.
Solution Approach 2:
The treatment process dynamically adjusts parameters such as flow rate, chemical dosage, or reaction conditions based on the concentration and composition of the waste stream. This optimization ensures efficient material recovery while minimizing the use of hazardous compounds and treatment volume.
3Productivity
If material concentrations in waste streams are low, then extraction becomes economically infeasible, but treating larger volumes to achieve meaningful recovery increases costs
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary analysis or pre-treatment of the waste stream to identify and concentrate materials of interest before the main extraction process. This preliminary action increases material concentration in the feed to the extractor, improving extraction efficiency without requiring treatment of large volumes.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention replaces traditional mechanical or chemical extraction methods with an alternative mechanism such as biological degradation, electrochemical processes, or enzymatic reactions. This substitution enables efficient material recovery from low-concentration streams without the need for large-scale chemical treatment.
Data Source
AI summary
A system, method, and computer readable medium are provided that monitors at least one of an input and output stream for at least one of a presence of a material of interest and a concentration of the material of interest; when the material of interest is present and/or has at least a threshold concentration, directs the at least one of an input and output stream to a waste location or path to discard the material of interest; and when the material of interest is either not present or does not have at least a threshold concentration, directs the at least one of an input and output stream to a byproduct location or path to recover the material of interest.