Environmental Benign Water Treatment And Sustainability Research Group
Horizon Europe keywords:
· Clean and healthy air, water and soil
Introduction of the Research Group
The Environmental Benign Water Treatment and Sustainability Research Group (EBWTSRG) was established to coordinate the joint use and development of the research infrastructure available at BME aiming to solve industrial problems in an environmentally friendly way. The research group works at the Department of Energy Engineering but we collaborate with other colleagues at BME. In thermal power plants, water loss can appear in the boiler and cooling systems. To maintain and operate the boiler effectively, the feed must have high purity. Ultrapure water as make up water can be produced via conventional, chemical using system or modern system.We are able to carry out technological calculations and flow-sheeting to compare the conventional make-up water producing method using reactor, gravel filter, microfilter as pre-treatment, followed by ion-exchange as desalination and mixed bed ion-exchange as post- treatment method with a modern system, which uses a series of membrane separation steps, such as MF, UF, NF, two steps of RO and an Electrodialysis. We can also carry out coagulation experiments and determine optimal dosages of coagulants in jar tests. We have a laboratory-scale membrane test equipment in which Microfiltration, Ultrafiltration, Nanofiltration and Reverse osmosis experiments can be performed.Besides make-up water treatment, we are able to treat high salt and heavy metal containing process waters as well, where conventional concentrating technologies, such as evaporation, or desalination technologies such as ion-exchange can be tested. We also have the possibility to apply heat-pump evaporation technique as environmental benign concentration technique, to produce pure water from process waters or waters of different origin. In cooperation with an industrial partner we are able to carry out electrodialysis experiments.
Watch our 3-minute introductory video:
Achievements
1. Technological calculations and flow-sheeting can be carried out to compare the conventional make-up water producing method using reactor, gravel filter, microfilter as pre-treatment, followed by ion-exchange as desalination and mixed bed ion-exchange as post- treatment method with a modern system, which uses a series of membrane separation steps, such as MF, UF, NF, two steps of RO and an Electrodialysis.
2. We verified that Microfiltration working alone can provide the same quality of water and can replace coagulation and settling, without any chemical load.
3. We revealed that by Nanofiltration and Reverse osmosis techniques higher than 90% of the heavy metals could be removed from the high salinity heavy metal containing process water.
4. We also revealed that although high purity water could be produced by heat-pump evaporator, it used higher specific electric energy consumption than electrodialysis, which produced a bit higher conductivity pure water.
Publications
Reem Shaheen, Edit Cséfalvay, The role of coagulation and microfiltration in seawater pre-treatment, Periodica Polytechnica Chemical Engineering, 2022, online first, published online 2022-06-30, https://doi.org/10.3311/PPch. 20025,
Edit Cséfalvay, Zoltán Bakacsi, Chemical-free Processing of Sweet Sorghum Juice of Cultivar Sucrosorgho 506, Periodica Polytechnica Chemical Engineering, 2019, pp. 63/1. 36-50. https://doi.org/10.3311/PPch.12056
Csilla Zsófia Torma, Edit Cséfalvay, Nanofiltration & Electrodialysis: alternatives in Heavy Metal Containing High Salinity Process Water Treatment, Chemical Papers, 2018, pp. 72/5. 1115-1124, DOI: 10.1007/s11696-018-0433-7
Csilla Zsófia Torma, Edit Cséfalvay, Nanofiltration: a final step in industrial process water treatment, Periodica Polytechnica Chemical Engineering, 2018, pp. 62/1. 68-75, https://doi.org/10.3311/PPch.10640
Csilla Maria Tonko, Andras Kiraly, Peter Mizsey, Gyorgy Patzay, Edit Csefalvay, Limitation of hardness from thermal water by means of nanofiltration, Water Science & Technology (ISSN 0273-1223), 2013, pp. 67/9. 2025-2032
Awards
2022 Certificate of Merit Award given by Rector of BME
2021 Certificate of Merit Award given by Dean of Faculty of Mechanical Engineering BME
2020 Niveau prize of Hungarian Chemical Society to edit Cséfalvay for the successful organization of PERMEA Membrane Conference of Visegrad Countries 2019
2019 Excellence award of NaTE for Edit Cséfalvay in STEM category
Journals
ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering
Periodica Polytechnica Chemical Engineering
Chemical Papers
Circular Economy and Environmental Protection
Desalination
Projects
Environmental benign and energy efficient preparation of make-up water of power plants, NKFI-ID: 143215, between 2022-09-01 and 2026-08-31, project leader, National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH)Industry relations
Redel Elekronika KfConferences
48th International Conference of the Slovak Society of Chemical Engineering SSCHE 2022 and Membrane Conference PERMEA 2022, Reem Shaheen, participant
48th International Conference of the Slovak Society of Chemical Engineering SSCHE 2022 and Membrane Conference PERMEA 2022, Edit Cséfalvay, organizing committee member
PERMEA 2019, Membrane Science and Technology Conference of Visegrad Countries, Edit Cséfalvay, co-chair
Heat Engines and Environmental Protection, Edit Cséfalvay, participant