A review of zero liquid discharge and solvent driven aqueous phase processes for brine treatment

Brine, often known as saline wastewater, is produced by various industries (e.g., energy, desalination, and oil production), and its environmental disposal could adversely impact it. Brine treatment appears to be a promising solution to reduce wastewater discharge while also having the benefits of recovering extra freshwater along with valuable materials like salts. Zero liquid discharge and solvent-driven aqueous phase recovery strategies can accomplish this. In the present work, zero liquid discharge and solvent-driven aqueous phase frameworks are evaluated and analyzed under the nine criteria of economy, performance, environment, and society (operational technology, framework stages, feed brine salinity, temperature and energy efficiency, freshwater recovery target, cost impact, resource recovery, environmental impact, and social impacts). Findings indicated that the amount of energy consumed by zero liquid discharge is very high compared to the energy consumption of solvent-driven aqueous phase. At the same time, the freshwater recovery using zero liquid discharge (98.15%) is much higher than solvent-driven aqueous phases. High energy consumption of zero liquid discharge and solvent loss for solvent-driven aqueous phase presents a significant challenge for these technologies' implementation. However overall, the findings point to the potential value of the solvent-driven aqueous phase and zero liquid discharge techniques for reuse, wastewater usage, and resource recovery.Graphical abstractGraphical representation of zero liquid discharge and solvent driven aqueous phase recovery