Near-100% water recovery
Evaporator product water below 100 ppm TDS — crystal-clear and suitable for cooling towers and boiler feed.
Technology · ZLD
Zero Liquid Discharge — recover almost all your water, discharge almost nothing.
ZLD is the most complete method of treating high-salinity industrial wastewater. Advanced evaporation and crystallisation take contaminants close to zero and recover clean water for reuse — the final stage of treatment.
zero liquid dischargezld plantwater recoverybrine management
What problem does it solve?
From the plant floor, in your words
These are the sentences our clients actually say before they know the answer is ZLD. The console cycles the real problems from the intent matrix and resolves them to the solution.
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Your solution can be Zero Liquid Discharge.
Benefits
What you get
Compliance & no discharge
Complete treatment of process wastewater so environmental standards are met and liquid discharge approaches zero.
Value from the solids
Depending on the stream, solid output becomes organic compost, backup fuel, organic fertilizer, animal feed or saleable salt.
24/7 automatic operation
Automatic CIP and rinsing without operator intervention; the system runs continuously.
Lower lifetime cost
A pre-treatment stage designed to cut the load on evaporation and crystallisation, optimising CAPEX and OPEX.
Multiple evaporator options
MEE, MVR, MSF and forced-circulation evaporators — we pick the method, not a fixed one-size box.
How it works
The process, stage by stage
Stages are designed from the wastewater characteristics, the target recovery and the economics. There is no single ZLD recipe — the roadmap follows the contaminants.
- 01
Pre-treatment
Often the most complex stage. DAF, RO, UF, CCRO and HART reduce load, cut the number of evaporators and lower overall cost.
- 02
Evaporation
MEE, MVR, MSF or forced-circulation evaporators concentrate the stream; product water is below 100 ppm TDS for reuse.
- 03
Crystallization
Dissolved solids are recovered as a solid from the concentrated brine; a centrifuge cuts moisture and reduces drying duty.
- 04
Drying
Scraped-surface, ATFD, steam-tube, spray or fluidised-bed dryers finish moisture removal with ventilation against dust.
- 05
Output management
Compost, incineration fuel, fertilizer/animal feed, saleable salt or safe landfill — whichever fits the stream and rules.
Engineering detail
Where the cost of ZLD is actually decided
Every stage of a ZLD plant is expensive, but they are not equally expensive to get wrong. The pre-treatment stage is where the economics of the whole system are set, and it is frequently more complex than the evaporator that follows it.
The reason is simple arithmetic: every unit of load removed cheaply upstream is a unit that does not have to be boiled off downstream. Depending on the feed stream, we use DAF, RO, UF, closed-circuit RO and HART to reduce that load — which reduces the number of evaporators required and, with it, both capital and energy cost. A pre-treatment design tuned to the actual contaminant profile routinely changes the size of the plant that has to be bought.
Evaporator selection is the second decision that carries for the life of the asset. Multi-effect evaporators, mechanical vapour recompression, multi-stage flash and forced-circulation evaporators differ substantially in energy consumption, capital cost, maintenance burden and tolerance of scaling. We select from all of them against the stream, the required output and the available energy sources — which is a meaningful advantage over suppliers who offer a single evaporation method and design the process to suit it.
The crystallisation and drying stages then determine what you are left holding. Crystallisation separates dissolved solids from the concentrated brine and recovers them as a solid product, with a centrifuge cutting moisture and reducing the drying duty that follows. In drying we pay explicit attention to energy consumption and to dust: air ventilation is incorporated so that crystallisation dust and salt particles do not disperse into the surroundings.
None of these stages can be fixed in advance. Without sufficient information about the wastewater it is not possible to determine the operational steps precisely — the contaminants have to be identified first, and the ZLD roadmap built for that specific stream.
- 01
Feasibility
Technical and commercial feasibility, technology evaluation and cost/profitability analysis before capital is committed.
- 02
Engineering
Conceptual, basic and detailed engineering, process packages and specification of the equipment that will actually be bought.
- 03
Delivery
EPC or EPCM delivery, or an Owner’s Engineer role protecting your interest through a contractor’s execution.
- 04
Commissioning
Installation supervision, testing, start-up and the training that lets your team run the plant.
- 05
Support
Operation, troubleshooting, process optimisation, maintenance and spare parts for the life of the asset.
Industries & applications
Where this is used
Oil & Gas & PetrochemicalPower generationTextilePulp & PaperFood & LivestockCementSteelElectronicsPharmaceuticalMiningMunicipalPalm oil
Typical applications
- Concentration & disposal of high-COD streams
- Concentration of RO reject
- Recovery of dissolved solids
- Solvent recovery
- Brine management
- Textile & dye wastewater
- Cooling-tower blowdown to zero
- FGD wastewater in power
Related products
Equipment under the Glorinda brand
Package it, engineer it, deliver it.
Glorinda scopes the technology, engineers the plant and supports it through commissioning and operation. Bring your stream and targets.
Projects
Representative work — sample cards, ready to swap
Sample project — replaceTextile ZLD
High-TDS dye effluent concentrated and crystallised to recover salt and reuse water.
Sample project — replaceRefinery brine to zero
RO reject and brine taken to solid output with heat-integrated evaporation.
Sample project — replaceDistillery ZLD
Organic-rich effluent producing fertilizer-grade solids and reuse water.
FAQ
Answers for engineers and procurement
What is ZLD?
Zero Liquid Discharge is a treatment approach that recovers almost all the water from an effluent and leaves essentially no liquid to discharge — contaminants are reduced close to zero and solids are recovered as a product or safely disposed of.
How much water does ZLD recover?
Close to 100%. Evaporator product water is typically below 100 ppm TDS, clean enough for reuse in cooling towers and boiler feed.
Is ZLD expensive to run?
It is more energy-intensive than MLD, which is why we design the pre-treatment stage to cut load on evaporation and crystallisation, and select the evaporator type (MEE, MVR, MSF, forced-circulation) to minimise energy and maintenance. Where full ZLD isn’t justified, MLD recovers ~85% at lower cost.
What happens to the solids?
Depending on the stream: organic compost, backup incineration fuel, organic fertilizer or animal feed, saleable salt, or safe landfill following industrial guidelines.
Which industries use ZLD?
Oil & gas and petrochemical, power, textile, pulp & paper, food, cement, steel, electronics, pharmaceutical, mining and municipal — anywhere discharge is restricted or water is scarce.
Have you delivered similar projects?
Yes — representative projects are shown on this page as sample cards. Real, named references are shared under NDA during scoping.