Patent ID: 11884568
Assignee: CORN PRODUCTS DEVELOPMENT, INC.
Field: Environmental technology (Chemistry)
Classification: CPC C  Y | IPC C

Claim 0:
1. A system comprising:
(a) a membrane bioreactor unit configured to treat process water, the process water comprising sodium sulfate, being from a starch process and having a chemical oxygen content at least 1000 mg(O2/L), the membrane bioreactor by being configured to reduce the chemical oxygen content of the process to less than 250 mg(O2)/L;
(b) a cationic ion exchange unit configured to receive the permeate from the membrane bioreactor unit; and
(c) a high pressure filtration unit configured to: i) receive the permeate from the cationic ion exchange unit, ii) concentrate sodium sulfate in the permeate from the cationic ion exchange unit to obtain a concentrated sodium sulfate solution having at least 100,000 mg/L sodium sulfate; and iii) recycle the concentrated sodium sulfate solution to the starch process
wherein the high pressure filtration unit has a molecular weight cut off of less than 200 Da.