Wastewater Treatment Glossary: What Is Concentrate (Brine)?

Concentrate: In industry, concentrate refers to the wastewater, sewage and waste liquid generated during industrial production, which contains the industrial raw materials, intermediates and products carried away with the water as well as the pollutants produced during the process. With the rapid development of industry, the types and quantities of wastewater have grown sharply, and pollution of water bodies has become increasingly widespread and serious, threatening human health and safety. For environmental protection, the treatment of industrial wastewater is more important than that of municipal sewage. Although the treatment of industrial wastewater began as early as the end of the 19th century and was followed by half a century of extensive experimental research and production practice, many technical problems remain unsolved because industrial wastewater is complex in composition and highly variable in nature. This is quite different from municipal wastewater treatment, a technology that has already matured.

In industry, concentrate is generally regarded as the portion removed when ordinary water is turned into demineralized water, that is, ordinary water = concentrate + demineralized water.