Abstract: Methods for using a hydrophobic liquid, such as mineral oil, to compress steam include using a compressor to compress a mixture of steam and the hydrophobic liquid. One embodiment includes the steam to be compressed coming from a boiling aqueous solution in an evaporator. The steam compressed with a hydrophobic liquid is routed to a heat exchanger which thermally communicates with the evaporator to create more steam. The resulting mixture of condensed steam and hydrophobic liquid from the heat exchanger is routed to a water/hydrophobic liquid separator. The hydrophobic liquid is also recycled to the compressor from the water/hydrophobic liquid separator.

Abstract: A method (20) for using a weak acid resin (30) to remove dissolved metal from an aqueous-based stream (36), includes reneutralizing the weak acid resin (30) a plurality of times before regeneration of the weak acid resin (30) to remove the taken-up metal. The present method (20) allows up to 30 times greater volumes of water to be run through the same weak acid resin (30) before regeneration with acid is required, and also inherently adjusts the pH of the effluent (40) to an acceptable level of between about 6 and 9.