Water. Desalination + reuse
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/1019735
SOLAR-DRIVEN DESALINATION BY MEMBRANE DISTILLATION USING CERAMIC MEMBRANES • Team: Fraunhofer USA Centre for Energy Innovation • Location: Storrs, CT • DOE Award Amount: $800,000 • Awardee Cost Share: $332,088 • Principal Investigator: Jeffrey McCutcheon Are long-lasting but expen- sive ceramic membranes the best solution for solar-driven systems? At this point in their development, they suffer from high mass and heat transfer, wet - ting, scaling and fouling. Jeffrey McCutcheon's team at Fraun- hofer intend to draw on their substantial expertise in the area to design and optimise small- scale membranes, applying the lessons they learn to larger-scale elements to be used with a solar- thermal test bed. ULTRA-COMPACT AND EFFICIENT HEAT EXCHANGER FOR SOLAR DESALINATION WITH UNPRECEDENTED SCALING RESISTANCE • Team: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign • Location: Urbana, IL • DOE Award Amount: $1,584,349 • Awardee Cost Share: $397,306 • Principal Investigator: Anthony Jacobi Scaling of heat exchangers is always going to be a factor in desalination because of the high magnesium content of brine. When it collects on the outside of tubes, it becomes a good con - ductor of electricity, acting as an anode with the metal becoming a cathode. This anode-cathode setup allows electrons to flow freely between the scale and the metal, enabling corrosion to take place. To prevent this happen - ing, Urbana's project team will design, develop, and test novel coatings which aim to increase heat exchanger efficiency by 150 percent or more compared to other technology. SUPERCRITICAL TREATMENT TECHNOLOGY FOR WATER PURIFICATION • Team: University of North Dakota • Location: Grand Forks, ND • DOE Award Amount: $1,999,999 • Awardee Cost Share: $511,145 • Principal Investigator: Dr Michael Mann The SWEETR process, trialled by Dr Michael Mann, stands for Supercritical Water Extraction – Enhanced Targeted Recovery. The process relies on the fact that, above critical temperatures, water loses its polarity and the solvation ability for salt drops by several orders of magnitude. The result is that inorganic salts solidify. However, at higher temperatures, scaling and cor - rosion increase, so the team will be looking at technological improvements, along with ways to reduce energy, simplify the deployment and portability of the technology, and reduce the cost of treatment to less than $1.50 per cube — the DoE's target cost. The targeted applications for the technology are brine solutions produced by oil and gas operators. Given a success - ful demonstration, hypersaline solutions will be treatable cost-effectively, reducing the level of total dissolved solids (TDS) for reuse applications or safe disposal. Considering the growth in desalination, oil and gas production, and depletion of freshwater sources, Dr Mann anticipates that the technology will support growth. ZERO LIQUID DISCHARGE WATER DESALINATION PROCESS USING HUMIDIFICATION- DEHUMIDIFICATION IN A THERMALLY ACTUATED TRANSPORT REACTOR • Team: Oregon State University • Location: Bend, OR • DOE Award Amount: $2,000,000 • Awardee Cost Share: $500,000 • Principal Investigator: Bahman Abbasi The team at Oregon State Univer- sity is aiming to build a trans- portable off-grid desalination system which is also modular and scalable. The process works with thermally-actuated nozzles heated on the exterior. The ther- mal energy (heat) is converted into kinetic energy which accel- erates air. The process, which is analogous to a steam jet ejector, heats the air, which in turn 30 Far Site September 2018 Water. desalination + reuse TOPIC AREA 1 Innovations in thermal desalination technologies The aim is to develop a hybrid process to treat high-salinity water with zero liquid discharge, using thermally actuated nozzles — components that operate in response to temperature changes — that are heated using low-grade solar heat. The hot air jets are humidified with brine and the solid particles can be separated out.