Enhanced Flux and Electrochemical Cleaning of Silicate Scaling on Carbon Nanotube-Coated Membrane Distillation Membranes Treating Geothermal Brines

Tang, Li; Iddya, Arpita; Zhu, Xiaobo; Dudchenko, Alexander V.; Duan, Wenyan; Turchi, Craig; Vanneste, Johann; Cath, Tzahi Y.; Jassby, David

doi:10.1021/acsami.7b12615

Title: Enhanced Flux and Electrochemical Cleaning of Silicate Scaling on Carbon Nanotube-Coated Membrane Distillation Membranes Treating Geothermal Brines

Journal Article · Fri Oct 13 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.7b12615· OSTI ID:1408810

Tang, Li ^[1]; Iddya, Arpita ^[1]; Zhu, Xiaobo ^[1]; Dudchenko, Alexander V. ^[1]; Duan, Wenyan ^[1]; Turchi, Craig ^[2]; Vanneste, Johann ^[3]; Cath, Tzahi Y. ^[3];

^[1]

Univ. of California, Riverside, CA (United States). Dept. of Chemical and Environmental Engineering
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States). Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering

The desalination of inland brackish groundwater offers the opportunity to provide potable drinking water to residents and industrial cooling water to industries located in arid regions. Geothermal brines are used to generate electricity, but often contain high concentrations of dissolved salt. Here in this paper, we demonstrate how the residual heat left in spent geothermal brines can be used to drive a membrane distillation (MD) process and recover desalinated water. Porous polypropylene membranes were coated with a carbon nanotube (CNT)/poly(vinyl alcohol) layer, resulting in composite membranes having a binary structure that combines the hydrophobic properties critical for MD with the hydrophilic and conductive properties of the CNTs. We demonstrate that the addition of the CNT layer increases membrane flux due to enhanced heat transport from the bulk feed to the membrane surface, a result of CNT's high thermal transport properties. Furthermore, we show how hydroxide ion generation, driven by water electrolysis on the electrically conducting membrane surface, can be used to efficiently dissolve silicate scaling that developed during the process of desalinating the geothermal brine, negating the need for chemical cleaning.

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Research Organization:: National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Geothermal Technologies Office

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

OSTI ID:: 1408810

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA-5500-68957

Journal Information:: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, Vol. 9, Issue 44; ISSN 1944-8244

Publisher:: American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 59 works

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Title: Enhanced Flux and Electrochemical Cleaning of Silicate Scaling on Carbon Nanotube-Coated Membrane Distillation Membranes Treating Geothermal Brines

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