Switchable system for high-salinity brine desalination and fractional precipitation

Patent · Tue Dec 12 04:00:00 EST 2023

OSTI ID:2293972

Wilson, Aaron D.; Lienhard, John; Deshmukh, Akshay; Foo, Zi Hao

A saline feed stream flows into a liquid-liquid extraction system; and a volatile organic solvent flows through a main compressor. The compressed volatile organic solvent then flows through a solvent regenerator, which can be a heat exchanger or a combination of a vaporization device and a condenser, to cool the volatile organic solvent. The cooled volatile organic solvent in liquid phase then flows into the liquid-liquid extraction system, where the saline feed stream contacts the volatile organic solvent to selectively extract water from the saline feed stream into the volatile organic solvent, producing a concentrated brine and an organic-rich mixture of water and the volatile organic solvent. The organic-rich mixture flows from the liquid-liquid extraction system into the solvent regenerator, where the organic-rich mixture is heated to produce an organic-rich vapor and desalinated water; and the organic-rich vapor is recycled as volatile organic solvent back into the liquid-liquid extraction system.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-05ID14517
• Assignee: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA); Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC (Idaho Falls, ID)
• Patent Number(s): 11,840,462
• Application Number: 17/567,809
• OSTI ID: 2293972
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English