Electrically Powered High-Salinity Brine Separation Using Dimethyl Ether

Deshmukh, Akshay; Wilson, Aaron D.; Lienhard, John H.

doi:10.1021/acs.iecr.4c00517

Electrically Powered High-Salinity Brine Separation Using Dimethyl Ether

Journal Article · Tue Apr 23 00:00:00 EDT 2024 · Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.iecr.4c00517· OSTI ID:2440403

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Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

Dewatering highly saline aqueous streams, from mining and geothermal leachates to industrial wastewater, is essential for effective resource recovery and safe disposal. Membraneless water extraction (MWE) uses a low-polarity solvent to separate water from concentrated aqueous solutions. In this study, we design a new MWE that uses dimethyl ether (DME) to selectively extract water from high-salinity brines, leveraging the volatility of DME to achieve rapid solvent recovery. By separating water and dissolved salts at a liquid–liquid interface, MWE minimizes the deleterious effects of scaling on vulnerable membrane and heat exchanger surfaces, reducing the need for extensive pretreatment and expensive materials. We begin by developing a computational framework for a multistage counterflow liquid–liquid contactor, which extracts water into DME, coupled with a multistage solvent regenerator that uses vapor compression to efficiently separate the desalinated water from the DME extractant. Excess Gibbs free energy and equation of state frameworks are used to model fluid phase equilibria in water–DME–sodium chloride (NaCl) mixtures, with interaction parameters estimated from experimental data. Incorporating equilibrium calculations into a system-scale computational model, we examine the performance of MWE using DME for the first time. Our analysis demonstrates that MWE can concentrate seawater desalination brine (>1.0 mol_NaCl kg^–1) to zero-liquid discharge salinities, with an energy consumption of under 50 kW h per m³ of water extracted with a solvent recovery ratio greater than 99.9%. We highlight the importance of staging the vapor compression process to simultaneously minimize energy consumption while enabling brine concentration and product water solvent contamination. Finally, the thermodynamic framework developed here allows for the robust evaluation of new MWE solvents and systems for critical brine concentration and fractional precipitation applications.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Energy Efficiency Office. Advanced Materials & Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC07-05ID14517

OSTI ID:: 2440403

Report Number(s):: INL/JOU--24-80155-Rev000

Journal Information:: Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, Journal Name: Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research Journal Issue: 18 Vol. 63; ISSN 0888-5885

Publisher:: American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
desalination
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solvent-driven treatment
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Electrically Powered High-Salinity Brine Separation Using Dimethyl Ether

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