Business
Work with Us
Library
Explore our Library
The project objective is to demonstrate the efficacy of membrane distillation (MD) as a cost-savings technology to treat concentrated brines (such as, but not limited to, produced waters generated from fossil fuel extraction) that have high levels of total dissolved solids (TDS) for beneficial water reuse in power production and other industrial operations as well as agricultural and municipal water uses. In addition, a novel fouling-resistant nanocomposite membrane will be developed to reduce the need for chemicals to address membrane scaling due to the precipitation of divalent ions in high-TDS waters and improve overall MD performance via an electrically conductive membrane distillation process (ECMD). This anti-fouling membrane technology platform is based on incorporating carbon nanotubes (CNTs) into the surface layer of existing, commercially available MD membranes. The CNTs confer electrical conductivity to the membrane surface so that an electrical potential can be applied to remove and prevent membrane scaling and fouling.
Demonstration of a bench-scale feasibility of a low-cost, novel water treatment process using ECMD process for the reuse of water contained in concentrated brines generated during fossil fuel extraction/processing may lead to (1) at least 50% reuse of treated effluent for produced water at 180,000 mg/L, (2) 80% reduction in water management costs when compared to deep well injection costs, (3) reduced costs associated with water treatment/disposal by 35% to > 90%, and (4) improvement in membrane fouling relative to existing membranes.