Science

New desalination method could get industry – and the environment – out of a very salty pickle

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The researchers believe that the temperature swing solvent extraction desalination method could be transformational for the water industry
The penultimate stage in the new desalination technique
Columbia Engineering
Illustration describing fresh water production from hypersaline brines by 'temperature swing' solvent extraction
Chanhee Boo – Columbia Engineering
Amine solvents (top phase) extracting water from hypersaline brines (bottom phase)
Robert Winton and Ngai Yin Yip
The researchers believe that the temperature swing solvent extraction desalination method could be transformational for the water industry
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"Hypersaline brine" is industrial waste-water with salt levels that exceed even that of seawater. It's a big, expensive, destructive problem which a team of engineers at Columbia University in New York City hope to solve with their solvent-based method of desalination.

A by-product of oil and gas production, fossil-fueled power plants, flue-gas desulfurization, landfill leaching, industrial effluent and inland desalination, hypersaline brines are difficult and expensive to treat and if mismanaged, they can cause severe damage to surface and groundwater sources. Having an effective, affordable method for dealing with these brines could make huge quantities of water available for agriculture and industrial uses, and even as a possible source of drinking water.

With these challenges in mind, engineers at Columbia University in New York City, have devised a solvent-based method of extracting fresh water from these brines which is efficient, effective and low-cost, and which they've dubbed "temperature swing solvent extraction" or TSSE.

There are two primary methods of desalination of hyper saline brines currently employed – reverse osmosis and distillation. Reverse osmosis is fine for water with low-salt concentrations, but for hypersaline brines, the high pressure required is very expensive and energy intensive. Distillation, which evaporates the brine, also requires a prohibitive amount of energy.

In contrast, the TSSE method – developed by a Columbia Engineering team led by assistant professor Ngai Yin Yip – is beautifully simple. It uses a solvent with temperature-dependent water solubility. Vary the temperature, and you vary the solubility. This solvent is added to the brine, where it floats above the denser salt-laden liquid. At room-temperature, water from the brine is drawn into the solvent. After this stage, the solvent is drawn off and warmed via low-grade heat under 70° C (158°F). The "temperature swing" nature of the solvent subsequently demixes it from the water (remember, this is a temperature-dependent solvent, where at higher temperatures, it holds less water). The resulting desalinated water then settles to the bottom, and is collected.

Illustration describing fresh water production from hypersaline brines by 'temperature swing' solvent extraction
Chanhee Boo – Columbia Engineering

"I thought solvent extraction could be a good alternative desalination approach that is radically different from conventional methods because it is membrane-less and not based on evaporative phase-change," Yip says. "Our results show that TSSE could be a disruptive technology – it's effective, efficient, scalable, and can be sustainably powered."

And speaking of sustainability, the low-heat requirements for the process is one of its most appealing elements. Depending on the location of the technology, this low, sub 70° C heat can be supplied conventionally at low cost, or sustainably from sources such as low-concentration solar, on-site waste heat from industrial processes or shallow-well geothermal.

"We think TSSE will be transformational for the water industry," says Yip. "It can displace the prevailing practice of costly distillation for desalination of high-salinity brines and tackle higher salinities that RO cannot handle. This will radically improve the sustainability in the treatment of produced water, inland desalination concentrate, landfill leachate, and other hypersaline streams of emerging importance. We can eliminate the pollution problems from these brines and create cleaner, more useable water for our planet."

The Columbia study has shown that TSSE is able to desalinate brines with up to seven times the salinity of seawater. This is a vast improvement on reverse osmosis, the current gold-standard for desalination.

A recent United Nations University paper entitled UN Warns of Rising Levels of Toxic Brine as Desalination Plants Meet Growing Water Needs speaks to the urgent need to deal effectively with hypersaline brines created in the production of potable water, stating that for each liter of freshwater these plants produce, 1.5 liters of brine is also created. Globally that's 142 million cubic meters of hypersaline brine per day, or – over a year – enough to cover Florida in a foot (30 cm) of brine. This of course excludes the hypersaline brines resulting from other industrial activities, which make the problem even more urgent.

The paper by the team at Columbia, was published in Environmental Science & Technology Letters. A short demonstration of the technique can be seen in the video below.

Source: Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

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10 comments
JimFox
BRILLIANT! Australia has a number of R-O desalination plants, hopefully new ones will use this tech. 35-40C temps are common here so the added heat would be minimal.
fb36
IMHO, desalination of sea/ocean water @ global scale, is the full/general solution to all water shortage problems of humankind! (So, any new more practical/cheaper/efficient method for it, is extremely valuable tech!)
Especially, if fusion tech is invented someday, imagine a global clean water pipeline network build & pumps water to anywhere needed! (So, no more droughts & desert wastelands!)
Mzungu_Mkubwa
I didn't watch or read any more than this article, but assuming that this method allows the "solvent" to be continuously reused, that said solvent is itself environmentally friendly in its sourcing/storage/use, and that it does not become contaminated by the brine over time despite being in direct contact with it, I would think that this would be a highly attractive option for producing potable water from sea water for those areas where this is needed. I guess it depends upon its volume capacity & cost effectiveness, but if the efficiencies truly are that much greater than current osmosis/membrane (e.g. graphene) options, then I'd think this would be transformational in those regions! Even potentially for existing water treatment technologies!
guzmanchinky
Science is changing on an exponential scale. This is such a world changer. Hopefully it can be implemented quickly...
Username
Solely based on the video this process does not seem very efficient. The water extracted is just a small fraction of the volume of the brime. So basically, they are producing more concentrated brime.
ljaques
Guys, this is specifically for hypersaline industrial waste/brine, not general drinking water for the masses. Watch the video to see the percentage of water reclaimed. It's pretty meager. P.S: How toxic are the amines and what are the figures for contamination?
D[]
fb36- I came here to say something similar. Desalination is potentially a global game changer. Water from the oceans used for coastal communities allows water from mountains to be used for farming, aqua-culture, larger green spaces (more trees) etc.
LarryStevens
If it works for hypersalinity brines, does it also work for everyday seawater? If the effluent an even higher salinity brine or dry salt?
myale
Did I miss something - in the video it shows it extracting some water from the brine - does this not make the brine even more concentrated and then even harder to dispose of - it certainly did not show it removing all of the water - or perhaps I missed something?
Nik
The process discussed still doesn't dispose of the salts, it just removes the water, and creates another toxic fluid. It would seem that pumping the super brine into abandoned coal mines or similar would be cheaper, and more useful. One coal mine in particular, in the USA, that's been burning for decades, would certainly benefit, as it would eventually extinguish the fire, and stop the resultant massive subsidence thats occurring, requiring a whole town to be abandoned.