Illustration of the TSSE process, a pioneering desalination approach for hypersaline brines that could transform global water management
Water security is becoming an urgent global challenge. Hundreds of millions of people already live in water-scarce regions, and the UN projects that by 2030 about half the world’s population will be living in highly water-stressed areas. This will be a crisis even for developed countries like the U.S., where water managers in 40 states expect freshwater shortages within the next 10 years. As the global population and GDP grow, so will the demand for freshwater. And, with the continuing rise of global temperatures, water shortages will only get worse.
Desalination processes are increasingly being relied upon to augment water supplies. In fact, global desalination capacity is projected to double between 2016 and 2030. But these processes are expensive and can be harmful to the environment. The ultrahigh salinity brines that are the byproduct of desalination can be several times that of seawater salinity and its management options are especially challenging for inland desalination facilities such as those in Arizona, California, Florida, and Texas.
Over the past year, Columbia Engineering researchers have been refining their unconventional desalination approach for hypersaline brines—temperature swing solvent extraction (TSSE)—that shows great promise for widespread use. TSSE is radically different from conventional methods because it is a solvent-extraction-based technique that does not use membranes and is not based on evaporative phase-change: it is effective, efficient, scalable, and sustainably powered. In a new paper, published online June 23 in Environmental Science & Technology, the team reports that their method has enabled them to attain energy-efficient zero-liquid discharge (ZLD) of ultrahigh salinity brines—the first demonstration of TSSE for ZLD desalination of hypersaline brines.
“Zero-liquid discharge is the last frontier of desalination,” says Ngai Yin Yip, an assistant professor of earth and environmental engineering who led the study. “Evaporating and condensing the water is the current practice for ZLD but it’s very energy intensive and prohibitively costly. We were able to achieve ZLD without boiling the water off—this is a major advance for desalinating the ultrahigh salinity brines that demonstrates how our TSSE technique can be a transformative technology for the global water industry.”
Yip’s TSSE process begins with mixing a low-polarity solvent with the high salinity brine. At low temperatures (the team used 5 °C), the TSSE solvent extracts water from the brine but not salts (which are present in the brine as ions). By controlling the ratio of solvent to brine, the team can extract all the water from the brine into the solvent to induce the precipitation of salts—after all the water is “sucked” into the solvent, the salts form solid crystals and fall to the bottom, which can then be easily sieved out.
Desalination processes are increasingly being relied upon to augment water supplies. In fact, global desalination capacity is projected to double between 2016 and 2030. But these processes are expensive and can be harmful to the environment. The ultrahigh salinity brines that are the byproduct of desalination can be several times that of seawater salinity and its management options are especially challenging for inland desalination facilities such as those in Arizona, California, Florida, and Texas.
Over the past year, Columbia Engineering researchers have been refining their unconventional desalination approach for hypersaline brines—temperature swing solvent extraction (TSSE)—that shows great promise for widespread use. TSSE is radically different from conventional methods because it is a solvent-extraction-based technique that does not use membranes and is not based on evaporative phase-change: it is effective, efficient, scalable, and sustainably powered. In a new paper, published online June 23 in Environmental Science & Technology, the team reports that their method has enabled them to attain energy-efficient zero-liquid discharge (ZLD) of ultrahigh salinity brines—the first demonstration of TSSE for ZLD desalination of hypersaline brines.
“Zero-liquid discharge is the last frontier of desalination,” says Ngai Yin Yip, an assistant professor of earth and environmental engineering who led the study. “Evaporating and condensing the water is the current practice for ZLD but it’s very energy intensive and prohibitively costly. We were able to achieve ZLD without boiling the water off—this is a major advance for desalinating the ultrahigh salinity brines that demonstrates how our TSSE technique can be a transformative technology for the global water industry.”
Yip’s TSSE process begins with mixing a low-polarity solvent with the high salinity brine. At low temperatures (the team used 5 °C), the TSSE solvent extracts water from the brine but not salts (which are present in the brine as ions). By controlling the ratio of solvent to brine, the team can extract all the water from the brine into the solvent to induce the precipitation of salts—after all the water is “sucked” into the solvent, the salts form solid crystals and fall to the bottom, which can then be easily sieved out.
The Latest Updates from Bing News & Google News
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Global water management
- 'Global Community' provides water for Tinjase communityon March 6, 2021 at 6:59 am
Global Communities, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), has handed over a potable water system for the community of Tinjase, an expanding settlement near the Ghana-Togo border in the Nkwanta North ...
- Earth News: NASA scientists complete first global survey of freshwater fluctuationon March 6, 2021 at 3:43 am
To investigate humans’ impact on freshwater resources, scientists have now conducted the first global accounting of fluctuating water levels in Earth’s lakes and reservoirs – including ones previously ...
- Global Water Resources Participate at the 33rd Annual Virtual ROTH Conference on March 15-17, 2021on March 5, 2021 at 5:33 am
Global Water Resources, Inc. (NASDAQ: GWRS), (TSX: GWR), a pure-play water resource management company, has been invited to present at the 33rd Annual ROTH Growth Conference being held virtually on ...
- Global Environmental Consulting Services Market Report 2021: COVID-19 Impact and Recovery to 2030 - ResearchAndMarkets.comon March 4, 2021 at 1:15 am
The “Environmental Consulting Services Global Market Report 2021: COVID-19 Impact and Recovery to 2030” report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com’s offering. The global environmental consulting ...
- Global Water Resources Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2020 Resultson March 3, 2021 at 2:35 pm
Global Water Resources, Inc. (NASDAQ: GWRS), (TSX: GWR), a pure-play water resource management company, reported results for the year ended December 31, 2020. All annual comparisons are to the ...
Go deeper with Google Headlines on:
Global water management
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Desalination
- Column: This desalination plan stinks all the way from Orange County to Gov. Newsom’s officeon March 6, 2021 at 7:00 am
Building a plant to remove the salt from seawater in Huntington Beach is not just bad for the environment; it's bad for California ratepayers.
- Global Water Desalination Equipment Market to Reach $22.7 Billion by 2027on March 5, 2021 at 5:55 am
StrategyR - A Trademark of Global Industry Analysts, Inc. - Project Edition: 8. - Influencer Pool: 1146. - MarketGlass™ Platform - Our influencer driven interactive research platform draws from unique ...
- DuPont Water Solutions and Waterise Collaborate Toward Sustainable Subsea Desalinationon March 4, 2021 at 7:09 am
DuPont (NYSE:DD) today announced that it has entered into a collaboration with Waterise to provide seawater reverse osmosis membranes and expertise to the company's subsea desalination plants.
- Opinion: San Diego’s Successful Desal Plant Should Be a Model for California Water Policyon March 4, 2021 at 4:01 am
Turning ocean brine into clean drinking water is not science fiction. The desalination plant in Carlsbad has been producing potable water for five years.
- PLA Navy improves water supply for remote radar stationson March 3, 2021 at 11:12 pm
A naval radar brigade under the PLA Eastern Theater Command has successively solved water supply problems for its seven radar companies stationed in mountains and islands through such ways as seawater ...