SBIR Phase II: Carbon Nanotube Enhanced Membrane Distillation for Sea and Brackish Water Desalination, and the Treatment of Saline Waste Water

SBIR第二期：碳纳米管增强膜蒸馏用于海水和苦咸水淡化以及含盐废水的处理

• 批准号: 1852679
• 负责人: Cheng Li
• 金额: $ 66.25万
• 依托单位: NanoSepex Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-07-01 至 2022-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1852679&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; II; Carbon; Nanotube

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) project arises from addressing one of the world's major challenges - the need for water. We address this problem through the development of a novel technology for economic desalting for inexpensive clean water generation and the treatment of high concentration saline waste. There is no "one size fits all" approach to water desalting. Many factors such as salt concentration, the presence of specific ions, energy cost, pretreatment requirements and capital investments are important considerations in selecting a desalting technology. The carbon nanotube immobilized membrane distillation (CNIM-MD) being developed here offers many advantages such as the ability to utilize waste heat and solar energy and as well as the ability to handle high salt concentrations. The CNIM-MD is being designed with the aim of treating high salinity water (above 750,000 ppm dissolved solids that are not normally handled by reverse osmosis (RO). The primary target market for CNIM-MD is concentrating brine for zero liquid discharge (ZLD) where brine is concentrated and the solids are eventually precipitated out, pure water is reused and no water is discharged as industrial effluents. Other potential markets for CNIM-MD are treating RO reject to increase pure water yield, and the treatment of produced water in oil and gas industry.This SBIR Phase II project proposes to scale up the CNIM fabrication process via roll-to-roll (R2R) coating, demonstrate CNIM-MD at pilot scale and initiate commercial sales. The intellectual merit of the project lies in the novel approach to design and synthesis of scalable membrane systems for water desalination, and the treatment of saline waste. The CAPEX and OPEX of CNIM-MD compared to thermal evaporators is compelling, and CNIM-MD can be a major component of a hybrid ZLD treatment train integrating membrane technology with thermal evaporator. In short, the development of CNIM-MD will be a major development in the area of membrane treatment of high concertation brine. The success in the synthesis of novel membrane architecture such as CNIM will impact in many areas beyond desalination, which include carbon capture, gas purification, emission control, dehumidification as well as capturing pure water from the atmosphere. They have potential to impact major industries such as power plants, petrochemicals, oil and gas exploration, dehumidification, air purification, and food processing.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该小企业创新研究 (SBIR) 项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力源于解决世界主要挑战之一 - 对水的需求。我们通过开发一种经济脱盐新技术来解决这个问题，以实现廉价的清洁水生产和高浓度含盐废物的处理。没有“一刀切”的水淡化方法。盐浓度、特定离子的存在、能源成本、预处理要求和资本投资等许多因素是选择脱盐技术时的重要考虑因素。这里开发的碳纳米管固定膜蒸馏（CNIM-MD）具有许多优点，例如利用废热和太阳能的能力以及处理高盐浓度的能力。 CNIM-MD 的设计目的是处理高盐度水（溶解固体含量超过 750,000 ppm，通常无法通过反渗透 (RO) 处理）。CNIM-MD 的主要目标市场是浓缩盐水以实现零液体排放 (ZLD) ），其中盐水被浓缩，固体最终沉淀出来，纯水被重复使用，并且没有水作为工业废水排放。CNIM-MD 的其他潜在市场正在将反渗透废水处理为水。提高纯水产量以及石油和天然气行业采出水的处理。该 SBIR 二期项目建议通过卷对卷 (R2R) 涂层扩大 CNIM 制造工艺，在中试规模展示 CNIM-MD 并启动该项目的智力优势在于用于海水淡化的可扩展膜系统的设计和合成的新颖方法，以及与热蒸发器相比，CNIM-MD 的资本支出和运营支出引人注目。 CNIM-MD 可以成为将膜技术与热蒸发器相结合的混合 ZLD 处理系列的主要组成部分。总之，CNIM-MD的发展将是高浓盐水膜处理领域的重大发展。 CNIM 等新型膜结构的成功合成将影响除海水以外的许多领域，包括碳捕获、气体净化、排放控制、除湿以及从大气中捕获纯水。它们有潜力影响发电厂、石化、石油和天然气勘探、除湿、空气净化和食品加工等主要行业。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过利用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的评估进行评估，认为值得支持。影响审查标准。