TY - JOUR
T1 - Electrically-conductive, Joule-heated pervaporation membranes for desalination
T2 - Investigating energy-saving, self-cleaning and anti-swelling trifecta
AU - Aburabie, Jamaliah
AU - Mohammed, Shabin
AU - Nassrullah, Haya
AU - Hashaikeh, Raed
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) Water Research Center and funded by Tamkeen under the NYUAD Research Institute Award (project CG007 ). The authors would like to acknowledge Renu Pasricha and Sneha Thomas (TEM imaging) for assisting with this work.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2023/10/15
Y1 - 2023/10/15
N2 - Desalination pervaporation (PV) process can be a promising technique to address global water-energy challenges. However, the energy-intensive nature of the process, which typically requires heating of the entire bulk feed, has been a significant challenge. Here, we reveal a novel self-heated PV membrane utilizing carbon nanostructures (CNS)-alginate (CaAlg) membrane Joule heater that merges interfacial heating of a feed solution and conventional PV separation. Low voltage is supplied to the electrically conductive alginate membrane to initiate resistive heating, which directly heats the solution at the feed/membrane interface. The developed self-heated membranes produce a high flux of 36 L m−2 h−1 at 50 % CNS loading while supplying a voltage of 5 V to the membrane to treat 1000 ppm NaCl solution. A flux of 24 L m−2 h−1 is obtained for the same membrane and the same conditions while treating hypersaline feed of 100,000 ppm. The self-heated PV membrane eliminates the preheating of the entire feed solution while enhancing permeate flux, resulting in a significantly reduced energy requirement. To produce a flux of 10 L m−2 h−1, electrothermally-heated PV membrane achieved exceptionally higher Gain output ratio (GOR) of 2.19 compared to the conventionally-heated (0.37). Besides their unique self-heating capability, the developed membranes are resistant to swelling and showed impressive antifouling/cleaning characteristics. Joule-heated CaAlg/CNS membranes showed a reduction in swelling degree from 150 % (Pristine CaAlg) to 50 % after 2-h exposure to water. Whether electrolysis (in-situ or cleaning cycles) or joule-heating cleaning is used, CaAlg/CNS membranes exhibited immaculate capabilities to self-clean surface foulants and maintain steady flux with only 3–8 % flux decline compared to pristine membranes that suffers 45–47 % flux decline.
AB - Desalination pervaporation (PV) process can be a promising technique to address global water-energy challenges. However, the energy-intensive nature of the process, which typically requires heating of the entire bulk feed, has been a significant challenge. Here, we reveal a novel self-heated PV membrane utilizing carbon nanostructures (CNS)-alginate (CaAlg) membrane Joule heater that merges interfacial heating of a feed solution and conventional PV separation. Low voltage is supplied to the electrically conductive alginate membrane to initiate resistive heating, which directly heats the solution at the feed/membrane interface. The developed self-heated membranes produce a high flux of 36 L m−2 h−1 at 50 % CNS loading while supplying a voltage of 5 V to the membrane to treat 1000 ppm NaCl solution. A flux of 24 L m−2 h−1 is obtained for the same membrane and the same conditions while treating hypersaline feed of 100,000 ppm. The self-heated PV membrane eliminates the preheating of the entire feed solution while enhancing permeate flux, resulting in a significantly reduced energy requirement. To produce a flux of 10 L m−2 h−1, electrothermally-heated PV membrane achieved exceptionally higher Gain output ratio (GOR) of 2.19 compared to the conventionally-heated (0.37). Besides their unique self-heating capability, the developed membranes are resistant to swelling and showed impressive antifouling/cleaning characteristics. Joule-heated CaAlg/CNS membranes showed a reduction in swelling degree from 150 % (Pristine CaAlg) to 50 % after 2-h exposure to water. Whether electrolysis (in-situ or cleaning cycles) or joule-heating cleaning is used, CaAlg/CNS membranes exhibited immaculate capabilities to self-clean surface foulants and maintain steady flux with only 3–8 % flux decline compared to pristine membranes that suffers 45–47 % flux decline.
KW - Anti-fouling
KW - Anti-swelling
KW - Desalination
KW - Electrically-conductive membranes
KW - Joule-heating
KW - Pervaporation
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U2 - 10.1016/j.desal.2023.116769
DO - 10.1016/j.desal.2023.116769
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85161635371
SN - 0011-9164
VL - 564
JO - Desalination
JF - Desalination
M1 - 116769
ER -