Issue 3, 2015

Energy-efficient desalination by forward osmosis using responsive ionic liquid draw solutes

Abstract

We demonstrate a class of thermally responsive ionic liquids (ILs) as novel draw solutes for forward osmosis (FO) seawater desalination with electrical energy consumption significantly lower than that of seawater reverse osmosis (RO). These draw solutes can draw water from feed solutions of up to 1.6 M NaCl and hence have potential to treat high salinity feed streams including RO brine. Draw solution regeneration can be achieved energy-efficiently via a thermally stimulated phase separation process using less expensive low grade heat in combination with electrically driven nanofiltration. The electrical energy consumption is estimated to be as low as 16% of that needed for the state-of-the-art RO desalination leading to significant reduction of energy cost and carbon footprint.

Graphical abstract: Energy-efficient desalination by forward osmosis using responsive ionic liquid draw solutes

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
28 Oct 2014
Accepted
11 Feb 2015
First published
11 Feb 2015
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol., 2015,1, 341-347

Energy-efficient desalination by forward osmosis using responsive ionic liquid draw solutes

Y. Cai, W. Shen, J. Wei, T. H. Chong, R. Wang, W. B. Krantz, A. G. Fane and X. Hu, Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol., 2015, 1, 341 DOI: 10.1039/C4EW00073K

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements