Ionic liquid enables highly efficient low temperature desalination by directional solvent extraction
| Autor: | Tengfei Luo, Brandon L. Ashfeld, Jiaji Guo, Zachary D. Tucker, Yu Wang |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
Exergy
Materials science Science General Physics and Astronomy 02 engineering and technology 010402 general chemistry 01 natural sciences 7. Clean energy Desalination General Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology Article chemistry.chemical_compound symbols.namesake Chemical engineering Waste heat Solubility Dissolution Multidisciplinary General Chemistry 021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology 6. Clean water 0104 chemical sciences Gibbs free energy Ionic liquids Solvent chemistry Ionic liquid symbols 0210 nano-technology |
| Zdroj: | Nature Communications, Vol 12, Iss 1, Pp 1-7 (2021) Nature Communications |
| ISSN: | 2041-1723 |
| Popis: | Seawater desalination plays a critical role in addressing the global water shortage challenge. Directional Solvent Extraction (DSE) is an emerging non-membrane desalination technology that features the ability to utilize very low temperature waste heat (as low as 40 °C). This is enabled by the subtly balanced solubility properties of directional solvents, which do not dissolve in water but can dissolve water and reject salt ions. However, the low water yield of the state-of-the-art directional solvent (decanoic acid) significantly limits its throughput and energy efficiency. In this paper, we demonstrate that by using ionic liquid as a new directional solvent, saline water can be desalinated with much higher production rate and thus significantly lower the energy and exergy consumptions. The ionic liquid identified suitable for DSE is [emim][Tf2N], which has a much (~10×) higher water yield than the currently used decanoic acid. Using molecular dynamics simulations with Gibbs free energy calculations, we reveal that water dissolving in [emim][Tf2N] is energetically favorable, but it takes significant energy for [emim][Tf2N] ions to dissolve in water. Our findings may significantly advance the DSE technology as a solution to the challenges in the global water-energy nexus. Directional Solvent Extraction is an emerging non-membrane desalination technology for sea water desalination but is limited by throughput and energy efficiency. Here, the authors demonstrate that the production rate and energy efficiency can be increased by using ionic liquids as directional solvent. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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