I-Corps: Small-Scale Low-Temperature Multiple Effect Distillation for Brackish Groundwater Desalination Using Heat from Biomass Pyrolysis

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是开发一种新型的海水淡化系统，该系统使用可再生能源，适合小规模：单个农场或加工设施，或小规模的房屋。该系统将固体生物质废物的有益利用与高纯度水的生产和可用于抵消水处理成本的可销售的生物炭副产品相结合。该项目可为那些难以处理的硬咸水和那些不易获得电力或反渗透系统所需的替代膜的人提供可行的水淡化。海水淡化是全球数十亿美元的产业，并且正在稳步增长，以满足不断扩大的淡水需求。新的系统设计为行业提供了更多的选择，以找到环境和经济上可持续的水处理解决方案。I-Corps项目的重点是确定低温多效蒸馏（MED）系统的最终用户和潜在许可证持有人，该系统从农业残留物，食品加工废物和城市庭院废物等废弃生物质的热解中获得能量。在MED系统中，热量用于使水沸腾，并且沸腾的热量从一个蒸发器再循环到另一个蒸发器。低温MED操作条件的优点是，硬微咸水不太可能结垢，来自各种潜在来源的热水可用于沸腾的热量，并且没有膜可替换。目前的研究集中在整个热解MED过程的化学工程模拟和实验室规模的原型开发，以研究水化学对脱盐性能的影响。早期结果表明，这种类型的装置在获得可靠电力有限和未使用生物质供应充足的地区，如农村农业社区，特别是在发展中国家，具有很大的潜力。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a new kind of water desalination system that operates on renewable energy and is suitable for the small scale: individual farms or processing facilities, or small groups of houses. This system combines beneficial use of solid biomass wastes with production of high purity water and a marketable biochar co-product that can be used to offset water treatment costs. This project may enable feasible water desalination for those with difficult-to-treat, hard brackish water and those without easy access to the electricity or the replacement membranes needed for reverse osmosis systems. Water desalination is a multi-billion dollar industry worldwide and is growing steadily to meet expanding demands for fresh water. New system designs create more options for the industry to find environmentally and economically sustainable water treatment solutions.This I-Corps project is focused on the identification of end users and potential licensees for a low-temperature multiple effect distillation (MED) system that derives its energy from pyrolysis of waste biomass such as agricultural residues, food processing wastes, and urban yard waste. In MED systems, heat is used to boil water and the heat of boiling is recycled from one evaporator to another. Advantages of low-temperature MED operation conditions are that hard brackish water is less likely to scale, hot water from a variety of potential sources can be used for the heat of boiling, and there are no membranes to replace. Current research has focused on the chemical engineering simulation of the entire pyrolysis-MED process and the development of a laboratory-scale prototype to study the effects of water chemistry on desalination performance. Early results suggest that this type of unit has strong potential for use in areas with limited access to reliable electricity and abundant supplies of unused biomass such as rural agricultural communities, especially in the developing world.