SBIR Phase I: High-Salinity Produced Water Management by Recovering Solid Waste with Low Grade Thermal Energy

SBIR第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一个由太阳能供电的海水淡化系统。 水用于锂和稀有金属开采，需要节能的水处理，以生产淡水和浓缩盐水。 矿物回收系统中的这种类型的水处理可以产生有价值的关键材料作为副产品。许多锂和稀有金属矿都位于美国太阳能丰富的地区。 传统蒸馏工艺的能源效率必须显著提高，以使水处理经济。使用太阳能为所提出的系统提供动力还减少或消除了在偏远地区部署该过程所需的运输燃料的需要。 拟建的一期工程将开发一个利用太阳能的系统，通过溴化锂（LiBr）多效蒸馏（MED）干燥器集成系统进行热脱盐处理含盐尾矿沃茨。该系统还包括具有机械蒸汽压缩（MVC）的第二MED和LiBr再生器。系统中使用的所有电能和热能都是从太阳能转换而来的。 水处理过程还包括锂和稀有金属的回收。 该设计包括一个蒸馏系统与机械蒸汽压缩。与传统MED相比，我们独特的设计使我们的系统比传统MED紧凑10-20倍。 在第一阶段项目中，该公司将开发基于物理的模型来分析该技术，并构建和评估小型原型以确认可行性。建议的集成，增强和紧凑的MED + MVC设备可以强化传热和传质过程，减少热损失。通过将多缸配置集成在一个单一的缸或类似的配置，我们的设备设计将超过传统的MED系统。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this SBIR Phase I project is to develop a desalination system powered by solar energy. Water is used for lithium and rare metal mining, requiring energy-efficient water treatment to produce fresh water and concentrated brines. This type of water treatment in mineral recovery systems can yield valuable critical materials as byproducts. Many lithium and rare metal mining fields are located in regions in the US where solar energy is abundant. Energy efficiency in traditional distillation processes must be significantly improved to make water treatment economical. The use of solar energy to power the proposed system also reduces or eliminates the need for transporting fuel for deployments of the process in remote areas. The proposed Phase I project will develop a system using solar energy to treat salty tailing waters through thermal desalination by an integrated system of lithium bromide (LiBr) multi-effect distillation (MED) dryer. The system also includes a second MED with mechanical vapor compression (MVC) and a LiBr regenerator. All the electrical and thermal energy used in the system are converted from solar heat. The water treatment process includes lithium and rare metal recovery as well. The design incorporates a distillation system with mechanical vapor compression. Comparing to traditional MED, our unique design enables our system to be 10-20 times more compact than traditional MEDs. During the Phase I project, the company will develop physics-based models to analyze the technology, as well as build and evaluate small prototypes to confirm the feasibility. The proposed integrated, enhanced and compact MED plus MVC equipment can intensify the heat and mass transfer processes and reduce heat losses. By integrating multi-cylinder configurations in one single cylinder or similar configurations, our equipment designs will exceed those of traditional MED systems. Modeling and simulation of the proposed distillation system show up to 10-fold improvement in energy efficiency.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.