I-Corps: Mitigating Scaling in Membrane Distillation used for High-Salinity Wastewater Treatment

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the improved capability to manage wastewater. It is crucial to develop technologies that can reliably and efficiently treat the large volume of high-salinity brine produced daily around the world; currently, the most common treatment strategies suffer from high costs and detrimental environmental outcomes. The aim is to identify technology gaps that motivate the establishment of targeted treatment strategies leveraging both efficient operational design and sustainable energy sources for reduced wastewater management costs. Such technology may be commercially attractive to industrial facilities with regulatory and economic concerns. This project will work toward the development of commercially viable products that can sustainably address water scarcity while maintaining satisfactory environmental stewardship. This I-Corps project involves the technological advancement of membrane distillation (MD), a thermal desalination process with the capability of harnessing low-grade waste heat to treat hypersaline brine. This advantage has led MD to be actively explored as a promising technology for brine management and zero-liquid discharge systems. However, a major challenge is membrane scaling, or mineral crystal formation/deposition on the membrane surface. Membrane scaling results in process failure in the form of membrane blockage and/or decreased salt rejection. A new technology combines superhydrophobic membranes and periodic air purging, as neither solution is sufficient alone for long-term scaling mitigation. This project will inform the technology roadmap for advancing MD toward brine treatment.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.