NSF-BSF Application: Selective Electrosorption for Boron Removal and Recovery from Seawater

NSF-BSF 应用：选择性电吸附用于海水中硼的去除和回收

• 批准号: 2001219
• 负责人: Menachem Elimelech
• 金额: $ 39.2万
• 依托单位: Yale University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-07-15 至 2024-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2001219&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; BSF; Application; Selective; Electrosorption

Agricultural irrigation is the largest user of water in the United States, accounting for approximately 80 percent of the Nation’s clean water consumption. Seawater desalination is a drought-proof technology that can address growing demands for water in agriculture and other uses. At present, seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) is the best available commercially available desalination technology. However, the desalinated seawater cannot be used directly in irrigation due to the limited ability to remove boron. This results from limitations on the boron retention capability of commercial SWRO membranes. Boron adversely impacts plant growth and damages apple, citrus, grapes, and other crops when water containing more than 0.3 mg/L of boron is used in irrigation. Thus, commercial SWRO plants must use an additional purification step to reduce boron concentration to acceptable concentrations. This greatly increases the energy consumption and costs of using desalinated water for agriculture. The proposed research will address the inefficiencies associated with boron removal through the development of a novel selective separation technology based on electrosorption. This new technology will be chemical-free, energy efficient, and capable of recovering a high purity boron stream for beneficial uses. Successful completion of this project will advance the development of the next generation of sustainable SWRO plants, with great potential benefit to society. The project will fruther benefit society by providing research training to graduate and undergraduate students at Yale University. Also, the investigator will promote diversity and enhance the involvement of under-represented groups in science and engineering through engagement in Yale's K-12 outreach activities. A critical and unresolved challenge in SWRO desalination is to produce a permeate water stream suitable for irrigation without additional and costly purification to remove plant-toxic elements such as boron. The overall goal of this project is to develop an innovative flow-through electrosorption process for boron removal and recovery in seawater desalination. To achieve this goal, the PI proposes to carry out an integrated experimental and modeling project structured around the following tasks: 1) fabrication of an ultra-selective positive electrode (anode) using boron-chelating resins as building blocks; 2) performance testing of the fabricated electrodes for selective boron removal and recovery; 3) elucidation of the mechanisms underlying selective boron electrosorption; 4) assessment of the impact of electrochemical reactions on the long-term stability and boron selectivity of the electrodes; and 5) evaluation and modeling of the energy consumption and boron selectivity of the combined SWRO-electrosorption process. The proposed work would be the first to study boron-selective removal and recovery from seawater using a chemical-free method. The successful completion of this research has potential to transform desalination through the development of a more energy efficient and sustainable boron removal and recovery process from SWRO plants.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.

农业灌溉是美国最大的水用户，约占美国清洁水分消耗的80％。海水脱盐是一种防旱技术，可以解决同意和其他用途中对水的不断增长的需求。目前，海水反渗透（SWRO）是最好的市售淡化技术。但是，由于有限的去除硼的能力，脱盐的海水不能直接用于灌溉中。这是由于商业SWRO膜的硼保留能力的局限性。当使用含有超过0.3 mg/L的硼的水用于灌溉时，硼会不利影响植物的生长和损害苹果，柑橘，图形和其他农​​作物。这就是商业SWRO植物必须使用额外的纯化步骤将硼浓度降低为可接受的浓度。这大大增加了使用淡化水达成共识的能耗和成本。拟议的研究将通过开发基于电子产品的新型选择性分离技术来解决与去除硼有关的低效率。这项新技术将是无化学物质，能源效率的，并且能够恢复高纯度硼的福利用途。该项目的成功完成将推动下一代可持续的SWRO工厂的发展，并为社会带来巨大的利益。该项目将通过为耶鲁大学的研究生和本科生提供研究培训，从而富有成果。此外，调查人员将通过参与耶鲁大学的K-12外展活动来促进多样性，并增强代表性不足的群体在科学和工程中的参与。 SWRO脱盐中的一个关键且尚未解决的挑战是生产适合灌溉的渗透水流，而无需额外且昂贵的纯化以去除植物性的毒性元素，例如硼。该项目的总体目的是开发一种创新的流动电子吸收过程，用于海水脱盐中的硼和恢复。为了实现这一目标，PI提出的提案围绕以下任务进行构建的集成实验和建模项目：1）使用硼螯合树脂作为建筑区块制造超选择性正电极（阳极）； 2）制造电极的性能测试，用于选择性硼的去除和恢复； 3）阐明选择性硼电气吸收的机制； 4）评估电化学反应对电子的长期稳定性和硼选择性的影响； 5）评估和建模SWRO-电气吸附过程的能耗和硼的选择性。拟议的工作将是第一个使用无化学方法研究硼选择性去除和从海水中恢复的工作。这项研究的成功完成有可能通过从SWRO工厂发展出更节能，更可持续的硼和恢复过程来改变海水淡化。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响来通过评估来获得的支持。

项目成果

Correlation equation for evaluating energy consumption and process performance of brackish water desalination by electrodialysis

• DOI: 10.1016/j.desal.2021.115089
• 发表时间: 2021-08
• 期刊: Desalination
• 影响因子: 9.9
• 作者: Li Wang;Sohum K. Patel;M. Elimelech

In Situ Characterization of Dehydration during Ion Transport in Polymeric Nanochannels

• DOI: 10.1021/jacs.1c05765
• 发表时间: 2021-09-08
• 期刊: JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
• 影响因子: 15
• 作者: Lu, Chenghai;Hu, Chengzhi;Qu, Jiuhui
• 通讯作者: Qu, Jiuhui