I-Corps: Solar Desalination of Oilfield Produced Water with Nanostructured Gel Materials

I-Corps项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是开发能源工业产出水的脱盐技术。能源工业目前正面临着越来越大的环境和经济压力，因为它从井中产生废水。这种采出水具有非常高的总溶解固体（TDS）浓度，其盐度高达典型海水的十倍。美国石油和天然气行业每年生产10亿桶水。这些水的绝大部分（超过90%）被重新注入到地质地层中进行处理或提高石油采收率。虽然回注是目前最便宜的处理方法，但人们担心会在邻近的井中形成压力峰值，并引发地震活动。在美国的一些地区（如加利福尼亚州、德克萨斯州和新墨西哥州），油气产区位于缺水地区附近。脱盐和利用采出水作为潜在的饮用水来源可以为这些地区提供额外的水。这个I-Corps项目是基于改进太阳能蒸发池的技术开发，这是一些石油和天然气生产商处理采出水的一种现有方法。拟议的技术使用两个主要的修改这些太阳能仍然/蒸发池:1)将分层纳米水凝胶材料的给水增加蒸发率,和2)添加一个超疏水涂层的玻璃顶部的太阳能仍然增强玻璃表面上液滴的速度离开,冷凝水从入射辐射。拟议的方法将使用完全被动的海水淡化技术，而不需要任何移动部件。这种方法的低资本和运营成本使其更加可靠和经济可行，适用于油气井场址的小型工厂，这些工厂通常远离实质性的基础设施。此外，拟议的设计可以确保零液体排放，以消除在脱盐过程结束时通常产生的超高盐水的处理问题。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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 I-Corps project is the development of technology for the desalination of produced water from the energy industry. The energy industry is currently facing increasing environmental and economic pressure with regard to the production of wastewater from its wells. This produced water has a very high total dissolved solids (TDS) concentration, reaching salinities up to ten times that of typical sea water. The U.S. oil and gas industry produces a billion barrels of water annually. The vast majority (more than 90%) of this water is re-injected in geological formations for disposal or enhanced oil recovery. While re-injection is the cheapest disposal method at this time, there are concerns about forming pressure spikes in the drilled neighboring wells and induced seismic activity. In several parts of the U.S. (e.g., California, Texas and New Mexico), oil and gas production regions are located near water-stressed regions. The desalination and use of produced water as a potential source of potable water may provide additional water to these regions.This I-Corps project is based on the development of technology to modify solar evaporation ponds, an existing method for the disposal of produced water for some oil and gas producers. The proposed technology uses two major modifications to these solar still/evaporation ponds: 1) placing hierarchical nanostructured hydrogel materials on top of the feed water to increase the rate of evaporation, and 2) adding a superhydrophobic coating to the glass at the top of the solar still to enhance the rate of droplet departure on the glass surface and move condensed water out of the way from incoming radiation. The proposed approach will use fully passive desalination technology without any moving parts. The low capital and operating costs associated with this approach make it more reliable and economically feasible for small-scale plants at oil and gas well sites, which are often located far away from substantial infrastructure. In addition, the proposed design may ensure zero liquid discharge to eliminate the problem of treating the ultra-high saline water that is typically produced at the end of the desalination process.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.