SBIR Phase I: Reversible Ion Exchange Plus Pressure-Driven Membrane Filtration (RIX+MEM) Process for Desalination

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目推进了一种新工艺RIX+MEM的开发，以取代或显著提高膜脱盐的能源效率和可操作性。目前的技术受到几个因素的限制，包括：膜结垢、高能量成本和脱盐水回收率低。RIX+MEM工艺直接解决了这些局限性，并提供了以下独特的优势：更高的水回收率，最多可降低50%的能耗;消除对防垢剂的需求;在任何膜脱盐工艺之前进行更换或安装，并适应极高的盐浓度。关键的工艺创新是离子交换，以降低通过反渗透膜过滤的压力要求，并重新使用膜废弃物流来再生离子交换材料。这项研究的广泛/商业影响是为了满足缺水地区日益增长的淡水需求，并为工业应用提供独特的处理可能性。水资源的扩大将有助于新区域的增长和可持续经济发展。针对高含盐废水开发可行的废水处理替代方案将减少对环境的影响，并开辟新的工业应用。由于海水淡化工艺的广泛使用，这项技术的潜在市场极为广阔。该技术最初的商业目标领域将集中在两个领域：（1）用于处理饮用水供应的海水淡化和（2）石油和天然气井生产活动产生的含盐废水的工业处理。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project advances development of a novel process, RIX+MEM, to replace or significantly enhance energy efficiency and operability of membrane desalination. Current technology is limited by several factors including; scaling & fouling of the membranes, high energy costs and low percent recovery of desalinated water. The RIX+MEM process directly addresses these limitations and offers the following unique advantages: higher water recovery with up to 50% lower energy consumption; elimination of the need for anti-scaling agents; replacement or installation ahead of any membrane desalination process and process adaptation to extremely high salt concentrations. The key process innovations are ion exchange to reduce the pressure requirements for filtering through reverse osmosis membranes and reuse of the membrane reject stream to regenerate the ion exchange material. The broader/commercial impacts of this research are to meet the increasing demand of freshwater in water starved regions and to provide unique treatment possibilities for industrial applications. The expansion of water resources will allow for growth and sustainable economic development in new regions. The development of viable wastewater treatment alternatives for highly saline wastewaters will lessen impacts on the environment and open new industrial applications. The potential market for this technology is extremely wide given the extensive use of desalination processes. The initial commercial target areas for the technology will be focused in two areas; (1) desalination for treating seawater for potable water supply and (2) industrial treatment of saline wastewaters generated from oil and gas well production activity.