I-Corps: Vacuum Distillation and Desalination for Wastewater Treatment

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是潜在的发展真空蒸馏技术，用于从废水中提取可冷凝液体，从而可能大大减少废水残渣的体积和浓度，然后可用于废水净化中的后续残渣处理。该技术还可以回收重要的不可冷凝气体，如甲烷和二氧化碳，并且可以高度紧凑，结构简单，没有任何移动或可更换的部件，并且不需要高功率即可运行。该系统的设计和操作成本较低，可按比例放大或缩小，机动性高，适用于难以进入或极其偏远的地区。I-Corps项目的基础是开发从废水中提取可冷凝液体的技术，否则使用商业蒸馏难以分离这些液体。一般来说，废水含有各种物质，如溶解的矿物质、金属、盐（可以在蒸发的固体表面沉淀）、腐蚀性液体和/或化学活性气体（破坏脆弱的材料，如膜和金属），以及悬浮的微米大小的水溶胶（油和固体）。目前商业上可用的蒸馏技术，包括膜蒸馏和热蒸馏，在处理废水中的这些物质时可能有局限性。这项潜在的技术可以克服现有方法的一些困难。该技术的核心创新包括喷雾闪蒸与主动真空抽提，允许在高度压实的系统中强化蒸发过程。该创新产品无膜，无汽化固体表面，可节省材料，有效避免表面结垢或堵塞。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 potential development of a vacuum distillation technology for the extraction of condensable liquids from wastewater leading to a possible significant volume reduction and concentration in wastewater residue, which can then be used for follow-up residue treatments in wastewater cleansing. The technology may also recycle important non-condensable gases such as methane and carbon dioxide and can be highly compact, simply structured without any moving or replaceable parts, and operated without high-power requirements. The system can be low-cost in design and operation and can be scaled up or down with high mobility for applications in hard-to-access or extremely isolated areas.This I-Corps project is based on the development of technology for the extraction of condensable liquids out of wastewaters that would be otherwise difficult to separate using commercially available distillation. Generally, wastewater contains various substances such as dissolved minerals, metals, salts (that can precipitate on solid surfaces of vaporization), corrosive liquids, and/or chemically active gases (that damage fragile materials such as membranes and metals), and suspended micron-sized hydrosols (oils and solids). The current commercially available distillation technologies including membrane distillation and thermal distillation can have limitations in dealing with these substances in wastewaters. The potential technology could overcome some of the difficulties with current methods. The core innovation of this technology includes spray flash vaporization with active-vacuum extraction to allow for an intensified vaporization process in a highly compacted system. The innovation is membrane-free and has no solid surface of vaporization which could save material and effectively avoid surface scaling or blockage.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.