Desalination of hypersaline brines with joule-heating and chemical pre-treatment: Conceptual design and economics

Conventional seawater desalination technologies and fossil energy operations produce large volumes of hypersaline brines requiring proper management. Zero liquid discharge desalination processes can offer an economic and environmentally responsible method to manage these complex streams. The objecti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Desalination 2017-08, Vol.415 (C), p.49-57
Main Authors: López, Dora E., Trembly, Jason P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aspen Plus® simulation
CO2 mineralization
Hypersaline brine
Joule heating
Produced water
Techno-economics
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Summary:Conventional seawater desalination technologies and fossil energy operations produce large volumes of hypersaline brines requiring proper management. Zero liquid discharge desalination processes can offer an economic and environmentally responsible method to manage these complex streams. The objective of this study was to assess preliminary economics for a novel Joule-heated desalination process design. Aspen Plus® was employed to model two scenarios, one with a chemical precipitation pretreatment using sodium sulfate, sodium hydroxide and calcium carbonate (scenario A) and the other using CO2 instead of calcium carbonate as precipitating agent in the pretreatment stage (scenario B). The conditions for the water desalination step were 22.1MPa and 430°C. Internal Joule-heating provides the energy in the supercritical water separation step. The preliminary economic model projects a cost of $4.29perm3 feed ($0.68/bbl feed) for scenario A and $7.10 perm3 feed ($1.13/bbl feed) for scenario B. [Display omitted] •Process modeling for desalination of hypersaline brine was completed using Aspen Plus®.•Desalination was completed using internal joule-heating.•Desalination is modeled at conditions where pure water is supercritical (22.1MPa and 430°C).•Techno-economic analysis was conducted for two chemical pretreatment scenarios.•Chemical softening with sodium carbonate provides a lower brine treatment cost than using CO2 as carbonate source.
ISSN:0011-9164
1873-4464
DOI:10.1016/j.desal.2017.04.003