TY - JOUR
T1 - Engineered Slippery Surface to Mitigate Gypsum Scaling in Membrane Distillation for Treatment of Hypersaline Industrial Wastewaters
AU - Karanikola, Vasiliki
AU - Boo, Chanhee
AU - Rolf, Julianne
AU - Elimelech, Menachem
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was made possible by the postdoctoral fellowship (to V.K.) provided from the Agnese Nelms Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice and the University of Arizona. We acknowledge the supported received from National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) to J.R. (Fellowship 2016227750) and the National Science Foundation through the Engineering Research Center for Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment (EEC-1449500) to C.B. Facilities used were supported by the Yale Institute of Nanoscale and Quantum Engineering (YINQE). The author also thanks the assistance of Dr. Min Li (Yale West Campus Materials Characterization Core) with the XPS measurements and SEM imaging. The characterization facilities were supported by the Yale Institute for Yale West Campus Materials Characterization Core (MCC).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2018/12/18
Y1 - 2018/12/18
N2 - Membrane distillation (MD) is an emerging thermal desalination process, which can potentially treat high salinity industrial wastewaters, such as shale gas produced water and power plant blowdown. The performance of MD systems is hampered by inorganic scaling, particularly when treating hypersaline industrial wastewaters with high-scaling potential. In this study, we developed a scaling-resistant MD membrane with an engineered "slippery" surface for desalination of high-salinity industrial wastewaters at high water recovery. A polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane was grafted with silica nanoparticles, followed by coating with fluoroalkylsilane to lower the membrane surface energy. Contact angle measurements revealed the "slippery" nature of the modified PVDF membrane. We evaluated the desalination performance of the surface-engineered PVDF membrane in direct contact membrane distillation using a synthetic wastewater with high gypsum scaling potential as well as a brine from a power plant blowdown. Results show that gypsum scaling is substantially delayed on the developed slippery surface. Compared to the pristine PVDF membrane, the modified PVDF membranes exhibited a stable MD performance with reduced scaling potential, demonstrating its potential to achieve high water recovery in treatment of high-salinity industrial wastewaters. We conclude with a discussion of the mechanism for gypsum scaling inhibition by the engineered slippery surface.
AB - Membrane distillation (MD) is an emerging thermal desalination process, which can potentially treat high salinity industrial wastewaters, such as shale gas produced water and power plant blowdown. The performance of MD systems is hampered by inorganic scaling, particularly when treating hypersaline industrial wastewaters with high-scaling potential. In this study, we developed a scaling-resistant MD membrane with an engineered "slippery" surface for desalination of high-salinity industrial wastewaters at high water recovery. A polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane was grafted with silica nanoparticles, followed by coating with fluoroalkylsilane to lower the membrane surface energy. Contact angle measurements revealed the "slippery" nature of the modified PVDF membrane. We evaluated the desalination performance of the surface-engineered PVDF membrane in direct contact membrane distillation using a synthetic wastewater with high gypsum scaling potential as well as a brine from a power plant blowdown. Results show that gypsum scaling is substantially delayed on the developed slippery surface. Compared to the pristine PVDF membrane, the modified PVDF membranes exhibited a stable MD performance with reduced scaling potential, demonstrating its potential to achieve high water recovery in treatment of high-salinity industrial wastewaters. We conclude with a discussion of the mechanism for gypsum scaling inhibition by the engineered slippery surface.
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U2 - 10.1021/acs.est.8b04836
DO - 10.1021/acs.est.8b04836
M3 - Article
C2 - 30426741
AN - SCOPUS:85058153096
VL - 52
SP - 14362
EP - 14370
JO - Environmental Science & Technology
JF - Environmental Science & Technology
SN - 0013-936X
IS - 24
ER -