Systematic analysis and multi-objective optimization of an integrated power and freshwater production cycle

This study represents the results of the analysis and optimization of an integrated system for cogenerating electricity and freshwater. This setup consists of a Solid Oxide Fuel cell (SOFC) for producing electricity. Unburned fuel of the SOFC is burned in the afterburner to increase the temperature of the SOFC's outlet gasses and operate a Gas turbine (GT) to produce additional power and operate the air compressor. At the bottom of this cycle, a combined setup of a Multi-Effect Desalination (MED) and Reverse Osmosis (RO) is considered to produce freshwater from the unused heat capacity of the GT's exhaust gasses. Also, a Stirling engine is used in the fuel supply line to increase the fuel's temperature. Using LNG and the Stirling engine will replace the fuel compressor with a pump which increases the system performance and eliminates the need for the expansion valve. To study the system performance a mathematical model is developed in Engineering Equation Solver (EES) program. Then, the system's simulated data from the EES has been sent to MATLAB to promote the best operating condition based on the optimization criteria. An energetic, exergetic, economic, and environmental analysis has been performed and a Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II) is used to achieve the goal. The two-objective optimization is performed to maximize the exergetic efficiency of the proposed system while minimizing the system's total cost of production. This cost is a weighted distribution of the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) and Levelized Cost of freshwater (LCOW). The results showed that the exergetic and energetic efficiencies of the system can reach 73.5% and 69.06% at the optimum point. The total electricity production of the system is 99 MW. The production cost is 11.71 Cents/kWh, of which 1.04 Cents/kWh is emission-related and environmental taxes. The freshwater production rate is 42.44 kg/s which costs 4.38 USD/m³.     

海水淡化用空心锥喷嘴喷淋性能理论及实验研究

设计开发一种具有高通量、低流阻特征的空心锥喷嘴,并通过理论与实验方法研究空心锥喷嘴的喷淋性能,基于准自由涡理论建立空心锥喷嘴内部流体流动的数学模型,阐明流量系数、喷淋锥角、喷嘴流量与喷嘴结构参数之间的定量关系,并利用多效蒸馏海水淡化喷淋实验台对理论计算结果进行实验测试和验证。研究结果表明:正常工作状态下喷嘴流量系数、喷淋锥角、喷淋流量等参数理论值与测量值之间的误差小于5%,验证了设计模型的准确性。同时根据实验测试数据,拟合得到该类型空心锥喷嘴喷淋锥角与雷诺数之间的经验公式,可为蒸馏海水淡化用大流量空心锥喷嘴的结构设计、工艺选型提供理论指导和数据支持。     

Integrated Saltwater Desalination and Energy Storage through a pH Neutral Aqueous Organic Redox Flow Battery

Here, a pH neutral aqueous organic redox flow battery (AORFB) consisting of three electrolytes channels (i.e., an anolyte channel, a catholyte channel, and a central salt water channel) to achieve integrated energy storage and desalination is reported. Employing a low cost, chemically stable methyl viologen (MV) anolyte, and sodium ferrocyanide catholyte, this desalination AORFB is capable of desalinating simulated seawater (0.56 m NaCl) down to 0.023 m salt concentration at an energy cost of 2.4 W h L^?1 of fresh water—competitive with current reverse osmosis technologies. Simultaneously, the cell delivers stored energy at 79.7% efficiency with a cell voltage of 0.85 V. Furthermore, the cell is also capable of higher current operation up to 15 mA cm^?2, providing 4.55 mL of fresh water per hour. Combining energy storage and water desalination into such a bifunctional device offers the opportunity to address two growing global issues from one hardware installation.     

Wastewater desalination system utilizing a low‐temperature heat pump

A wastewater desalination system based on a low‐temperature air source heat pump was developed and studied in this paper. The system consists of 2 main parts: the wastewater flow process and the heat pump cycle. A series of experiments were conducted on the system under different conditions, and the effect of the evaporation temperature was investigated. This system can reach equilibrium at any evaporation temperature using the combination of the compressor and vacuum pump. To treat wastewater with low boiling point organic matter, the system was operated at a low evaporation temperature of 48°C. The organic matter remained in the concentrated wastewater, and the organic removal was approximately 97%. Three kilograms of treated water was produced in 1 hour with an energy consumption of 250 W. The performance ratio (PR) obtained from the experiments ranged from 4.6 to 7.3. The cost for treating 1 kg of water was 0.038 yuan CNY assuming 0.5 yuan CNY per kWh at the compressor frequency of 50 Hz.     

ZIF衍生多孔碳纳米纤维用于高效电容去离子的研究

作为一种环保节能的新兴脱盐技术，电容去离子技术正在成为替代反渗透脱盐和电渗析脱盐的一项重要的脱盐技术。各种碳基材料被广泛地应用于电容去离子电极材料的研究，然而大多数碳基材料为粉末状材料，需要添加黏结剂，这必将导致电极材料电吸附能力的下降。利用静电纺丝技术，将ZIF纳米颗粒和聚丙烯腈混纺，并通过分段高温热处理过程，成功合成了具有柔性结构的整体性多孔碳纳米纤维。由于其具有孔道结构的分级分布和较强的亲水性等优良特性，所制得的多孔碳纳米纤维在1.2 V电压下于500 mg/L NaCl溶液中表现出良好的电吸附性能，脱盐量达到了19.92 mg/g，比普通碳纳米纤维提高了一倍以上。     

Improving the performance of novel polysulfone-based membrane via sulfonation method: Application to water desalination

High-performance polymers for water desalination were designed. A novel polysulfone was prepared via reaction between a new synthesized pyridine-based diol and bis(4-fluorophenyl) sulfone. Also a series of disulfonated copolymers with sulfonation content of 20–50 wt% were prepared to compare the hydrophilicity with the pristine polymer. The generated membranes were characterized by microscopic, mechanical, and thermal methods, and the influence of sulfonation degree on hydrophilicity, water flux, and salt rejection was followed. Water flux of sulfonated membranes was increased compare to pristine membrane as sulfonation increased, while the salt rejection decreased. Optimum application performance was obtained for membrane with 30 wt% sulfonation content. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2020 , 137, 48568.     

Efficient photothermal conversion of Fe2O3–RGO guided from ultrafast quenching effect of photoexcited state

In solar thermal utilization, effective photo capture and photothermal conversion are crucial. Improving the nonradiative transition rate of photoexcited electrons is important to enhance the photothermal conversion efficiency and develop efficient solar thermal utilization. Herein, we designed a new kind of light absorption-enhanced and efficient photothermal conversion material, namely, Fe₂O₃-functionalized reduced graphene oxide (Fe₂O₃–RGO). On the basis of the selective absorption (350–560 nm) of Fe₂O₃ and the synergistic effect of RGO on the quenching energy transfer of the excited state of Fe₂O₃ and ultrafast nonradiative thermal decay of RGO, the optical absorption capacity, and photothermal conversion efficiency of the composites were effectively improved. Fe₂O₃–RGO can be successfully applied to photothermal conversion phase change materials and seawater solar desalination, showing excellent photothermal conversion ability and application prospect.     

Deionization shocks in crossflow

Shock electrodialysis is a recently developed electrochemical water treatment method that shows promise for water deionization and ionic separations. Although simple models and scaling laws have been proposed, a predictive theory has not yet emerged to fit experimental data and enable system design. Here, we extend and analyze existing “leaky membrane” models for the canonical case of a steady shock in crossflow, as in recent experimental prototypes. Two-dimensional numerical solutions are compared with analytical boundary-layer approximations and experimental data. The boundary-layer theory accurately reproduces the simulation results for desalination, and both models predict the data collapse of the desalination factor with dimensionless current, scaled to the incoming convective flux of cations. The numerical simulation also predicts the water recovery increase with current. Nevertheless, neither approach can quantitatively fit the transition from normal to over-limiting current, which suggests gaps in our understanding of extreme electrokinetic phenomena in porous media.