Salinity exchange between seawater/brackish water and domestic wastewater through electrodialysis for potable water

Highlights

● Present a general concept called “salinity exchange”.

● Salts transferred from seawater to treated wastewater until completely switch.

● Process demonstrated using a laboratory-scale electrodialysis system.

● High-quality desalinated water obtained at ~1 mL/min consuming < 1 kWh/m ³ energy.

Abstract

Two-thirds of the world’s population has limited access to potable water. As we continue to use up our freshwater resources, new and improved techniques for potable water production are warranted. Here, we present a general concept called “salinity exchange” that transfers salts from seawater or brackish water to treated wastewater until their salinity values approximately switch, thus producing wastewater with an increased salinity for discharge and desalinated seawater as the potable water source. We have demonstrated this process using electrodialysis. Salinity exchange has been successfully achieved between influents of different salinities under various operating conditions. Laboratory-scale salinity exchange electrodialysis (SEE) systems can produce high-quality desalinated water at ~1 mL/min with an energy consumption less than 1 kWh/m³. SEE has also been operated using real water, and the challenges of its implementation at a larger scale are evaluated.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Desalination / Potable water reuse / Ion-exchange membrane / Salinity gradient energy / Wastewater discharge

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Interior Bureau of Reclamation (No. R19AC00101). The authors acknowledge Sydney Taylor-Klaus for helping in seawater collection.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-023-1616-1 and is accessible for authorized users.

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