Desalination of Basal Water by Mesoporous Carbons Nanocomposite Membrane

J Nanosci Nanotechnol. 2016 Feb;16(2):2084-7. doi: 10.1166/jnn.2016.11975.

Abstract

The hydro-transportation process used to obtain bitumen from the Alberta oil sands produces large volume of basal depressurization water (BDW), which contains high salt concentrations. In this research, thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membrane technology applied to treat BDW in lab-scale, and evaluated water properties before and after the treatment. The average rejection ratios of ionic species were 95.2% and 92.8% by TFN membrane (with ordered mesoporous carbons (OMCs)) and thin-film composite (TFC) (without OMCs) membrane, respectively. The turbidity and total dissolved solids (TDS) were completely rejected in all treatment conditions. Interestingly, the water flux of TFN membrane was dramatically increased compared to TFC membrane. The increase of water flux was believed to be caused by the increased membrane surface hydrophilicity and nano-pore effects by the OMCs.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't