Solar distillation of highly saline produced water using low-cost and high-performance carbon black and airlaid paper-based evaporator (CAPER)

Lin Chen; Pei Xu; Krishna Kota; Sarada Kuravi; Huiyao Wang

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.129372

Solar distillation of highly saline produced water using low-cost and high-performance carbon black and airlaid paper-based evaporator (CAPER)

Chemosphere. 2021 Apr:269:129372. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.129372. Epub 2020 Dec 18.

Authors

Lin Chen¹, Pei Xu², Krishna Kota³, Sarada Kuravi³, Huiyao Wang⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Civil Engineering, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, 88003, USA.
² Department of Civil Engineering, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, 88003, USA. Electronic address: pxu@nmsu.edu.
³ Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, 88003, USA.
⁴ Department of Civil Engineering, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, 88003, USA. Electronic address: huiyao@nmsu.edu.

PMID: 33383253
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.129372

Abstract

The current technologies to treat hypersaline produced water (PW), such as thermal evaporation, are usually energy-intensive and cost-prohibitive. This study developed a low-cost, robust, solar-driven carbon black and airlaid paper-based evaporator (CAPER) for desalination of PW in the Permian Basin, United States. The study aims to better understand the removal of aromatic organic compounds and heavy metals during solar distillation, water output, and heat transfer. Outdoor experiments using CAPER assisted with polystyrene foam in a single slope, single basin solar still achieved an enhanced average evaporation rate of 2.23 L per m² per day, 165% higher than that of a conventional solar still. Analysis of heat transfer models demonstrated that CAPER solar evaporation achieved an evaporative heat transfer coefficient of ∼28.9 W m^-2·K^-1, 27.9% higher than without CAPER. The maximum fractional energy of evaporation and convection heat transfer inside the solar still with and without CAPER was ∼81.4% and ∼78.2%, respectively. For the PW with a total dissolved solids concentration of 134 g L^-1, solar distillation removed 99.97% salts and over 98% heavy metals. The high removal efficiency of 99.99% was achieved for Ca, Na, Mg, Mn, Ni, Se, Sr, and V. Organic characterization revealed that solar distillation removed over 83% aromatic compounds. Solar desalination using CAPER provides a low-cost and high-performance process to treat PW with high salinity and complex water chemistry for potential fit-for-purpose beneficial uses.

Keywords: Beneficial reuse; Carbon black; Heat transfer; Interfacial evaporation; Produced water; Solar desalination.

MeSH terms

Distillation
Soot
Water
Water Purification*

Substances

Soot
Water