Massachusetts Institute of Technology

King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals

Teradyne, Inc.

Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC

Speedline Technologies, Inc.

Kinetrix, Inc.

John H Lienhard

Prakash Narayan Govindan

Ronan Killian McGovern

Mostafa Hamed Elsharqawy

Gregory P Thiel

Syed Mohammad Zubair

Maximus G St John

Steven Lam

Anurag Bajpayee

Jaichander Swaminathan

David Elan Martin Warsinger

Gang Paul Chen

Karim M Chehayeb

Andreas C Pfahnl

Daniel Kraemer

Adam Michael Weiner

Borivoje B Mikic

Andrew Jerome Muto

Kishor Govind Nayar

Emily Winona Tow

Lige Sun

Windsor Sung

Mohammed Mirhi

Sarit K Das

Mohammed A Antar

Alexander H Slocum, Jr

Xuanhe Zhao

William Anthony Cavallaro

Bader Shafaqa Al-Anzi

Mohammed Ashraf Gondal

Mohamed Abdulkader Dastageer

Mohammad Ashraf Ali

Amro M Al-Qutub

Aaron D Wilson

Gang Chen

Xiaofeng Chang

Gregory L Carr

Leonardo David Banchik

David Elan Martin

Amelia Tepper Servi

Hyung-Won Chung

David Elan-Martin Warsinger

Grace Goon

Omar Labban

Quantum J Wei

Syed N Zubair

Hyung Won Chung

Daniel J Watson

Zi Hao Foo

Akshay Deshmukh

Edward K Summers

Karan H Mistry

Andrew Muto

Mostafa Elsharqawy

Ronan K Mcgovern

Syed M Zubair

Ronan Mcgovern

Gregory Thiel

Borivoje Mikic

A saline feed stream flows into a liquid-liquid extraction system; and a volatile organic solvent flows through a main compressor. The compressed volatile organic solvent then flows through a solvent regenerator, which can be a heat exchanger or a combination of a vaporization device and a condenser, to cool the volatile organic solvent. The cooled volatile organic solvent in liquid phase then flows into the liquid-liquid extraction system, where the saline feed stream contacts the volatile organic solvent to selectively extract water from the saline feed stream into the volatile organic solvent, producing a concentrated brine and an organic-rich mixture of water and the volatile organic solvent. The organic-rich mixture flows from the liquid-liquid extraction system into the solvent regenerator, where the organic-rich mixture is heated to produce an organic-rich vapor and desalinated water; and the organic-rich vapor is recycled as volatile organic solvent back into the liquid-liquid extraction system.

Switchable system for high-salinity brine desalination and fractional precipitation

Enhanced cleaning of a fouled membrane is achieved via controlled deformation in a method wherein a feed composition, comprising a solvent and dissolved components, flows into a retentate side of a membrane module. The solvent passes through the membrane from the retentate side to a permeate or draw side of the membrane module while retaining the dissolved components on the membrane. As a foulant accumulates on either side of the membrane, a driving force is generated across the membrane, wherein the membrane responds cyclically by deforming back and forth toward the permeate or draw side and toward the retentate side. The foulant is dislodged from the membrane via mechanical fatigue at the foulant-membrane interface caused by the deformation of the membrane and contact with a spacer in contact with the membrane.

Deformation-enhanced cleaning of fouled membranes

A first stream of an aqueous solution flows through an upstream desalination or nanofiltration system. A second stream of the aqueous solution is mixed with the diluate output from the upstream desalination system or with the diluate or concentrate output from the upstream nanofiltration system with a flow ratio of the second stream of the aqueous solution to the feed stream of &#x3c;0.47 or &#x3e;0.63. A liquid composition flows into the concentrate channels of an electrically driven separation apparatus, while the feed stream flows into at least the diluate channels at a ratio of 0.3 to 0.81 to the flow of the liquid composition. An applied voltage selectively draws monovalent ions from the feed stream in the diluate channels through the monovalent-selective ion exchange membranes into the concentrate channels to produce a treated diluate having a sodium chloride ratio (SCR)&#x3c;0.7.

Water treatment for increasing recovery of a resource from a reservoir

A feed of at least one of (a) a source liquid including a solvent with a dissolved impurity and (b) a retentate of the source liquid is pumped in a substantially closed loop through a liquid-separation module. The liquid-separation module includes a membrane that passes at least partially purified solvent to a permeate side of the membrane while diverting the impurity in a retentate on the retentate side of the membrane. The purified solvent is extracted from the permeate side of the membrane; and the retentate from the liquid-separation module is pumped to or through a pressurized reservoir with a variable volume for the feed component and recirculated as a component of the feed. Over time, the volume for the feed is reduced and the pressure applied to the feed in the reservoir is increased to balance against an increasing difference in osmotic pressure across the membrane.

Batch pressure-driven membrane separation with closed-flow loop and reservoir

A feed liquid flows into a second-stage humidifier chamber to form a second-stage humidifier bath. A first remnant of the feed liquid from the second-stage humidifier chamber then flows into a first-stage humidifier chamber to form a first-stage humidifier bath having a temperature lower than that of the second-stage bath. A second remnant of the feed liquid is then removed from the first-stage humidifier. Meanwhile, a carrier gas is injected into and bubbled through the first-stage humidifier bath, collecting a vaporizable component in vapor form from the first remnant of the feed liquid to partially humidify the carrier gas. The partially humidified carrier gas is then bubbled through the second-stage humidifier bath, where the carrier gas collects more of the vaporizable component in vapor form from the feed liquid to further humidify the carrier gas before the humidified carrier gas is removed from the second-stage humidifier chamber.

Multi-stage bubble column humidification and dehumidification

A multi-stage bubble-column vapor mixture condenser comprises at least a first stage and a second stage. Each stage includes a carrier-gas inlet and a carrier-gas outlet, as well as a condenser chamber containing a condensing bath in fluid communication with the carrier-gas inlet and the carrier-gas outlet. The carrier-gas inlet is positioned to bubble carrier gas from the carrier-gas inlet up through the condensing bath, overcoming a hydrostatic head of the condensing bath. The carrier-gas outlet is positioned with an opening for carrier-gas extraction above the condensing bath, wherein the first-stage carrier-gas outlet is in fluid communication with the carrier-gas inlet of the second stage to facilitate flow of the carrier gas through the condensing bath in the condenser chamber of the first stage and then through the condensing bath in the condenser chamber of the second stage.

Multi-stage bubble-column vapor mixture condensation

An aqueous solution flows through a desalination system that separates the aqueous solution into purified water and concentrated brine. The concentrated brine is directed into an electrodialysis system that includes an anode and a cathode and at least two monovalent selective ion exchange membranes between the anode and the cathode. At least one of the monovalent selective ion exchange membranes separates at least one diluate channel from at least one concentrate channel in the electrodialysis system, and this membrane selectively allows at least one monovalent ion to pass through the membrane while blocking or inhibiting the transport therethrough of multi-valent ions. The concentrated brine flows through at least the concentrate channel while a voltage is applied to the anode and cathode; and additional aqueous solution flows through the diluate channel.

Concentrating aqueous solutions via hybridizing electrodialysis and other desalination techniques

Improved reverse osmosis (RO) systems include at least first and second stages wherein each stage has at least one RO membrane, each stage has a feed stream inlet, permeate stream outlet, and concentrate stream outlet, the feed stream inlet of the second stage is coupled to the concentrate stream outlet of the first stage, the feed stream entering the first stage is pressurized to a first pressure and the feed stream entering the second stage is pressurized to a second pressure, the second pressure being greater than the first pressure. The systems include M number of reverse osmosis membranes in the first stage and N number of reverse osmosis membranes in the second stage, wherein M&#x2265;N. The first pressure and second pressure are configured so that flux of the permeate streams of the first stage and the second stage has a spatial variance that is minimized.

Multi-stage reverse osmosis systems and methods

Concentration control in filtration systems and associated methods are generally described. Streams originating from upstream filters and having similar concentrations of a target minor component and/or similar osmotic pressures can be mixed and subsequently filtered within additional filters. Certain embodiments comprise recycling an output stream produced by a filter to a filter feed stream, wherein the output stream and the filter feed stream have similar concentrations of a target minor component and/or similar osmotic pressures. Such strategic mixing and/or recycling can reduce the amount of energy and/or the amount of filtration medium surface area required to achieve a desired concentration of the target minor component in a final product stream.

Concentration control in filtration systems, and associated methods

A method reuses produced water resulting from a fossil fuel extraction operation. The method includes providing the produced water as an input to an electrodialysis system. The method also includes running the electrodialysis system to produce a diluate and a concentrate. The diluate is contaminated so as to have a conductivity of no less than 0.1 Siemens/meter. The method also includes reformulating the diluate to produce fossil fuel extraction fluid. The method also includes using the produced fossil fuel extraction fluid in the fossil fuel extraction operation. An electrodialysis system includes first and second stacks. The electrodialysis system also includes first and second voltage sources, coupled to the first and second stacks, so as to apply a first voltage to the first stack lower by at least about 10% than a second voltage to the second stack.

Apparatus for partially desalinating produced water to form extraction fluid used for fossil fuel extraction

A carrier gas is directed through a humidification chamber in a humidifier, where the carrier gas flow is directly contacted with a feed liquid to humidify the carrier gas with water evaporated from the feed liquid, producing a humidified gas flow. The humidified gas flow is then compressed in a compressor and then directed through a dehumidification chamber in a dehumidifier, where the compressed humidified gas flow is dehumidified to condense water from the compressed humidified gas flow. The dehumidified gas flow is then expanded in an expander, wherein the expansion of the dehumidified gas flow generates motion (e.g., rotation of a shaft), and wherein the motion generated in the expander is transferred to the compressor, where the motion compresses the humidified gas flow. Heat is also removed from the expanded dehumidified gas flow and transferred to compressed dehumidified gas flow upstream from the expander.

Thermal energy-driven mechanical compression humidification-dehumidification water purification

An apparatus for enhanced anti-fouling of a submerged surface includes a bath of a feed liquid that includes water; a fouling structure in contact with the feed liquid; and a gas feed configured to introduce a gas into contact with the fouling structure and the feed liquid to separate the fouling structure from the feed liquid with a gas layer.

Maintenance of gas layers for fouling prevention on submerged surfaces

A multi-effect membrane distillation system includes first and second membrane distillation effects. Each effect (stage) includes a feed channel, a gap, and a vapor-permeable membrane separating the feed channel from the gap. A liquid feed is fed into the feed channel of the first effect via a feed inlet, and the liquid feed is extracted from the first-stage feed channel via a first feed-transfer conduit that delivers the liquid feed to the second-stage feed channel. The feed is extracted from the second-stage feed channel via a second feed-transfer conduit. At least one permeate-extraction conduit is coupled with the first-stage and second-stage gaps and is configured to extract permeate (e.g., pure water) therefrom.

Multi-effect membrane distillation

Method and apparatus for partially desalinating produced water to form extraction fluid used for fossil fuel extraction

A carrier gas and a combined feed liquid are directed through a humidifier, where water vaporizes from the combined feed liquid into the carrier gas, and through a dehumidifier, where the combined feed liquid cools the carrier gas to condense water from the carrier gas. At least a portion of the concentrated brine stream from the humidifier is directed through a pressure-retarded osmosis unit, while an initial feed solution is directed, in counter-flow, through the osmosis unit. Water from the initial feed solution flows through a membrane in the osmosis chamber into the concentrated brine stream to dilute and increase the volumetric flow rate of the brine stream. The diluted brine stream is extracted from the osmosis chamber and depressurized to produce power, while the concentrated initial feed solution is combined with the depressurized, diluted brine stream to form the combined feed liquid.

Hybridization of humidification-dehumidification and pressure-retarded osmosis

Growing community of inventors

Lexington, MA, United States of America

John H Lienhard