TY - JOUR
T1 - Experimental evaluation of anion exchange membranes for the desalination of (Waste) water produced after polymer-flooding
AU - Sosa-Fernández, Paulina A.
AU - Post, Jan W.
AU - Nabaala, Harrison L.
AU - Bruning, Harry
AU - Rijnaarts, Huub
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This research has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 665874.
Funding Information:
Acknowledgments: This work was performed in the cooperation framework of Wetsus, European Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Water Technology (www.wetsus.nl). Wetsus is cofunded by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment, the European Union Regional Development Fund, the Province of Fryslân, and the Northern Netherlands Provinces. We are grateful to the participants of the research theme “Desalination” for fruitful discussions and financial support. The authors also would like to thank Simon Grasman for his useful comments to improve this manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2020/11
Y1 - 2020/11
N2 - Electrodialysis (ED) has been recently proposed to desalinate polymer-flooding produced water (PFPW), a byproduct stream from the oil and gas industry rich in charged polymers. However, process performance is limited by fouling occurring on the ion-exchange membranes, particularly on the anionic ones (AEMs). Thus, this study aimed to correlate the properties of different AEMs with their performance while desalinating PFPW, ultimately evaluating their significance when fouling is to be minimized and operation improved. Six stacks containing different homogeneous and commercially available AEMs were employed to desalinate synthetic PFPW during 8-days ED experiments operated in reversal mode. AEMs recovered from the stacks were analyzed in terms of water uptake, ion-exchange capacity, permselectivity, and area resistance, and compared with virgin AEMs. Relatively small changes were measured for most of the parameters evaluated. For most AEMs, the water uptake and resistance increased, while the ion-exchange capacity (IEC) and permselectivity decreased during operation. Ultimately, AEMs with high area resistance were linked to the fast development of limiting current conditions in the stack, so this property turned out to be the most relevant when desalinating PFPW.
AB - Electrodialysis (ED) has been recently proposed to desalinate polymer-flooding produced water (PFPW), a byproduct stream from the oil and gas industry rich in charged polymers. However, process performance is limited by fouling occurring on the ion-exchange membranes, particularly on the anionic ones (AEMs). Thus, this study aimed to correlate the properties of different AEMs with their performance while desalinating PFPW, ultimately evaluating their significance when fouling is to be minimized and operation improved. Six stacks containing different homogeneous and commercially available AEMs were employed to desalinate synthetic PFPW during 8-days ED experiments operated in reversal mode. AEMs recovered from the stacks were analyzed in terms of water uptake, ion-exchange capacity, permselectivity, and area resistance, and compared with virgin AEMs. Relatively small changes were measured for most of the parameters evaluated. For most AEMs, the water uptake and resistance increased, while the ion-exchange capacity (IEC) and permselectivity decreased during operation. Ultimately, AEMs with high area resistance were linked to the fast development of limiting current conditions in the stack, so this property turned out to be the most relevant when desalinating PFPW.
KW - Anion-exchange membranes
KW - Electrodialysis
KW - Produced water
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85096627119&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/membranes10110352
DO - 10.3390/membranes10110352
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85096627119
SN - 2077-0375
VL - 10
SP - 1
EP - 22
JO - Membranes
JF - Membranes
IS - 11
M1 - 352
ER -