Experimentation of a Membrane-based Concentration Gradient Energy Storage of Liquid Desiccant Solutions Driven by Solar Energy

Solar energy storage is an indispensable and sustainable utilization mode of renewable energy;environment friendly,large-capacity,low heat loss,and long-term storage are critical to improving the integration of solar energy supply.Traditional thermal energy storage mode cannot achieve long-term storage due to the heat loss even under the excellent thermal insulation measures.In this work,a solar-powered membrane-based concentration gradient energy storage of liquid desiccant solutions is presented.In the membrane distillation process driven by solar energy under the right solar radiation conditions,the liquid desiccant solution is concentrated gradually and long-term stored as the concentration gradient energy.To this end,the measured temperature of solar hot water is in the range of 40°C to 90°C from May to September,2018,in Xi’an,China.And then,the LiBr solution(50 wt%),the LiCl solution(35 wt%),and the CaCl_(2)solution(40 wt%)were membrane-based concentrated in the temperature range of 42°C to 63°C,separately.The results showed that the water vapor pressure difference decides the water vapor transferred across the membrane pores from the liquid desiccant side to the air side.The energy storage density of liquid desiccant solutions increases along with the increases in temperature and the membrane area.Consequently,when the LiBr,LiCl,and CaCl_(2)solutions are concentrated from 50%to 55%,from 35%to 40%,and from 40%to 45%,separately,the concentration energy storage density is 245 kJ/kg,350 kJ/kg,and 306 kJ/kg,which is equivalent to or even higher than ice storage capacity.Due to the two independent closed cycle of the liquid desiccant solution and air,the liquid desiccant solution’s concentration gradient energy storage can be long-term stored environment-friendly without any insulation measures.

Membrane fouling controlled by coagulation/adsorption during direct sewage membrane filtration(DSMF) for organic matter concentration

Unlike the role of the membrane in a membrane bioreactor, which is designed to replace a sediment tank, direct sewage membrane filtration（DSMF）, with the goal of concentrating organic matters, is proposed as a pretreatment process in a novel sewage treatment concept. The concept of membrane-based pretreatment is proposed to divide raw sewage into a concentrated part retaining most organics and a filtered part with less pollutant remaining, so that energy recovery and water reuse, respectively, could be realized by post-treatment. A pilot-scale experiment was carried out to verify the feasibility of coagulant/adsorbent addition for membrane fouling control, which has been the main issue during this DSMF process. The results showed that continuous coagulant addition successfully slowed down the increase in filtration resistance, with the resistance maintained below 1.0 × 1013m^（-1） in the first 70 hr before a jump occurred. Furthermore,the adsorbent addition contributed to retarding the occurrence of the filtration resistance jump, achieving simultaneous fouling control and chemical oxygen demand（COD）concentration improvement. The final concentrated COD amounted to 7500 mg/L after 6 days of operation.

Fabrication and performance of PET mesh enhanced cellulose acetate membranes for forward osmosis

Polyethylene terephthalate mesh（PET） enhanced cellulose acetate membranes were fabricated via a phase inversion process. The membrane fabrication parameters that may affect the membrane performance were systematically evaluated including the concentration and temperature of the casting polymer solution and the temperature and time of the evaporation, coagulation and annealing processes. The water permeability and reverse salt flux were measured in forward osmosis（FO） mode for determination of the optimal membrane fabrication conditions. The optimal FO membrane shows a typical asymmetric sandwich structure with a mean thickness of about 148.2 μm. The performance of the optimal FO membrane was tested using 0.2 mol/L Na Cl as the feed solution and 1.5 mol/L glucose as the draw solution. The membrane displayed a water flux of 3.47 L/（m2·hr） and salt rejection of95.48% in FO mode. While in pressure retarded osmosis（PRO） mode, the water flux was4.74 L/（m2·hr） and salt rejection 96.03%. The high ratio of water flux in FO mode to that in PRO mode indicates that the fabricated membrane has a lower degree of internal concentration polarization than comparable membranes.

Removal of Ni（ll） ions from wastewater by micellar enhanced ultrafiltration using mixed surfactants

Ni（II） ions were removed from aqueous waste using micellar enhanced ultrafiltration （MEUF） with a mixture of surfactants. The surfactant mixture was the nonionic surfactant Tween 80 （TW80） mixed with the anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate （SDS） in different molar ratios ranging from 0.1-1.5. The opera- tional variables of the MEUF process such as pH, applied pressure, surfactant to metal ion ratio and nonionic to ionic surfactant molar ratio （α） were evaluated. Rejection of Ni and TW80 was 99% and 98% respectively whereas that for SDS was 65%. The flux and all resistances （fouling resistance, resistance due to concentration polarization） were measured and calculated for entire range of α respectively. A calculated flux was found to be declined with time, which was mainly attributed to concentration polarization rather than resistance from membrane fouling.