(230f) Hydrates-Based Seawater Desalination: A Comparative Study with Conventional Desalination Processes

Globally, the drinking water scarcity is becoming a serious problem due to the rapid growth in the population and limited fresh water resources. In the last two decades, the demand of fresh water has increased significantly and, as a result, seawater desalination becomes a vital source to cope with the world’s fresh water demand. Seawater desalination involves elimination of salts from water, though, it is a very energy intensive practice due to the presence of high salinity in the water source. Up till now, various seawater desalination techniques have been introduced and the sustainability of these techniques primarily depends on the improvement in water recovery/water flux and reduction in energy requirements. Non-conventional processes such as desalination of seawater using gas hydrates proves themselves as a potential replacement over conventional water treatment processes. However, limited control in nucleation, growth, and separation have prevented commercialization of this hydrate-based desalination process. Besides the efforts done in reducing induction times (hydrate formation onset times) with an increase of subcooling and utilizing hydrate memory, there is a need for rapid growth and control of hydrate crystals. Moreover, in this work a novel procedure to have a zero-induction regime was proposed by using an electric spray atomizer which provides a high surface area for quick hydrate nucleation. In addition, an evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of these processes are compared with a hydrate-based desalination process. The hydrate based-desalination techniques are compared with conventional desalination processes on basis of salt rejection, gain output ratio (GOR), operating cost and energy consumption.