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Treatment of brackish water reverse osmosis brine

using only solar energy
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Cite this: DOI: 10.1039/d1ew00291k

Ibrahim A. Said, *ab Naomi Fuentes,a Ze He,ab Ruikun Xin,ab Kuichang Zuo,ab
W. Shane Walker ac and Qilin Li *ab

Post-treatment of brine produced by reverse osmosis (RO) is a great challenge as it often requires high
energy input and works under extreme operating conditions. In this study, brine from a RO plant in El Paso,
TX USA was successfully treated using a pilot-scale nanophotonics enhanced solar membrane distillation
(NESMD) system. The novel NESMD reactor has a nanophotonic membrane surface area of 0.2 m2 and an
internal heat recovery system to recover the latent heat released during vapor condensation. By utilizing a
sweeping gas operational mode under real solar irradiation (585–827 W m−2), the NESMD realized
successful desalination of RO brine with the membrane flux reaching 0.45–0.65 kg m−2 h−1 and total
dissolved solids (TDS) removal greater than 99.5% without an external heat condenser. The decrease in the
feed flow rate to the evaporation channel of the NESMD system led to an increase in the gained output
Received 26th April 2021, ratio (GOR) from 0.35 to 0.62. To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest photothermal reactor
Accepted 4th August 2021
utilized for the desalination of real RO brine under practical solar irradiation. Compared with conventional
DOI: 10.1039/d1ew00291k
brine treatment processes that require high temperature or pressure, the NESMD desalinates RO brine at
near-ambient temperature and pressure with free solar energy, providing a promising approach for water
rsc.li/es-water desalination, and RO brine post treatment.

Water impact
This manuscript introduces an experimental study for treating high-salinity brine from a reverse osmosis desalination KBH plant in El Paso, Texas using a
nanophotonics solar membrane distillation reactor for the first time. The proposed technology provides a low-cost solution using only the solar energy for
treating high salinity waters, and is considered a potential solution towards zero/minimum liquid discharge.

1. Introduction water demand and supply by the International Water

Management Institute,2 not only North Africa and West Asia
In recent decades, because of the large gap in water demand (NAWA) but also some of the major populated countries, like
and supply, water scarcity has been a severe threat to the India and China, are or will be suffering from water deficit.
development of human society. In the latest version of the The amount of affected population is expected to increase
global risk report by the World Economic Forum, the water continuously. Even in some regions not suffering from water
crisis is considered one of the top risks in terms of both scarcity on an annual basis, the affordability of water shows
likelihood of occurring in the next decade and the severity of extreme intra-annual variation due to the seasonal runoff
its impact.1 Unlike other vital commodities such as oil or patterns. In a “blue water” scarcity map modeled by
wheat, water has no alternatives in most situations. Mekonnen,3 two-thirds of people face freshwater scarcity at
Moreover, water is crucial for most productions people are least one month per year. As a result of water scarcity to such
relying on, ranging from food, goods, and electricity to an extent, the cost of drinking water is exaggerated in some
manufactured products.2 According to the analysis of world regions. For example, the cost of sufficient municipal
drinking water can be 11% to 112% of the typical household
income across sub-Saharan Africa.4 An alternative solution
a
Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment Center (NEWT), Rice University, MS for providing drinking water is desalination.5–7 Desalination
6398, 6100 Main Street, Houston 77005, USA. technologies (including thermal processes such as multi-
E-mail: dr.ibrahim.a.said@gmail.com, qilin.li@rice.edu
b
effect distillation and multi-stage evaporation and pressure-
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rice University, MS 519,
6100 Main Street, Houston 77005, USA
driven processes such as nanofiltration and reverse osmosis)
c
Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX have been successfully implemented at various scales to
79968-0513, USA purify and desalinate a wide range of source waters.8–10

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Reverse osmosis (RO) consumes 1.5 to 2.5 kWh m−3 to hydrophilicity of the NESMD membrane was recovered after
desalinate seawater; it requires pretreatment to control washing with de-ionized water. Furthermore, the results
membrane fouling and scaling. In addition, water recovery of showed that the hydrophilic nanophotonic layer appeared to
RO desalination systems is between 50 and 85% (depending mitigate the wetting of fouling ions into the hydrophobic
on feed water quality), and for inland plants, disposal of PTFE layer of the membrane. In a different study,15 NESMD
brine poses a major challenge and may be very costly. has been employed for treating real seawater from Galveston
The state of Texas, USA is a pioneer in utilizing brackish Bay, Texas, U.S.A., and high salinity simulated feed-water
groundwater as a municipal water supply. As of 2006, there (TDS of 113 200–200 000 ppm) has been tested for long-term
were 38 inland brackish water desalination plants in Texas in testing under the weather conditions of Houston, Texas. The
operation with a total design capacity of 52.3 MGD. These field testing results and observations showed a stable
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plants dispose of their brines by discharging to surface water, desalination performance of the NESMD reactor in
municipal sewer, or evaporation ponds, or in rare situations, consecutive 5–8 hour operation cycles without operational
brine can be used for land application.11,12 Considerations problems, with a TDS reduction of ≥99.5% in all the field
with brine disposal include cost and potential negative experiments. An average daily membrane flux of ≥0.75 L m−2
impacts on the receiving water body, municipal wastewater h−1 was achieved at a solar intensity close to 1 kW m−2
treatment plant, or soil quality. The 27.5 MGD Kay Bailey without an external heat exchanger.
Hutchison brackish groundwater RO plant in El Paso, TX In the light of previous NESMD studies, the NESMD
USA started operation in 2007 and the 12 MGD San Antonio technology is attracting growing commercial interest due to
Water System (SAWS) brackish groundwater RO plant both its special advantages, including 1) superb tolerance to high
use deep-well injection for brine disposal, which incur a large salinity; 2) off-grid and stand-alone desalination technology;
capital cost. 3) operating at low temperature and atmospheric pressure; 4)
Membrane distillation (MD) is a promising thermal-based no need for external condensers, external heaters, and even
membrane technology that realizes the separation of two solar collection systems; 5) high quality of the permeate
aqueous solutions by allowing vapor passage of the more water (TDS removal >99.5%). Hence, the authors extended
volatile component through a hydrophobic microporous the applications of the NESMD to the treatment of the
membrane under a temperature gradient across the discharge brine of reverse osmosis plants.
membrane. The hydrophobicity of the membrane allows only The current study demonstrates the capability of the
the vapor transfer of the volatile liquid, whereby a liquid– NESMD technology for increasing desalination water recovery
vapor interface is formed. Membrane distillation can turn by treating the RO brine from the brackish water RO plant of
any source of water into clean water such as hypersaline the Kay Bailey Hutchison Desalination Plant in El Paso, TX
water, oil and gas produced water, surface water, USA. The field experiments have been performed outdoor
groundwater, seawater, RO concentrate brine, irrigation using real solar irradiance at different solar irradiances and
drainage water, and other industrial wastewater. MD works at feed velocities. This is considered the first time NESMD was
lower operating temperatures than those of conventional used to treat discharge real brine from the RO pilot plant.
thermal technologies, has a modular configuration and Also, detailed energy balance calculations, for the first time,
structure that can be easily scaled up or down in treatment have been performed to quantify the energy losses from the
capacity, and has relatively low capital costs. Desalination NESMD reactor to the environment and brine. These kinds of
using a renewable energy source to recover freshwater while thermal calculations are considered a great step towards
minimizing liquid waste disposal at low cost is very attractive efficient operation of the NESMD with higher water
for economic, environmental, and regulatory reasons. production and lower heat losses. This study is unique in
We propose a solar-powered treatment technology for the terms of providing a unique solution for brine management
brine stream of reverse osmosis using nanophotonics associated with inland brackish RO water as well as
enhanced solar membrane distillation (NESMD).13–15 The maximizing the water recovery of RO plants.
proposed process efficiently uses sunlight instead of
electricity from a power grid or solar photovoltaic panels to 2. Materials and methods
drive membrane distillation. It has the benefit of
conventional MD processes, i.e., low pressure, low fouling 2.1. Nanophotonics enhanced solar membrane distillation
potential, insensitive to total dissolved solids (TDS) (NESMD) reactor: principles and operational mode
concentration, and high-recovery, and is powered by NESMD is a novel solar-thermal technology that uses only
renewable energy. The susceptibility of the NESMD solar energy for desalination and wastewater treatment.13,14
technology to complex aquatic systems like synthetic It combines both membrane distillation and solar-thermal
hypersaline brine, seawater, and oil-produced water was collection in a single module using a nanophotonics
investigated in previous studies.14,15 In the case of treating microporous membrane that serves both as a solar-thermal
oil-produced water (total dissolved solids (TDS) of 62 000–132 collector and a desalination membrane. Fig. 1A shows the
000 ppm),14 the NESMD showed excellent rejection of both principles of the NESMD reactor. The photothermal
dissolved organic carbon and dissolved solids; the membrane absorbs sunlight across a wide range of the solar

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Fig. 1 (A). Conceptual illustration of the NESMD reactor. (B) The physical picture of the front view of the NESMD system, including the NESMD
reactor and solar panel. (C). The physical picture of the back view of the NESMD reactor, including flow and power control panels.

spectrum and converts solar energy to thermal energy. This these different MD configurations are distinguished by
results in an elevated liquid temperature on the feed side of modifications implemented on the permeate side of the
the membrane, and a vapor pressure difference across the microporous membrane. Recently, SGMD has been gaining a
membrane, driving vapor transport through the microporous lot of interest due to its lower mass transfer resistance and
membrane. The condensation of the generated vapor higher evaporation efficiency.18 In the case of SGMD, an inert
happens on the permeate side of the membrane generating gas stream is used to sweep off the vaporized solution out of
clean water. The operational mode of the NESMD is similar the permeate chamber and into an external condenser where
to the conventional MD, while the key difference is the the purified solution condenses back into a liquid. Hence, in
temperature polarization on the feed side. The temperature this study, the SGMD using atmospheric air is used in all the
polarization is reversed in the case of NESMD as the NESMD experiments. Implementing SGMD in the current
membrane is the source of heating.13,16,17 There are four experiments has improved the performance of the NESMD.
main configurations of MD or NESMD: sweeping gas This could be attributed to the fact that SGMD has a lower
membrane distillation (SGMD),18 vacuum membrane level of conductive-membrane heat loss and lower resistance
distillation (VMD),19 air gap membrane distillation (AGMD),20 to mass transfer of the created vapor across the microporous
and direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD).21,22 All membrane. A higher air flow rate should be avoided to allow

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the carried vapor by the air to exchange heat with the bottom channels (feed/concentrate evaporation, distillate, and feed
channel. Also, a lower air flow rate should be avoided to preheater). Fig. 1(B and C) show the physical picture of the
achieve better mass transfer. NESMD module, and Fig. 3 shows the process flow diagram
of the NESMD process. The three flow channels are (1)
2.2. Preparation and characteristics of the nanophotonics brackish/saline feed (top) evaporation channel between the
membranes transmittance window and photothermal membrane; (2)
distillate condensation and sweeping air (middle) channel
Hydrophobic microporous membranes were acquired from
between the membrane and heat exchanger foil; (3) heat
Pall Corp for developing and fabricating the nanophotonic
exchanger (bottom) channel, where the cold feed water is
membranes. This pristine membrane is a composite
preheated with latent heat provided by the condensing vapor
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membrane having a thin polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)

in the middle channel. The three-channel design facilitates
active layer of 34 μm thickness on top of a polypropylene (PP)
energy recovery and optimization. During the operation of
support sublayer of 184 μm. The porosity and nominal pore
the NESMD module, the cold feed water flows first to the
size of the membrane are 77% and 0.2 μm, respectively.
third chamber (bottom chamber) to be preheated before
The nanophotonic membranes were developed using a
entering the top feed chamber. The system has two
relatively thin (25 μm), optically absorbing, microporous, and
recirculation loops, the top (hot) recirculation loop to recover
a hydrophilic layer of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) coating
the sensible heat from effluent hot concentrate from the
deposited onto the PP layer. Functionalized carbon black
evaporation channel, while the bottom recirculation loop
nanoparticles (Cobalt Corporation) with broadband
compensates the difference in the flow rates between the top
absorption over the entire solar spectrum were dispersed in
and middle channels. The feed flow rate in the bottom
the PVA solution,17 following pretreatment with
channel is approximately 5 times higher than the feed flow
polydopamine to ensure adhesion. Fig. 2 shows the scanning
rate in the evaporation channel. The temperature of the feed
electron microscope (SEM) images of the nanophotonic
over the nanophotonic membrane increases with increasing
membrane, where the coating is homogeneous over the PP
the membrane length.13 Thus, since the water flux increases
layer. More details about the preparation and
with increasing module length or hydraulic retention time,13
characterization of the nanophotonic membranes can be
a baffled design is used in the top and bottom channels to
found elsewhere.23,24 Sunlight is converted into thermal heat
achieve adequate channel length while maintaining a
on the feed side of the membrane through photothermal
reasonable aspect ratio of the module. Both the top and
heating through the light-absorbing nanomaterials
bottom feed-flow channels have been designed and
embedded in the porous surface layer of PP. The generated
developed with baffles to have a flow cross-section of 1.5 mm
temperature gradient across the photothermal membrane
height by 21.1 mm width and able to achieve a uniform fluid
results in water evaporation on the feed side and
distribution as well as achieving higher heat and mass
condensation on the permeate side.
transfer coefficients in the bottom channel. The plate and
frame three-channel module is developed by using two
2.3. NESMD module and experimental system closing plates of high-density polyethylene with UV resistance
NESMD outdoor experiments were conducted using a large- from ePlastics (thickness 12.7 mm), three high-temperature
scale plate and frame module with an active membrane silicon rubber sheets (thickness 1.58 mm) for sealing
surface area of 0.2 m2. The NESMD module has external between the flow channels, and a clear marine vinyl film
dimensions of 1.1 m by 0.38 m with three parallel flow from marine vinyl fabric (thickness 0.5 mm) used as a

Fig. 2 SEM surface images of (left) pristine PP of the PTFE membrane, (right) photothermal coating of the PP layer (100 μm resolution).

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Fig. 3 Process flow diagram of NEMD system.

condensing surface. The middle channel is filled with a nylon at 15 minute intervals. Furthermore, the total dissolved solids
net spacer (1.7 mm thickness and 55% porosity) from (TDS) and conductivity for the feed and permeate streams were
McMaster-Carr (9318T41), which is necessary for the measured using Cole-Parmer Oakton PC2700 meter probes in
mechanical support of the membrane and condensing foil all the experiments.
but also useful for mixing enhancement. A solar power irradiance meter (pyranometer) is connected
to a data logger to measure solar irradiation. The solar meter
has an accuracy of ±10 w m−2 and is placed in a horizontal
2.4. Process flow control and monitoring plane adjacent to the NESMD reactor. It is worth mentioning
The process flow diagram of the NESMD system (Fig. 3) has that all the environmental parameters, including the ambient
two recirculation loops as described in section 2.2. Hence, two temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, and
magnetic-drive pumps (12 volts, 100 W Pan World 30px) are ambient wind speed of the air were recorded for each
used – one in the bottom (cold feed water) loop and one in the experiment. Table 1 shows the experimental instruments for
top (hot feed water) loop. A 12 V DC air compressor (60 W more details, including the model number, measurement
RESUN MPQ-904) is used to pump the sweeping air into the range, application, and accuracy.
middle channel. The measurement system consists of three
flow meters for controlling the liquid and air flow rates to the
NESMD module, and a series of T-thermocouples (1/16″ OD) to 2.5. Chemical analysis of the RO brine
track the process temperatures across the three flow channels. Two different volume samples of RO brine solutions were
All the thermocouples were connected to a data logger with a used in this study. RO concentrate solutions were obtained
USB cable (Onset HOBO UX120-014M). The productivity of the from the Kay Bailey Hutchison (KBH) Desalination Plant (El
NESMD unit is expressed in terms of water flux, which is Paso TX, USA). The RO concentrate solutions were used
defined as the mass of permeate produced per unit membrane directly in the NESMD module without any pretreatment. The
area per unit time. Hence, the insulated permeate tank was RO concentrate discharges have high salinity with a TDS of
kept on a weighing balance to monitor the mass of liquid 17 440–18 550 mg L−1 with a conductivity ranging between
distillate. The increase in the mass of distillate was measured 18.47 and 19.53 mS cm−1.

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Table 1 List of experimental instruments

Instrument Application Measurement range Model number Accuracy

K-type thermocouple Temperature −50 to 700 °C TJ36-CASS-116-12 ±0.75%
Water liquid flowmeter Flow rate 0.003 to 0.3 liter per min UXcell-s14070200am8595 ±3% full scale
Air-gas flowmeter Flow rate 3 to 30 liter per min CNBTR51 ±3% full scale
Solar power irradiance Solar radiation 400 to 1000 nm TES132 ±5% (±10 w/m2)
meter
Mass scale Mass monitoring 0 to 4000 g CBC8a ±0.1 g
Temperature data Temperature −260 to 1820 °C Onset HOBO 0.04 °C
logger UX120-014M
Humidity meter Relative humidity 1–99% RH AcuRite 02067M ±3% RH
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(RH)
−1
Conductivity/TDS meter TDS and Conductivity: 0–500 mS cm Cole-Parmer Oakton Conductivity: ±1% full scale
conductivity TDS: 0.050 ppm (parts per million) PC2700 TDS: ±1% full scale
to 500 ppt (parts per thousand)
Environmental digital Ambient −30 to 70 °C TEKCOPLUS ±0.5 °C
USB data logger temperature
Ambient relative 0.1 to 99.9% RH ±3% RH @ 25 °C and 10–99%
humidity (RH) RH (others ±5% RH)
Barometric 300 to 1100 hPa ±3.5 hPa @ 0 to 65 °C and 10
pressure to 90% RH

3. Results and discussion observed for all experiments. Also, in all the experiments, the
relative humidity of the sweeping air outlet is a little bit lower
The main aim of this study is to evaluate the technical than the relative humidity of the sweeping air inlet. This
feasibility of recovering clean and pure water from the real confirms that the majority of generated vapor, in the middle
discharge brine of the RO plant by implementing NESMD channel, is condensed and consequently confirming that the
technology. Technical simplicity, high quality permeate water third channel is working as an excellent heat exchanger. It is
output, standing alone over different solar irradiance and really important to monitor the temperature of the process
environmental parameters are the essential properties which lines across the flow channels, including feed water and
will enable successful application of the NESMD system on a sweeping air temperatures. The values of the process
large scale. Nanophotonics coating membrane with the solar temperatures have great indication of the thermal
irradiance will generate heat flux to heat the feedwater at performance of the NESMD reactor. The intensity of the
feed-membrane interface. Hence, it is really important to evaporation, condensation, and heat exchange in the top,
capture a whole spectrum of the solar irradiance data (sunny, middle, bottom channels respectively are directly related to
cloudy, and partially cloudy conditions). Field tests under the process temperature differences. Fig. 5–7 show the bar
real environmental conditions are very important for graphs for the average process temperatures across the flow
assessing the performance of the NESMD with the discharge channels. It is clear that a small temperature difference is
brine of the RO plant. noticed across the top channel for the experiments of 7/12/
2019 and 7/16/2019. Meanwhile the outlet feed temperature
3.1. Desalination performance of the NESMD reactor under is lower than the inlet feed temperature for the experiment of
real solar irradiation 7/9/2019. These observations could be attributed to the fact
The NESMD experiments have been executed for a typical that the heat absorbed by the nanophotonic membrane was
three day period in July of 2019 in the city of Houston, TX, used to evaporate the adjacent layer of the liquid at the
USA (29.7174° N, 95.4018° W). The ambient temperature and membrane interface (more evaporation). Also, Fig. 5–7
solar radiation for a sunny, mostly sunny, and partly cloudy confirm that the outlet temperature from the bottom channel
day (07/09/2019, 07/12/2019, and 07/16/2019, respectively) is higher than the inlet for all experiments, while the outlet
have been reported in the NESMD experiments. The sweeping air temperature is a little bit higher than the inlet
maximum solar irradiance occurred at around 1:00 PM local sweeping air. These observations confirm that the middle
time. Fig. 4 shows the relative humidity of the sweeping air and bottom channels are working efficiently for condensing
and process temperatures across the three-flow channels of the generated vapor and recovering the latent heat
the NESMD reactor. One can remark that the heat exchanger (condensation and heat exchange). In all the experiments,
(bottom) channel obtains more latent heat from the the temperature of the permeate stream is equal or lower
generated vapor in the condensation and sweeping air than the air outlet temperature.
(middle) channel, which is very clear in the temperature The production rate of the NESMD in terms of liquid
gained along the bottom channel (Tout,bottom and Tin,bottom). permeate was normalized using the effective membrane
Furthermore, a small difference in the values of the relative surface area (0.2 m2) and is shown in Tables 2 and 3 as a
humidity of the sweeping air across the middle channel is function of the solar irradiation (permeate flux expressed as

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Fig. 4 Process field temperature and sweeping gas relative humidity distributions as a function of solar irradiance across the three flow chambers:
(A) feed TDS of 17 220 ppm with a TDS removal of 99.5% – flow rates of the top channel 3.8 L h−1 (cross-flow velocity of 0.03 m s−1), the bottom
channel 17 L h−1 (cross-flow velocity of 0.15 m s−1), and air 120 L h−1 (cross-flow velocity of 0.087 m s−1), (7/9/2019); B. feed TDS of 17 440 ppm
with a TDS removal of 99.5% – flow rates of the top channel 1.8 L h−1 (cross-flow velocity of 0.016 m s−1), the bottom channel 17 L h−1 (cross-flow
velocity of 0.15 m s−1), and air 120 L h−1 (cross-flow velocity of 0.087 m s−1), (7/12/2019); C. feed TDS of 18 550 ppm with a TDS removal of 99.6% –
flow rates of the top channel 1.8 L h−1 (cross-flow velocity of 0.016 m s−1), the bottom channel 17 L h−1 (cross-flow velocity of 0.15 m s−1), and air
120 L h−1 (cross-flow velocity of 0.087 m s−1), (7/16/2019).

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Fig. 5 Field temperature of the three flow chambers (TDS of 17 220 ppm with a TDS removal of 99.5% – flow rates of the top channel 3.8 L h−1
(cross-flow velocity of 0.03 m s−1), the bottom channel 17 L h−1 (cross-flow velocity of 0.016 m s−1), and air 120 L h−1 (cross-flow velocity of 0.016
m s−1)) – 7/9/2019.

Fig. 6 Field temperature of the three flow chambers (TDS of 17 440 ppm with a TDS removal of 99.5% – flow rates of the top channel 1.8 L h−1
(cross-flow velocity of 0.016 m s−1), the bottom channel 17 L h−1 (cross-flow velocity of 0.15 m s−1), and air 120 L h−1 (cross-flow velocity of 0.087
m s−1)) – 7/12/2019.

Fig. 7 Field temperature of the three flow chambers (TDS of 18 550 ppm with a TDS removal of 99.6% – flow rates of the top channel 1.8 L h−1
(cross-flow velocity of 0.016 m s−1), the bottom channel 17 L h−1 (cross-flow velocity of 0.15 m s−1), and air 120 L h−1 (cross-flow velocity of 0.087
m s−1)) – 7/16/2019.

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Table 2 A summary of the outdoor lab-scale NESMD experiments (flow rate of the top channel: 3.8 L h−1 (cross-flow velocity of 0.03 m s−1), middle
channel: 120 L h−1 (cross-flow velocity of 0.087 m s−1), and the bottom channel: 17 L h−1 (cross-flow velocity of 0.15 m s−1))

TDS feed, Average flux, Solar irradiance, TDS Water recovery

Feed water ppm kg m−2 h w m−2 removal, % ratio, RR% GOR
Real feed water, KBH, RO 17 220 (7/9/2019) 0.45 ± 0.17 827 ± 251 99.5 2.26 0.35
concentrate (2 L min−1 air)

Table 3 A summary of the outdoor lab-scale NESMD experiments (flow rate of the top channel: 1.8 L h−1 (cross-flow velocity of 0.016 m s−1), middle
channel: 120 L h−1 (cross-flow velocity of 0.087 m s−1), and the bottom channel: 17 L h−1 (cross-flow velocity of 0.15 m s−1))
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Average flux, Solar irradiance, Water recovery

Feed water TDS feed, ppm kg m−2 h w m−2 TDS removal, % ratio, RR% GOR
Real feed water, KBH, 17 440 (7/12/2019) 0.65 ± 0.28 784.40 ± 217 99.5 7 0.54
RO concentrate 18 550 (7/16/2019) 0.59 ± 0.16 585 ± 345 99.6 6.30 0.66

kg m−2 h). As shown in Tables 2 and 3, for a solar irradiance (cross-flow velocity of 0.016 m s−1) is ∼3 times that of the
range of 784–827 w m−2, the membrane flux was only 0.45 kg experiment with a feed flow rate of 3.8 L h−1 (cross-flow velocity
m−2 h−1 at the highest feed flow rate (3.8 L h−1). As the feed of 0.03 m s−1). This indicates that lower feed flow rates promote
flow rate dropped to 1.8 L h−1, the membrane flux increased more evaporation and consequently higher water recovery.
to 0.65 kg m−2 h1. This is attributed to the great increase in Also, Tables 2 and 3 summarize all the experiments for
the retention time of the feed water, and consequently higher different operating conditions, including average solar
heat absorption and higher vapor pressure at the feed side of irradiance, average permeate flux, and TDS removal. Also, all
the top channel which drove the mass transport through the the experiments have a TDS removal of ≥95%.
NESMD membrane. It can be also observed that the It is very clear now that the thermal desalination of the
membrane flux, for the same feed flow rate of 1.78 L h−1, RO brine, using NESMD technology, could be an appropriate
increased with the solar irradiance. The reason is that the feed source for NESMD to further increase the overall water
increased solar irradiance intensifies the feed water recovery and reduce the marine environmental impacts by
temperature at the feed water–vapor interface, resulting in a reducing the volume of the brine discharge and its process
higher temperature difference between the top feed and temperature. However, more improvements are required to
permeate sides, and consequently higher vapor pressure maximize the water recovery and membrane productivity.
differences. In another study on a NESMD–SGMD system, an One of the key improvement strategies is to recover the latent
increase in flux had been reported with decreasing the feed heat of the vapor using the concept of the multiple effects as
flow rate and increasing the solar irradiance.15 Said et al.15 well as concentrating the sunlight.
have optimized the cross flow velocity of the air in the middle
channel of the NESMD–SGMD (0.087 m s−1) system. Hence,
all the field experiments have been performed using a cross- 3.2. Energy analysis of the NESMD system
flow velocity of 0.087 m s−1, which corresponds to higher 3.2.1. Solar energy and NESMD. The sun is the source of
performance stability and higher permeate flux. the majority of energy found on earth. The earth receives about
In summary, the permeate flux increases with increasing 1.74 × 1026 W of the incoming solar irradiance.25 However, 70%
solar irradiance and it also increases with decreasing the feed is only absorbed by the earth while 30% is reflected. The
flow rate to the top channel. The lower the feed flow rate, the spectrum of electromagnetic sunlight is divided into 5%
higher the hydraulic retention time, and consequently the ultraviolet (UV), 40% visible light, and 55% near-infrared and
higher the permeate flux. One more important parameter in infrared (NIR and IR). Table 4 summarizes the components of
membrane distillation technologies is the water recovery ratio sunlight in terms of wavelength and frequency.
(WRR), which indicates the fraction of the feed water that is It is worth mentioning that the amount of solar energy
separated into pure water. The WRR is defined as follows: received by the NESMD system depends on many parameters,
mp including hour, day, location, season, and the inclination
Water recovery ratio ðWRR%Þ ¼ × 100 (1) angle as well as weather factors. Some of these factors are
mf
shown and discussed in section 3.2. and Fig. 4. Cloud is one
where mf is the mass flow rate of the feed water to the top of the weather factors which has the most significant impact
channel, while mp is the mass flow rate of the distillate. The on the solar energy absorbed by the NESMD reactor. The
values of the WRR are also reported in Tables 2 and 3. It can be drop in the solar irradiance can reach up to 90% during a
seen from Tables 2 and 3 that the WRR increases with thick cloudy day, while it reaches 10% for a clear day.26 One
decreasing the feed flow rates to the top channel. The water can remark, in Fig. 4, a drop in the readings of solar
recovery of the experiment with a feed flow rate of 1.8 L h−1 irradiance in the experiment of July 9th, 2019 at 2:45 PM

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Table 4 Electromagnetic components of the sunlight

Electromagnetic components % of the total sunlight Wavelength, nm Frequency, THz (terahertz)

Ultraviolet (UV) Less than 5 200–390 790–30 000
Visible light 40 390–780 430–790
Near infrared (NIR) 55 780–1400 214–400
Infrared (IR) 1400–1 000 000 0.3–214

(CT), and in the experiment of July 16th, 2019 over different function of the relative speed between the transmittance
time frames of 9:30–10:00 AM (CT), 10:30–10:45 AM (CT), and window and the ambient air (υ, m s−1) as follows:27
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1:00–1:45 PM (CT). All the drops in the values of the solar

irradiance have a negative impact on the thermal hc = 3υ + 2.8 (3)
performance of the NESMD system, and consequently the
membrane flux. In the next section, a detailed energy balance The heat loss by radiation, Qr, from the outer surface of the
analysis is performed to quantify the solar energy absorption Plexiglas transmittance window to the atmosphere is
and losses. estimated by:
3.2.2. Heat loss calculations. Generally, the heat transfer
process in the NESMD system is divided into two groups, Qc = hrA(Ts − Ta) (4)
heat transfer gain and heat transfer loss. The heat transfer
gain is responsible for heating the feed water and generating In the above equation, the radiative heat transfer coefficient,
product water vapor at the liquid–membrane interface. The hr, is calculated by:27
heat transfer loss includes any other form of heat loss such "
4 #
as heat losses by convection and radiation from the NESMD ðT s þ 273Þ4 − T sky þ 273
hr ¼ σξ (5)
to the environment as well as heat losses by scattering and Ts − Ta
reflection. Both the two heat transfer processes are briefly
described in this section. Fig. 8 shows the whole process in where σ and ξ are the Stefan–Boltzmann constant and
the NESMD process in terms of heat loss and heat gain. emissivity, respectively, while Tsky is approximated as follows:
The thermal energy losses from the transmittance window
of the NESMD reactor to the ambient are represented by free Tsky = Ta − 6 (6)
convection and radiation heat transfer modes that are
independent of each other. The convective heat transfer One more source of the energy losses in the NESMD system
losses, Qc, can be expressed as follows: is the sunlight scattering and reflection by the water layer of
the feed water on the top of the NESMD membrane. The
Qc = hcA(Ts − Ta) (2) density of the water is ∼800 times denser than the ambient
air. As the sunlight enters the water, it interacts with the
where, Ts and Ta are the surface temperature of the molecules of the water and salt to cause losses in solar
transmittance window and the ambient temperature, energy. The amount of sunlight reflected depends strongly on
respectively, while A is the active membrane surface area. The the inclination angle of the NESMD reactor, which is 35°.
convective heat transfer coefficient, hc, is expressed as a According to ref. 28 and 29 with a reference to the NESMD

Fig. 8 Schematic of energy flux in the NESMD reactor (top and middle channels).

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reactor with an inclination angle of 35°, 8% of the incident experiments. As shown in Tables 3 and 4, decreasing the feed
light is scattered and reflected by the water layer (Qrw). flow rates from 3.8 L h−1 (cross-flow velocity of 0.03 m s−1) to
Furthermore, there is one more source of energy losses from 1.8 L h−1 (cross-flow velocity of 0.016 m s−1) resulted in
the NESMD system, which is the sunlight reflected by the increasing GOR from 0.32 (experiment of 7/9/2020) to 0.54 (7/
transmittance window of the Plexiglas. The light reflected by 12/2020) and 0.66 (7/16/2020). The lower feed flow rate to the
the Plexiglas sheet depends on the window thickness, angle top channel resulted in higher residence time that led to more
of incidence, and reflective index. Actual measurement shows sunlight absorption, and consequently higher vapor flux.
that the used transparent Plexiglas sheet with a thickness of
up to 6 mm transmits 92% of the incident light striking it at
the perpendicular (Qrp).30 Conclusions
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On the other hand, the rest of the solar energy is used to

A nanophotonics enhanced solar membrane distillation
heat the feed water consequently generating vapor at the
(NESMD) reactor having a total effective membrane surface
water–membrane interface. The heat of evaporation (Qe) is
area of 0.2 m2 with an internal heat recovery system has been
calculated as follows:
designed, developed, and tested without an external heater or
external condenser. Hence, solar collection, membrane
Qe = JAΔHv (7)
distillation, heat recovery, and condensation all happened
inside the NESMD reactor. A complete design, process flow
where J is the membrane flux (kg m−2 h), A is the active
diagram, electrical diagram, and material selection have been
membrane surface area (m2), and ΔHv is the latent heat of
outlined. In this study, natural reverse osmosis brine from the
vaporization (kJ kg−1). Furthermore, the sensible heat gained
brackish desalination plant in El Paso TX, USA (TDS 17 220–18
by the feed water (Qs) depends on the temperature difference
550 mg L−1) has been desalinated by using the NESMD reactor.
of the feed across the top channel, heat capacity of the feed
The current research validates the applicability of NESMD to
water (Cp), and mass flow rate of the feed (m). The Qs is
desalinate natural RO brine and maximize water recovery from
calculated by:
the RO systems using only solar energy. The preliminary field
data showed the following findings:
Qs = m·Cp(TF,effluent − TF,influent) (8)
• The NESMD reactor continuously operated for five to six
hours outdoor on each of three days with no operational
The thermal loss efficiency, η, of the NESMD reactor is one of
problems. This is a good indication of the durability and
the key parameters used to assess the performance of the
mechanical integrity of the NESMD system as well as the
solar thermal desalination process. The η can be calculated
photothermal coating stability.
as follows:
  • The NESMD was able to produce clean and pure water
Qc þ Qr þ Qrw þ Qrp (conductivity, lower than 15 μS cm−1) from the high
η¼ × 100 (9)
IA concentrate brackish RO discharge brine (conductivity,
18.47–19.53 mS cm−1)
The results showed that heat losses contribute up to 64% of
• The average feed TDS was approximately 18 g L−1 with
the overall solar heat amount. In other solar thermal
an average TDS removal of 99.5%, producing product water
desalination technologies such as solar stills, the heat losses
with an average TDS of 70 mg L−1, meeting the World Health
contribute 70–80% towards the overall solar heat input.26
Organization (WHO) drinking water standard.
3.2.3. Gained-output ratio of the NESMD. The energy
• Steady-state average membrane flux of 0.46–0.65 kg m−2
efficiency of the NESMD system was evaluated using the
h was observed at a solar intensity of 585–827 W m−2
−1
gained output ratio (GOR) which is the most important
without an external condenser.
performance parameter in thermal desalination technologies
• Lowering the feed flow rate to the evaporation channel
to gauge the energy efficiency of MD. The GOR is defined as
has a positive effect on increasing the GOR.
the latent heat required to evaporate all the mass flow rate of
• The energy balance analysis showed that heat losses
clean water produced compared with the external energy
contribute up to 64% of the overall solar heat amount, and
added to the NESMD system. A higher GOR can be attained
this would require extensive strategic energy management.
by recovering the latent heat from the permeate vapor to
• The technology is still at an early stage and more
preheating the feed solution. The GOR is defined as follows:
improvements are required to improve productivity. One of
ΔH v ·ṁ v the key improvement strategies is to recover the latent heat
GOR ¼ (10)
Qsolar Am of the vapor using the concept of multiple effects as well as
concentrating the sunlight.
where ΔHv (kJ kg−1) is the latent heat of vaporization of water,
ṁv (kg s−1) is the mass flow rate of clean water produced by the
NESMD system, Qsolar (W m−2) is the ambient solar radiation, Conflicts of interest
and Am (m2) is the surface area of the NESMD membrane.
Tables 2 and 3 list the values of the GOR for all the The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Paper Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology

Acknowledgements 14 I. A. Said, T. R. Chomiak, Z. He and Q. Li, Low-Cost High-

Efficiency Solar Membrane Distillation For Treatment of Oil
This work was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy – Produced Waters, Sep. Purif. Technol., 2020, 250, 117170.
Solar Energy Technologies Office (Award # DE-EE0008397) 15 I. A. Said, N. Fuentes, Z. He, R. Xin, K. Zuo and Q. Li, Low-cost
and NSF NERC on Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment desalination of seawater and hypersaline brine using
(NEWT-EEC 1449500). nanophotonics enhanced solar energy membrane distillation,
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