Benny D. Freeman presents "Upgrading Technologies"

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May 19, 2014

Benny D. Freeman presents "Upgrading Technologies" at the 2014 TAMEST 2014 Texas Water Summit: Securing Our Economic Future.

Notes

Potential Upgrading Strategies
- Desalination
  - Thermal Desalination
  - Reverse Osmosis Membranes
  - Large Scale Membrane-Based Desalination
    - Ashkelon desalination plant in Israel
- Organics/Particulate Removal
Desalination Technologies
- Ion exchange
- Electrodyalysis
- Reverse osmosis
- Multi-effect evaporation
The Water-Energy Nexus
- Energy is required to purify water
- Clean water is required to produce energy
- Water Use in the United States in 2005 - Percentage of Water Used by Category
  - Thermoelectric power, 41%
  - Irrigation, 37%
  - Public supply, 12%
  - Industrial, 5%
  - Aquaculture, 2%
  - Domestic, 1%
  - Livestock, 1%
  - Mining and Oil & Gas, 1%
- Shale Gas: Hydraulic Fracturing and Horizontal Drilling
  - Large quantities of water are needed in shale gas well fracturing
    - Barnett Shale
    - Fayetteville Shale
    - Haynesville Shale
    - Marcellus Shale
- Switch from coal to natural gas reduces CO₂ emissions
- Fouling - A major challeng in water purification membranes
- Polydopamine: Fouling resistant membrane coating
  - Polydopamine deposits onto and adheres to virtually any membrane surface and renders that surface hydrophilic.
- Surface modified membranes fould less than unmodified membranes
- Fracking water cycle (2-3M gallons/well)
- Water for fracking is displacing food production.

A 15:52 minute video is available on YouTube and YouTube (with transcript).