Oct 2022
Host: The WDRC Students Committee
Abstract:
There
are several drivers for high-recovery desalination processes, such as
the need for management of brines and effluents, reuse of water, and
recovery of minerals and resources from effluent streams. However,
increased recovery generally results in increased specific energy
consumption. Thermal desalination processes are effective for
high-recovery and zero liquid discharge applications, but these
processes also have very high energy footprint. There is therefore
growing interest in high-recovery membrane RO processes to reduce or
avoid the need for thermal processing. Several novel approaches using
membranes have been reported in the literature, some of which have been
introduced to the market. Among these, batch and semi-batch RO promise
to minimize the energy consumption of RO desalination using existing
components and membranes. In this seminar, I will explain the experience
gained with batch and semi-batch RO at University of Birmingham,
focusing on a new hybrid mode of operation that allows the system to be
both compact and efficient. I will discuss applications and current
projects in groundwater desalination and metal plating wastewater
processing. I will also outline, from an academic viewpoint, some of the
steps towards the commercializing the technology and initial successes
in this area.
Bio:
Philip Davies
has pursued a varied industrial and academic research career, including
projects in solar energy, desalination, solar-powered cooling, and
seawater greenhouses. His current research at University of Birmingham
focusses on water technologies to help with issues of resource scarcity
in arid regions. For example, he is coordinating INDIA H2O, a
consortium project supported by the EU-India Water Cooperation
Programme, which aims to demonstrate high-recovery water treatment of
saline groundwater and wastewater in Gujarat, India. He is also
participating in IntelWATT, a project under the EU Horizon 2020
Programme, which is about "Intelligent Water Treatment for water
preservation combined with simultaneous energy production and material
recovery in energy intensive industries". He has a BSc from Imperial
College, London, and a doctorate from University of Oxford.