Highly efficient freezing desalination technology: Parameters optimization and model configuration

Abstract

Seawater desalination has become an available route to reduce the shortage of freshwater resources. Lower energy consumption and suitable operational conditions make freezing crystallization a green technique in the desalination area. Herein, we coupled the sweating intensification with the freezing crystallization to reach a highly efficient desalination performance. Under the trajectory of the freezing temperature and time: 259.15 K and 150 min, the sweating temperature, heating rate, and sweating time: 272.15 K, 0.5 K/min, and 120 min, the desalination ratio exceeds 70 %. Meanwhile, we established the theoretical models to expound the intrinsic correlations of process variables and target parameters, to visualize the impurity migration. Two kinetic models are proposed to analyze temperature effects on the crystal layer growth, sweating melt flow, and inclusion entrapment. Next, the fractal slice model is proposed to describe the complex microstructure of the crystal pillar. The thermal coefficients are deduced based on the fractal theory, where the larger porosity is against thermal conduction. Finally, we discussed the kinetic and porosity effects on the impurity migration and desalination performance, and established a boundary layer model to correlate the separation efficiency with process kinetic and impurity distribution successfully.