Modelling of membrane- assisted crystallization of seawater salts by using hydrophobic composite membranes

Membrane crystallization is an emerging membrane process with the capability to extract simultaneously fresh water and valuable components from various streams. Successful application of crystallization for produced water treatment, seawater desalination and salt recovery has been demonstrated. In this work molecular simulations have been performed to give insights on the experimental results. Experimental tests have been carried out using a membrane crystallizer bench-scale plant to check the suitability of the utilized software. Here, with an integrated experimental-computational approach, we demonstrate that hydrophobic membranes containing also bi-dimensional materials assist the crystal-growth for NaCl, speeding up crystal nucleation in comparison to the bulk solution. Relevant bibliography Drioli, Enrico, Gianluca Di Profio, and Efrem Curcio. Membrane-Assisted Crystallization Technology. World Scientific, 2015. Macedonio, Francesca, Politano, Antonio, Drioli, Enrico, Gugliuzza, Annarosa. Bi2Se3-assisted membrane crystallization. Mater. Horiz., 2018, 5, 912 Tsai, Jheng-Han, Perrotta, Maria Luisa, Gugliuzza, Annarosa, Macedonio, Francesca, Giorno, Lidietta, Drioli, Enrico, Tung, Kuo-Lun, Tocci, Elena. Membrane Assisted Crystallization: a Molecular View of NaCl Nucleation and Growth, submitted to Appl. Sci. - Special Issue Modeling and Simulations for Membrane Processes of Industrial Interest