Hydrate-Based Desalination Using Cyclopentane Hydrates at Atmospheric Pressure

The use of a hydrate-based technology in seawater desalination is an interesting potential hydrate application since salt ions would be excluded from the hydrate crystal lattice. In order to better understand the hydrate-based desalination process, experiments have been conducted using cyclopentane (CyC5, sII) hydrates, which can be formed at atmospheric pressure and temperatures below 7.7 degrees C. The hydrate formation experiments were performed at various subcoolings for aqueous solutions with different salinities in a bubble column. The hydrate formation times decreased and the hydrate conversion increased with increasing subcooling and agitation. Various hydrate-former injection methods were studied, with the most effective method involving spraying finely dispersed CyCS droplets (around 5 mu m in diameter) into the water-filled bubble column. The latter method resulted in a 2-fold increase in seawater conversion to hydrate crystals compared with injecting millimeter-scale CyC5 droplets. A desalination efficiency of 81% (the salinity decreased from 3.5 to 0.67 wt %) was achieved by using a three-step separation method, including gravitational separation, filtration, and a washing step. Washing the hydrate sample using filtered water decreased the salinity from 1.5 wt % in the solid hydrates before washing to 1.05 wt % after washing.