Boring Down on Boron
June 13, 2018 | KAUSTEstimated reading time: 2 minutes
High-temperature desalination technologies can efficiently reduce the concentrations of a chemical element in seawater to make it an effective substitute for fresh water. Research that has investigated how the element boron evaporates could help produce higher-quality drinking and irrigation water.
Boron is a trace mineral found in concentrations of 0.001-100 milligrams per litre in ground and surface freshwater, but in higher concentrations in seawater (averaging 4.5 mg/l). Exposure to high doses of boron can lead to abnormalities in human fetal and reproductive systems. Although boron is essential for plant growth, high concentrations in the soil can damage sensitive crops.
Countries around the world regulate how much boron is allowed in drinking and irrigation water depending on their main water source, whether fresh or sea. "Gulf Cooperation Council countries, including Saudi Arabia, have stringent standards, allowing a maximum boron concentration of 0.5mg/l in drinking water distribution systems," says Alla Alpatova, a postdoctoral fellow at KAUST. To improve boron removal during water desalination, Alpatova and her colleagues sought to understand what happens when seawater undergoes one of two currently used temperature-related desalination processes.
Multi-stage flash (MSF) is a desalination technology that involves heating water and condensing the resulting vapor through incremental stages. Air-gap membrane distillation (AGMD) involves the transport of water vapor through a membrane to be cooled and condensed on the other side. To find out how the various components of seawater affected boron removal, the team compared what happened to seawater and to a solution of boric acid when they were processed through these two technologies.
They found that boron begins to evaporate from solution at a temperature of around 55°C. As the temperature applied to the systems increased, the amount of boron evaporated from seawater also increased. "But even though boron is volatile at high temperatures, both desalination technologies were effective in reducing its concentrations in desalinated water to below the Saudi standard of 0.5mg/l, even at seawater temperatures exceeding 100°C," says Alpatova.
The results show the potential of these technologies for reducing the concentrations of hazardous contaminants in seawater. Understanding how they affect boron evaporation and removal could help improve these methods. The fate of other volatile chemicals in seawater also needs to be investigated, adds Alpatova.
The team is now working on a pilot-scale membrane distillation setup to optimize the system's design and cost efficiency. They will collaborate with industrial partners to test it at a large scale under real desalination conditions.
Suggested Items
Real Time with… IPC APEX EXPO 2024: Sigma Engineering's Recycling and Regeneration Systems for PCB Etching
05/02/2024 | Real Time with...IPC APEX EXPOEvan Howard of Schmoll America interviews Kristoffer Bjorklund, Sigma Engineering's supply chain manager. We learn about Sigma's recycling and regeneration systems for PCB industry etching and the benefits and challenges of implementing these systems in existing factories.
QinetiQ Achieves UK’s First Jet-to-Jet Teaming Between Aircraft and Autonomous Drone
04/29/2024 | QinetiQQinetiQ has successfully trialled the UK’s first Crewed-Uncrewed-Teaming demonstration between a crewed aircraft and an autonomous jet drone.
Lockheed Martin Successfully Transitions Long Range Discrimination Radar To The Missile Defense Agency
04/23/2024 | Lockheed MartinThe Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR) at Clear Space Force Station in Clear, Alaska, completed DD250 final acceptance and was officially handed over to the Missile Defense Agency in preparation for an Operational Capability Baseline (OCB) decision and final transition to the Warfighter. In addition, prior to this transition, the system has started Space Domain Awareness data collects for the United States Space Force.
Real Time with... IPC APEX EXPO 2024: AI Implementation at Omron
04/18/2024 | Real Time with...IPC APEX EXPOEditor Nolan Johnson and Omron Product Manager Nick Fieldhouse discuss the company's focus on AI implementation to enhance customer experience and results. They address programming challenges and how AI can help customers achieve better outcomes with less experience. Omron's AI is compatible with existing systems, facilitating easy upgrades.
Cadence Unveils Palladium Z3 and Protium X3 Systems
04/18/2024 | Cadence Design SystemsThe Palladium Z3 and Protium X3 systems offer increased capacity, and scale from job sizes of 16 million gates up to 48 billion gates, so the largest SoCs can be tested as a whole rather than just partial models, ensuring proper functionality and performance.