Electrochemical recovery of alkali and hydrogen gas from desalination brine

Desalination brine, the waste product from the seawater desalination process, poses a major threat to the marine ecosystem without proper treatment and disposal. As an alternative to direct disposal of seawater desalination brine, electrolysis is a promising strategy for waste minimization, carbon c...

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Main Author: Lim, Guan Chun
Other Authors: Grzegorz Lisak
Format: Final Year Project (FYP)
Language:English
Published: Nanyang Technological University 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/176880
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author Lim, Guan Chun
author2 Grzegorz Lisak
author_facet Grzegorz Lisak
Lim, Guan Chun
author_sort Lim, Guan Chun
collection NTU
description Desalination brine, the waste product from the seawater desalination process, poses a major threat to the marine ecosystem without proper treatment and disposal. As an alternative to direct disposal of seawater desalination brine, electrolysis is a promising strategy for waste minimization, carbon capture, and hydrogen production by breaking down the waste brine from desalination after removing Ca and Mg compounds as the pretreatment process. Integrating carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) with brine utilization, hydrogen gas, and alkali produced from the electrolysis process offers a significant synergistic system to simultaneously address climate change and water scarcity challenges. To analyze the possibility of recovering the desalination brine as a decarbonization strategy, a membrane flow cell has been proposed and developed to reuse the brine. In this report, Ni foam is used as the cathode's electrocatalyst and was analyzed using reverse linear scan voltammetry and chronoamperometry to validate its catalytic activity toward hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). For all the electrolytes tested i.e., 1M NaOH, 1M carbonate solution, 1M bicarbonate solution and R2 (desalination brine after addition of NaOH), around 90% of Faradaic efficiency (FE) is achieved when potential applied to the electrolytic flow cell reaches 1.4 V. At low potential of 1 V and 1.2 V, ORR reaction is competing with HER reaction, which is projected in 1 M Na2CO3 solution under oxygen-rich condition. The Tafel analysis and FE calculation results validated that ORR reaction is favourable for R2 solution under any applied potential and other buffer solutions under low potential conditions.
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spelling ntu-10356/1768802024-05-24T15:34:27Z Electrochemical recovery of alkali and hydrogen gas from desalination brine Lim, Guan Chun Grzegorz Lisak School of Civil and Environmental Engineering g.lisak@ntu.edu.sg Engineering Desalination brine Electrolysis Desalination brine, the waste product from the seawater desalination process, poses a major threat to the marine ecosystem without proper treatment and disposal. As an alternative to direct disposal of seawater desalination brine, electrolysis is a promising strategy for waste minimization, carbon capture, and hydrogen production by breaking down the waste brine from desalination after removing Ca and Mg compounds as the pretreatment process. Integrating carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) with brine utilization, hydrogen gas, and alkali produced from the electrolysis process offers a significant synergistic system to simultaneously address climate change and water scarcity challenges. To analyze the possibility of recovering the desalination brine as a decarbonization strategy, a membrane flow cell has been proposed and developed to reuse the brine. In this report, Ni foam is used as the cathode's electrocatalyst and was analyzed using reverse linear scan voltammetry and chronoamperometry to validate its catalytic activity toward hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). For all the electrolytes tested i.e., 1M NaOH, 1M carbonate solution, 1M bicarbonate solution and R2 (desalination brine after addition of NaOH), around 90% of Faradaic efficiency (FE) is achieved when potential applied to the electrolytic flow cell reaches 1.4 V. At low potential of 1 V and 1.2 V, ORR reaction is competing with HER reaction, which is projected in 1 M Na2CO3 solution under oxygen-rich condition. The Tafel analysis and FE calculation results validated that ORR reaction is favourable for R2 solution under any applied potential and other buffer solutions under low potential conditions. Bachelor's degree 2024-05-21T06:37:27Z 2024-05-21T06:37:27Z 2024 Final Year Project (FYP) Lim, G. C. (2024). Electrochemical recovery of alkali and hydrogen gas from desalination brine. Final Year Project (FYP), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/176880 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/176880 en EN-10 application/pdf Nanyang Technological University
spellingShingle Engineering
Desalination brine
Electrolysis
Lim, Guan Chun
Electrochemical recovery of alkali and hydrogen gas from desalination brine
title Electrochemical recovery of alkali and hydrogen gas from desalination brine
title_full Electrochemical recovery of alkali and hydrogen gas from desalination brine
title_fullStr Electrochemical recovery of alkali and hydrogen gas from desalination brine
title_full_unstemmed Electrochemical recovery of alkali and hydrogen gas from desalination brine
title_short Electrochemical recovery of alkali and hydrogen gas from desalination brine
title_sort electrochemical recovery of alkali and hydrogen gas from desalination brine
topic Engineering
Desalination brine
Electrolysis
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/176880
work_keys_str_mv AT limguanchun electrochemicalrecoveryofalkaliandhydrogengasfromdesalinationbrine