An Innovative Transport Membrane Condenser for Water Recovery from Flue Gas and its Reuse

Although water recycle and reuse is considered good environmental practice, its implementation is highly dependent on the economics and hence can be challenging to implement. In this project, we present a unique opportunity to recover both water and energy from boiler flue gas, so that water recycle and reuse has economic considerations. Industrial boilers account for 35 percent of U.S. industrial energy consumption. It is estimated that about 70 billion gallons of water per year are available in the combustion flue gas generated from these boilers. An innovative transport membrane condenser has been developed to recover the water vapor from this flue gas for boiler feed water makeup. Based on a process feasibility study using our existing commercial ceramic membrane as a transport membrane condenser, it is estimated that about 42 billion gallons per year of ultrapure water can be recovered as boiler feed water; thus, additional chemical treatment is required. In addition, a boiler efficiency improvement of ≥ 10 percent can be achieved, which yields approximately 500 trillion BTUs/yr in energy savings and approximately 27 million tons/yr in CO2 emission reduction. In this project, we will focus on the development and testing of a field implementable transport membrane condenser. The successful completion of this project will produce a commercially viable “true” green process for water conservation and reuse along with significant energy savings.