Use of electrospun fiber mats for the remediation of hypersaline geothermal brine

Abstract

a b s t r a c tGeothermal brines display high contents of various metal ions that can adversely affect surface and groundwater resources. Nevertheless, it is possible to sequestrate these metals and use some of them in certain engineering applications. The aim of this study was to fabricate electrospun chitosan fiber mats and remove heavy metal cations from geothermal brine of the Tuzla geothermal field (TGF) by employing these mats. TGF is located on the Biga Peninsula in the northwestern part of Turkey. The brine of TGF has high salinity (EC > 91 mS/cm) and high temperature (reservoir temperature is 173°C). The results show that the concentrations of lithium ion in geothermal fluid ranges from 17 to 35 mg/L, with little seasonal variations. A horizontal electrospinning setup was employed to obtain a non-woven mat comprising submicron diameter chitosan fibers at 2.0 kV•cm −1 . This material was then utilized as a stable membrane for the removal of metal ions is present in the brine through sorption at 25°C overnight. The results showed that the chitosan fiber mats sequestrate various ions in the brine. Under the studied conditions, the material was capable of removing 46%, 44%, 50%, 44%, 40%, 67% and 48% of Li + , Mg 2+ , Ba 2+ , Sr 2+ , Mn 2+ , Ca 2+ and K + from the geothermal brine, respectively.

Testing the Performance of Various Polymeric Antiscalants for Mitigation of Sb-Rich Precipitates Mimicking Stibnite-Based Geothermal Deposits

“…All these molecules were chosen because they contain functional groups that may interact with the deposit's precursor ions. PVA has hydroxyl groups that can act in functional groups interacting with the main cations [24,25]. PEG has oxygen with two lone pairs of electrons on its backbone [9].…”

Technologist in Residence for Advanced Manufacturing and Materials in Unconventional Oil and Gas Equipment and Infrastructure

“…Fiber mats have been used to selectively adsorb cations, removing 46% of the lithium from a settling pond overnight, along with other mono and divalent cations. 46 Membranes, foams, and ion exchange technologies have also been investigated. 47,48,49 Advanced methods of extraction include the use of supercritical CO 2 as a solvent for crown ether extractant molecules.…”

Tailored electrospun fibers from waste polystyrene for high oil adsorption

“…[24,25] It is a straightforward method for the fabrication of nonwoven micro−/nanoscale fibers and utilization of the electrospun mats as adsorbents in various media. [26][27][28][29][30][31] The structural advances of the mats stem from their enhanced surface area, promising mechanical integrity, and tunable surface features. [32][33][34][35][36] Since the nonwoven fibers present micrometer-sized interfibrillar spacing, the fibrous mats have surface roughness that trap air and could minimize the interfacial energy between solid sorbents and liquid oily water [25,37].…”