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 °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 CyC5 droplets (around 5 μm 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.

中文翻译：

---

在大气压下使用环戊烷水合物进行基于水合物的脱盐

在海水淡化中使用基于水合物的技术是一种有趣的潜在水合物应用，因为盐离子将从水合物晶格中排除。为了更好地了解基于水合物的脱盐过程，已使用环戊烷（CyC5，sII）水合物进行了实验，该水合物可在大气压和低于7.7°C的温度下形成。在鼓泡塔中，在不同过冷度下对盐度不同的水溶液进行了水合物形成实验。随着过冷和搅拌的增加，水合物的形成时间减少，水合物转化率增加。研究了各种水合物形成剂注入方法，最有效的方法包括将细分散的CyC5液滴（直径约5μm）喷入充满水的鼓泡塔中。与注入毫米级CyC5液滴相比，后一种方法导致海水转化为水合物晶体的转化率提高了2倍。通过使用包括重力分离，过滤和洗涤步骤的三步分离方法，实现了81％的脱盐效率（盐度从3.5重量％降低至0.67重量％）。使用过滤水洗涤水合物样品将盐度从洗涤前的固体水合物中的1.5重量％降低至洗涤后的1.05重量％。