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Technology Licensing Opportunity - This is not a procurement. Low-Cost Process for Concentrated Brine Treatment Applying a Thermolytic Solute to Dewatering Concentrated Solutions via a Thermodynamic C... Technology Licensing Opportunity - This is not a procurement. Low-Cost Process for Concentrated Brine Treatment Applying a Thermolytic Solute to Dewatering Concentrated Solutions via a Thermodynamic Cycle Opportunity: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), managed and operated by Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC (BEA), is offering the opportunity to enter into a license and/or collaborative research agreement to commercialize the Low-Cost Process for Concentrated Brine Treatment technology. Background: New and current industries require intensifying water usage, which means realizing “more” water from existing water withdrawals. The more intensely water is used, the higher the total dissolved solids (TDS) in the byproduct brine. Brine disposal is commonly ~80% of the cost for many industrial water treatments that create brines exceeding regulatory TDS discharge limits. Current disposal methods of waste brine include deep well injection or landfilling solids after the water has been removed in either a crystallizer or evaporation pond. These crystallizers and evaporation ponds are the state-of-the-art but are far from optimized in terms of energy efficiency or practical concerns like footprint and maintenance requirements. A process is needed that is a chemical cycle that does not require water to phase change and matches the separation energy (energy of mixing) necessary to remove high salinity levels from water. Description: Researchers at INL have developed a process using thermally regenerated switchable polarity solvents and other thermolytic solutes at elevated pressures to directly precipitate dissolved salt from brine solutions. This method applies a thermolytic solute to dewatering concentrated solutions (solutions too high to address via conventional seawater reserves osmosis) via a thermodynamic cycle that is less costly than evaporating water. Applications: Applications include fractional precipitation, draw solute for forward osmosis, water purification, and simultaneous dewatering and volatile/organic extraction from biomass and hydrocarbon containing geological materials like oil sands and oil shale. Advantages: Currently, these waters must be disposed of via deep well injects, evaporation ponds, or ZLD systems that are usually distillation based. Deep well injection is frequently the most cost-effective of these technologies, although this varies with geography. INL’s method will drastically decrease the cost of this process compared to deep well injection. Impact: A conservative estimate of the cost for deep well injection is $12.6/m3, while INL’s process should cost less than $1.5/m3, resulting in possible savings of greater than 90% for many waste disposal scenarios. Development: TRL 2. Currently ongoing proof-of-concept testing. IP Status: Patent Application No. PCT/US19/24776, “Methods and Systems for Treating a liquid,” BEA Docket No. 1001. INL is seeking to license the above intellectual property to a company with a demonstrated ability to bring such inventions to the market. Exclusive rights in defined fields of use may be available. Please visit Technology Deployment’s website at https://inl.gov/inl-initiatives/technology-deployment for more information on working with INL and the industrial partnering and technology transfer process. Companies interested in learning more about this licensing opportunity should contact Ryan Bills at ryan.bills@inl.gov.