Energy may be stored by injecting fluid into a fracture in the earth and producing the fluid back while recovering power and/or desalinating water. The method may be particularly adapted to storage of large amounts of energy such as in grid-scale electric energy systems. The fracture may be formed and treated with resin so as to limit fluid loss and to increase propagation pressure. The fluid may be water containing a dissolved salt or fresh water and a portion or all of the water may be desalinated using pressure in the water when it is produced.

Energy may be stored by injecting fluid into a fracture in the earth and producing the fluid back while recovering power and/or desalinating water. The method may be particularly adapted to storage of large amounts of energy such as in grid-scale electric energy systems. The fracture may be formed and treated with resin so as to limit fluid loss and to increase propagation pressure. The fluid may be water containing a dissolved salt or fresh water and a portion or all of the water may be desalinated using pressure in the water when it is produced.

A thermally reflective membrane apparatus comprises a housing structure, and a thermally reflective membrane contained within the housing structure. The thermally reflective membrane comprises a semipermeable structure, and a porous, thermally reflective structure physically contacting the semipermeable structure. The porous, thermally reflective structure comprises discrete thermally reflective particles, and a binder material coupling the discrete thermally reflective particles to one another and the semipermeable structure. A fluid treatment system and method of treating a fluid are also described.

Disclosed are a hybrid system and method of waste heat utilization-based photovoltaic power generation and seawater desalination, wherein a photovoltaic power generation unit includes a linear Fresnel lens, a beam-splitting cooling tube, a solar cell, and a heat collecting tube; a seawater supply unit includes a seawater storage tank and a pre-treatment storage tank; a heat storage and temperature control unit includes a phase-change heat reservoir and heat exchangers; an electrodialysis unit includes poles, an ion-selective membrane, a desalination chamber, a concentration chamber, pole chambers, a concentrated liquid storage tank and a desalinated liquid storage tank; and an electricity storage and control unit includes a battery pack and a circuit controller. Incident sunlight achieves photovoltaic power generation by a light condensation followed by beam splitting mode; nanoparticle doped seawater absorbs long-wavelength light and transmits short-wavelength light.

The present invention relates to a desalination and/or purification device, a desalination and/or purification carbon membrane, and a method of desalinating and/or purifying a liquid by using such a desalination and/or purification device. In various illustrative embodiments, a desalination and/or purification device is provided, the desalination and/or purification device comprising a carbon membrane body comprising a carbon surface, and a structure of microchannels and/or nanochannels at least partially permeating the carbon membrane body and ending at openings at the carbon surface, a liquid transportation structure extending at least partially through the carbon membrane body without being exposed at the carbon surface, and a condenser arranged above the carbon membrane body. The liquid transportation structure is arranged and configured to supply the structure of microchannels and/or nanochannels of the carbon membrane body with a liquid to be desalinated and/or purified and the structure of microchannels and/or nanochannels of the carbon membrane body may be an at least two-level disordered network of channels.

A method for controlling a membrane distillation system includes determining whether there is a day time or a night time at a location of a solar collector system associated with the membrane distillation system; applying a first control mode during the day time to a flow velocity of a feed used by the membrane distillation system; and applying a second control mode, different from the first control scheme, during the night time, to the feed. The first control scheme is a model-free mode.

Methods and systems for desalinating feedwater are disclosed. The system includes at least one feedwater source, a reverse osmosis module, an input feedwater stream fed to the reverse osmosis module, and a control module. The feedwater stream comprises water from at least one feedwater source, e.g., from two or more feedwater sources of different salinities. The control module analyzes the level of energy available to the system, and increases the salinity of the input feedwater stream proportional to an increase in available energy. Feedwater stream salinity can be adjusted to reach water demand targets and fully utilize variable power inputs from renewable sources.

A clean water production system includes a photovoltaic panel and a first membrane distillation system having a first evaporation layer, first porous hydrophobic layer and first condensation layer. The first membrane distillation system is located under the photovoltaic panel. A second membrane distillation system has a second evaporation layer, second porous hydrophobic layer and second condensation layer. The second membrane distillation system is located under the first membrane distillation system. A thermoelectric generator is located under the second membrane distillation system converting heat to electricity.

A wave powered water desalinating device may receive untreated salt water, and produce desalinated fresh water. The device consists of a pressure chamber, with a piston coupled with a pitching-type wave energy converter and configured to move along the major axis of the compression chamber; an inlet one-way valve configured to permit flow into the compression chamber from the exterior; a spring in fluid communication with the piston configured to absorb and control the cyclic pressure of the system; and a reverse osmosis membrane in the interior of the compression chamber such that motion of the piston in the direction of the distal end of the chamber exerts contents of the interior of the chamber against the reverse osmosis membrane producing fresh water.

A new apparatus, system and method to purified produced water and removed valuable metals and minerals is described. The apparatus comprises a device for flowing produced water wellbore from a wellbore to the produced water purification apparatus; at least one device to remove heavy metals from the produced water; at least one brine removal device to remove brine from the produced water. The method comprises steps to use the apparatus and the system comprises a control panel that operates the at least one device for removing heavy metals and at least one sensor in a coordinated manner.