ZVI (Fe0) desalination: catalytic partial desalination of saline aquifers

Abstract

Globally, salinization affects between 100 and 1000 billion m3 a−1 of irrigation water. The discovery that zero valent iron (ZVI, Fe0) could be used to desalinate water (using intra-particle catalysis in a diffusion environment) raises the possibility that large-scale in situ desalination of aquifers could be undertaken to support agriculture. ZVI desalination removes NaCl by an adsorption–desorption process in a multi-stage cross-coupled catalytic process. This study considers the potential application of two ZVI desalination catalyst types for in situ aquifer desalination. The feasibility of using ZVI catalysts when placed in situ within an aquifer to produce 100 m3 d−1 of partially desalinated water from a saline aquifer is considered.