Magnetic Fields and Manipulation of Water Behaviors: A Viable Method for Reducing RO Specific Energy Consumption

The use of magnetic fields to cause changes in the properties of aqueous media presents new opportunities for improving the performance of membrane systems. Many promising, and possibly paradigm shifting, results have been obtained in this area indicating that ion (Szczes, Chibowski et al. 2011, Otero, Rodriguez et al. 2018) and water (Holysz, Szczes et al. 2007, Wu and Brant 2020) properties may be altered by magnetic fields. Example applications have included control of mineral scaling in desalination processes (Murad 2006), improvements in ion exchange kinetics (Guo, Han et al. 2011, Szczes, Chibowski et al. 2011), and water permeation through reverse osmosis (RO) membranes (Murad 2006). While showing tremendous promise, the ability of magnetic fields to create such changes in material properties is not without controversy. Much of this disagreement, and impediment to magnetic field technologies, may be traced to our lack of detailed understanding of water properties and how changes to these characteristics are related to those of the applied magnetic field(s). Recent efforts in material science that have resulted in novel membranes, are limited by thermodynamics and physics resulting in desalination specific energy consumption (kWh/m3) values just above the thermodynamic minimum (Wang, Violet et al. 2020). Other separation processes are similarly limited because of a singular focus on improving material properties without considering radically different avenues by which to affect the properties of the relevant phases. The performance of physicochemical processes is largely determined by how water interacts with itself (viscosity, surface tension) and with the constituents contained within it (hydration/solvation). These phenomena are highly dependent on interfacial and solution properties at molecular and even atomic levels.

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