Ion sequestration for scale prevention in high-recovery desalination systems

1. A method for sequestering cations that can precipitate from an aqueous composition, the method comprising:

adding a multi-dentate ligand to an aqueous composition that includes monovalent ions and at least one type of dissolved divalent cation that can precipitate from the aqueous composition to produce scaling;

then enabling the multi-dentate ligand to bond with the dissolved divalent cation to form an aqueous non-scaling ionic complex;

then filtering the aqueous non-scaling ionic complex from the aqueous composition with a membrane that retains the aqueous non-scaling ionic complex in a retentate stream and that passes a filtrate stream comprising water and monovalent ions;

reducing the pH of the retentate stream to release the dissolved divalent cation from the multi-dentate ligand;

after the non-scaling ionic complex is filtered from the aqueous composition, separating purified water from at least a portion of the filtrate of the aqueous composition and leaving a concentrated remainder of the filtrate of the aqueous composition in a high-recovery desalination system where the divalent cation, absent formation and removal of the ionic complex, would be subject to scaling; and

after the dissolved divalent cation is released from the multi-dentate ligand, reintroducing the multi-dentate ligand into additional aqueous composition to form additional non-scaling ionic complex in a predominantly closed loop.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the dissolved divalent cation includes at least one of the following: calcium, barium, strontium and magnesium.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the aqueous composition includes flowback water or produced water from oil or gas extraction.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the aqueous composition includes at least one of sea water and brackish water.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the aqueous composition includes waste water.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pH of the retentate is reduced via addition of an acid to release the scaling component from the multi-dentate ligand.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the separation of the purified water from the monovalent ions of the filtrate of the aqueous composition in the high-recovery desalination system is performed via a desalination process selected from at least one of the following: reverse osmosis, multi-stage flash distillation, multiple-effect distillation, mechanical vapor recompression, electrodialysis, membrane distillation, directional solvent extraction and humidification-dehumidification.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising heating the filtrate of the aqueous composition up to a temperature at which the cation would precipitate from the aqueous composition absent bonding of the scaling component in the non-scaling ionic complex.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the filtrate of the aqueous composition is heated up to a temperature of at least 50° C.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the monovalent ions include at least one dissolved component selected from NaCl, KCl, Na 2 SO 4 , and Na 2 CO 3 .

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pH of the retentate including the ionic complex is reduced by adding an acid to the retentate, the method further comprising adding a base to the retentate after the multi-dentate ligand is released and removed, wherein the base neutralizes the acid.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the retentate including the ionic complex is cooled to less than 20° C. after the pH is reduced to increase the amount of multi-dentate ligand released from the cation.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the multi-dentate ligand comprises an ethylenediamine tetra-acetate ion.

14. The method of claim 7 , wherein the desalination process is a humidification-dehumidification process.