APPLICATIONS:
- Produce fresh water from highly brackish ground and surface water in commercial / industrial and private settings
- Desalinate water sources with ionic contaminants
- Remove toxic, naturally-occurring ionic contaminants from underground water supplies
ADVANTAGES:
- Potential for higher performance and lower cost compared to state-of-the-art
- Utilize widely available materials
- Energy efficient
- Requires minimal engineering and maintenance
- Environmentally friendly
ABSTRACT:
Ashok Gadgil, Robert Kostecki, and Guoying Chen have developed a technology in which ion removal occurs through the use of composite resin electrodes.The new Berkeley Lab approach can reduce the concentrations of total dissolved solids in water below levels deemed appropriate for human consumption by the World Health Organization – around 500 ppm. The technology’s potentially low operation and maintenance costs lend it to be especially useful in developing areas where resources are scarce. At the same time, it can be applied to industrial, commercial and residential settings to remove undesirably high concentrations of dissolved ionic substances and expand availability of fresh water supplies.
New electrode technology within the device allows chemical trapping of harmful ions without requiring the use of corrosive chemical regenerators, which is more desirable in remote areas where chemical supplies and safe practice for storage and use of corrosive chemicals are difficult to achieve. The ability to customize the size of these electrodes makes this device capable of removing ions from both large and small-scale water sources. The device provides an affordable desalination method as well as a way to deionize groundwater in poor or rural areas. This technology overcomes the high cost of purchasing bottled water or treating water with reverse osmosis and the shortcomings of electronic water purifier technologies, such as relatively slow mass transfer, inadequate ion storage capacity, and high operation costs.
On a larger scale, companies looking to reclaim wastewater will appreciate its low maintenance and environmentally conscious design. The device’s unique components allow for extremely high output with minimal energy input, making it suitable for use in commercial and private sectors.
STATUS: Available for licensing or collaborative research. Published PCT application PCT/US2015/054093 (publication WO/2016/054659).
DEVELOPMENT STAGE: Proven principle.