UNS: Collaborative Research: Non-Membrane, Low Temperature and Low Emission Water Desalination Using Directional Solvent

1510826/1512113 Luo/Shah项目概述：缺水是当今世界面临的最严重挑战之一。海水淡化已成为一种潜在的解决方案。这个合作项目将研究一种不使用膜的新型海水淡化技术。目前的海水淡化技术要么是基于蒸发的，要么是基于膜的，它们成本高昂，能源密集型，而且还会导致全球变暖的二氧化碳排放。这项拟议的研究将受到这样一个假设的推动，即通过改变定向溶剂的分子结构可以调节其在水中的溶解度。蒙特卡罗和分子动力学模拟将被用来计算定向溶剂与盐和水作为温度的函数的相平衡。从模拟中获得的官能团与水之间相互作用的知识将形成化学结构与水和盐在溶剂中的溶解度之间的相关性的基础，从而能够合理设计高性能的定向溶剂。根据提取的趋势，将进行高通量的定向溶剂的高通量实验筛选，以确定高效的定向溶剂。以定向溶剂为基础，设计并演示了实验室规模的连续海水淡化系统。

1510826/1512113 Luo / Shah Project Overview: Water scarcity is among the most serious challenges faced by the world today. Desalination has emerged as a potential solution. This collaborative project will examine a novel water desalination technology which does not use membranes. Current water desalination technologies are either evaporation-based or membrane-based, and they are costly and energy intensive, and also contribute to global-warming CO2 emissions. The proposed research will be driven by the hypothesis that the water solubility in directional solvents can be tuned by varying their molecular structures. Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations will be performed to calculate the phase-equilibria of directional solvents with salt and water as a function of temperature. The knowledge of interactions, obtained from the simulations, between the functional groups and water will form the basis of a correlation between the chemical structure and directionality of water and salt solubilities in the solvent, enabling rational design of high-performance directional solvents. According to the extracted trend, high throughput experimental screening of promising directional solvents will be performed to identify highly efficient directional solvents. Based on the directional solvents, a lab-scale continuous desalination system will be designed and demonstrated.