SBIR Phase I: Novel cathode for long-cycling capacitive deionization

小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是提高饮用水处理的能效和环境可持续性。该项目开发了一种新的低成本、环保的水处理技术，称为反电容去离子(I-CDI)，它使用少量的电力来软化或淡化饮用水和工业过程水。I-CDI比盐基软化水更环保，后者会向饮用水中添加盐，而且安装和维护可能比反渗透系统(RO)便宜得多。新的低成本水处理技术对美国西南部以及非洲、亚洲和中东大片地区面临干旱或地下水供应减少风险的人口稠密社区越来越重要。一种类似的使用电力软化和淡化饮用水的水处理技术，称为电容去离子(CDI)，会受到氧化和污垢的影响，使碳电极表面失去活性，严重限制了运行寿命。此停用过程可在24-72小时内发生。因此，虽然CDI可能比RO具有能源优势，但停用阻止了CDI在商业或工业水处理市场上的实际应用。该项目的智力优势基于材料创新，这些创新直接解决了以前使CDI系统不适用于商业用途的停用机制，而不增加昂贵的二次组件。在这个I-CDI开发项目中，将对用于分离盐和水的碳电极进行处理，以提高I-CDI的效率和寿命。利用这种新的I-CDI电极技术，CDI电极可以实现高效率、低系统成本和更少的维护，同时保持较长的使用寿命。随着能源和水之间的重要性不断增加，淡水供应进一步紧张，开发更有效的海水淡化技术将是至关重要的。这种I-CDI工艺具有稳定的盐分分离能力，将在各种海水淡化应用中得到应用，包括家庭、市政和工业用水软化和废水处理。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is in improving the energy efficiency and environmental sustainability of drinking water treatment. This project develops a new low-cost and environmentally friendly water treatment technology, called inverse Capacitive Deionization (i-CDI), that uses small amounts of electricity to soften or desalinate drinking water and industrial process water. i-CDI is more environmentally friendly than salt-based water softening, which adds salt to drinking water, and potentially much less expensive than reverse osmosis systems (RO) to install and maintain. New low-cost water treatment technologies are of increasing importance to densely populated communities at risk from drought or dwindling groundwater supply the Southwest United States, as well as large areas of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. A similar water treatment technology using electricity to soften and desalinate drinking water, called Capacitive deionization (CDI), suffers from oxidation and fouling which deactivates the carbon electrode surface, severely limiting the operational lifetime. This deactivation can take place over the course of 24-72 hours. Therefore, while CDI may have energy benefits over RO, deactivation prevents CDI from being practically useful in the commercial or industrial water treatment market.The intellectual merit of this project is based on materials innovations that directly address the deactivation mechanism that previously made CDI systems impractical for commercial use, and without adding costly secondary components. In this i-CDI development project, the carbon electrodes used to separate salt from water will be treated to increase efficiency and lifetime of i-CDI. With this new i-CDI electrode technology, the benefits of CDI: high efficiency, low system cost, and less maintenance, can be achieved while maintaining long operational life. As the importance between energy and water continues to increase and fresh water supplies become further strained, the development of more efficient desalination technology will be crucial. This i-CDI process, with its stable salt separation capability, will see implementation in a variety of desalination applications including home, municipal, and industrial water softening and wastewater treatment.