SusChEM: Increasing Access to Sustainable Freshwater Resources with Membrane Capacitive Deionization

1605290 CusickWaters是咸的，没有达到海水的程度，在许多领域提供了有益使用的新水源，并且用于处理它们的成本有效的方法是高度优先的。拟议的研究和教育活动将通过建立电容式海水淡化技术的综合多尺度建模和实验框架，促进微咸（含盐）地下水和再生废水淡化的可持续性。研究将追求经济上可行的脱盐战略与可再生碳资源，并将重点放在克服知识差距，限制我们的能力，设计节能和成本效益的膜电容去离子系统。将利用这一框架向本科生和高中生讲授水资源短缺、可持续水管理和通过海水淡化生产淡水的知识。降低淡水生产的能源密集度，同时增加再生水和盐水来源的水回收，对于最大限度地减少经济成本和环境影响至关重要。这项工作的总体目标是，通过解决微咸水和再生水淡化的现有经济和能源障碍，增加水资源紧张地区获得可再生淡水资源的机会。通过将淡水和盐水生产分别耦合到电容器电极充电和放电，膜电容去离子系统具有从接近脱盐的热力学极限的水中去除离子的潜力，需要比反渗透少得多的能量。从低盐度来源生产饮用水（即，微咸水和再生废水）由于反渗透的能量、维护和盐水处理成本，目前在大多数地区在经济上是不可行的。本研究旨在解决目前限制膜电容去离子，一个潜在的低成本和可持续的替代反渗透的关键障碍，通过开发新的电极几何形状和操作方案的综合建模和定量可持续的设计框架，连接微结构组成，反应器设计和操作决策的预测处理效果，淡水生产成本和环境可持续性。假设是基于电容器的去离子可以使能源效率和成本效益的生产淡水从半咸水和再生水。本研究的目标是：i）通过综合建模和实验揭示膜电容去离子系统中的电化学能量损失机制; ii）开发新型高性能电极形态，解决主要的能量损失机制; iii）开发校准到能量和水回收技术极限的膜电容去离子过程模型;以及，iv）通过将过程模型集成到定量可持续设计框架中来建立膜电容去离子化发展的前进路径，所述定量可持续设计框架在不确定性下集成环境、经济和性能度量。

1605290CusickWaters that are salty, not to the extent that sea water is, present a new source of water for beneficial use in many areas and cost efficient methods for treating them are a high priority. The proposed research and educational activities will advance the sustainability of brackish (salty) groundwater and reclaimed wastewater desalination by establishing an integrated multi-scale modeling and experimental framework for capacitive desalination technologies. Research will pursue financially viable desalination strategies with renewable carbon resources and will focus on overcoming knowledge gaps that limit our ability to design energy efficient and cost effective membrane capacitive deionization systems. This framework will be leveraged to teach undergraduates and high school students about water scarcity, sustainable water management and freshwater production through desalination. Reducing the energy intensity of freshwater production, while increasing water recovery, from reclaimed and saline sources will be critical to minimizing economic costs and environmental impacts. The overall goal of this work is to increase access to renewable freshwater resources in water stressed regions by addressing existing economic and energetic barriers to brackish and reclaimed water desalination. By coupling freshwater and brine production to capacitor electrode charging and discharging respectively, membrane capacitive deionization systems have the potential to remove ions from water near the thermodynamic limit of desalination, requiring far less energy than reverse osmosis. Producing potable water from low salinity sources (i.e., brackish water and reclaimed wastewater) is currently economically infeasible in most areas due to energy, maintenance and brine disposal costs of reverse osmosis. This research seeks to address critical barriers currently limiting membrane capacitive deionization, a potentially low cost and sustainable alternative to reverse osmosis, by developing novel electrode geometries and operating schemes within an integrated modeling and quantitative sustainable design framework that links microstructure composition, reactor design and operation decisions to predictions of treatment efficacy, freshwater production costs and environmental sustainability. The hypothesis is that capacitor-based deionization may enable energy efficient and cost effective production of freshwater from brackish and reclaimed water. The objectives of this proposed work are: i) to uncover mechanisms of electrochemical energy loss in membrane capacitive deionization systems through integrated modeling and experimentation; ii) to develop novel high performance electrode morphologies that address major energy loss mechanisms; iii) to develop a membrane capacitive deionization process model calibrated to the limits of technology for energy and water recovery; and, iv) to establish a path forward for membrane capacitive deionization development by integrating the process model into a quantitative sustainable design framework that integrates environmental, economic, and performance metrics under uncertainty.