PFI-TT: Prototype Batteries Enabling Energy Efficient Seawater Desalination

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project is to construct a prototype desalination battery that can enable energy efficient freshwater production. Steady growth in the human population and rapid industrial development have led to greater demands for water production for agriculture, energy generation, and human consumption. Thus, it is imperative to develop new desalination methods that can address the limitations of existing technologies and to increase global access to affordable freshwater. Like conventional batteries, the desalination battery stores and releases energy during the charging and discharging processes but, in the desalination battery, these processes are coupled with the storage and release of salt ions, specifically sodium (Na+) and chloride (Cl-) ions. As the energy consumed during the charging process is recovered during the discharging process, the net energy required for desalination is drastically reduced compared with conventional desalination methods such as thermal distillation and reverse osmosis. Successful technology translation of desalination battery technology may have a significant impact on increasing the cost-effective, global freshwater production of potable water, which in turn, will have an enormous societal impact. This project is to build a prototype desalination battery with a capacity 18,000 times larger than that of the current proof-of-concept cell. Increasing the electrode size can adversely affect the individual electrode capacities and cyclabilities as well as the net energy required for desalination. Thus, the successful scale-up of the proof-of-concept cell is a vital step to mitigate uncertainty about the commercial viability of the proposed technology. Once the proposed prototype cell is successfully built, it will enable the assembly of multiple modules to perform desalination at any scale. The proposed technology will enable the performance of accurate technoeconomic calculations and, thus, determine the cost of constructing and operating the device; enable the evaluation of the best product-market fit, and establish a viable path-to-market. Furthermore, the prototype cell can be used to demonstrate desalination at a practical level mimicking real-world conditions with the capacity to remove ~100% of Na+ and ~33% of Cl- present in 1 L of seawater in 1 cycle. This will allow the team to engage potential commercialization, industry, and government/community partners more effectively for successful technology translation.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.