PFI-TT: Prototype Batteries Enabling Energy Efficient Seawater Desalination

这一创新-技术转化伙伴关系项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是建造一个原型脱盐电池，可以实现节能淡水生产。人口的稳步增长和工业的快速发展导致了农业、能源生产和人类消费对水生产的更大需求。因此，必须开发新的海水淡化方法，以解决现有技术的局限性，并增加全球获得负担得起的淡水的机会。与传统电池一样，脱盐电池在充电和放电过程中存储和释放能量，但是在脱盐电池中，这些过程与盐离子（特别是钠（Na+）和氯（Cl-）离子）的存储和释放相结合。由于在充电过程中消耗的能量在放电过程中被回收，因此与传统的脱盐方法（例如热蒸馏和反渗透）相比，脱盐所需的净能量大幅减少。脱盐电池技术的成功技术转化可能对提高具有成本效益的全球饮用水淡水生产产生重大影响，这反过来又将产生巨大的社会影响。该项目将建造一个原型脱盐电池，其容量比目前的概念验证电池大18，000倍。增加电极尺寸会不利地影响单个电极容量和循环能力以及脱盐所需的净能量。因此，概念验证电池的成功扩大是减轻拟议技术商业可行性不确定性的重要一步。一旦拟议的原型电池成功建造，它将使多个模块的组装能够以任何规模进行脱盐。拟议的技术将能够进行准确的技术经济计算，从而确定建造和运营设备的成本;能够评估最佳产品市场匹配度，并建立可行的市场路径。此外，原型电池可用于在模拟现实世界条件的实际水平上演示脱盐，其能够在1个循环中去除1 L海水中存在的~100%的Na+和~33%的Cl-。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.