I-Corps: A Solar Electrodialysis Device for Water Treatment

I-Corps：用于水处理的太阳能电渗析装置

• 批准号: 2034732
• 负责人: Syed Mubeen Jawahar Hussaini
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: University of Iowa
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-08-15 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2034732&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Solar; Electrodialysis; Device; Water

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the translation of a decentralized solar-powered water treatment unit with the potential to increase global desalination operations and to promote secure and sustainable water resources. The proposed technology may be attractive to customers, including rural/tribal communities, large gated communities, golf courses and resorts, rural hospitals and schools, governmental properties for emergency/disaster settings, and industrial applications such as gas production facilities and agricultural farmland. Since the core technology may provide significant benefits in either new treatment facilities or for plant retrofits, existing large-scale water treatment plants also may be potential customers. Overall, the proposed technology is well-positioned to lower freshwater production costs as well as the carbon footprint for communities requiring decentralized water solutions.This I-Corps project is based on the development and translation of a cost-effective, energy-efficient, solar-powered electrodialysis (ED) technology that will address the needs of brackish groundwater desalination plants. The proposed process will use an integrated solar cell/three-dimensional (3D) electrodialysis unit to recover 98% of the water from brackish sources using photon energy from sunlight as the only energy input. Currently, over one-third of the total operating cost of a typical desalination plant is the electrical cost of running the plant. The proposed technology will use Sun’s energy to drive the desalination process, enabling a reduction in energy consumption and carbon footprint. While energy costs constitute one-third of the total operating cost in incumbent ED systems, the electrodes constitute nearly one-third of the overall system cost. To lower the system cost, the technology will employ a proprietary electrode design that replaces of current platinum group-based planar electrodes with low-cost carbon-based three-dimensional (3-D) electrodes. The initial results demonstrate significantly improved (3x) demineralization and higher current efficiencies compared to planar electrodes when operated in a commercial ED reversal system. The 3-D electrodes also prevent unwanted side reactions, thereby improving the overall stability of the electrodialysis stack.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.

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是将一个分散的太阳能水处理装置转化为有可能增加全球海水淡化业务并促进安全和可持续的水资源。所提出的技术可能对客户具有吸引力，包括农村/部落社区、大型封闭社区、高尔夫球场和度假村、农村医院和学校、用于紧急/灾难设置的政府财产以及工业应用，例如天然气生产设施和农田。由于核心技术可以在新的处理设施或工厂改造中提供显着的好处，现有的大型水处理厂也可能是潜在的客户。总的来说，拟议的技术是很好的定位，以降低淡水生产成本，以及需要分散的水解决方案的社区的碳足迹。这个I-Corps项目是基于开发和翻译的成本效益，能源效率，太阳能电渗析（艾德）技术，将解决咸水地下水淡化厂的需求。拟议的过程将使用集成的太阳能电池/三维（3D）电渗析单元，使用来自太阳光的光子能量作为唯一的能量输入，从半咸水来源中回收98%的水。目前，一个典型的海水淡化厂总运营成本的三分之一以上是运行工厂的电力成本。拟议中的技术将使用Sun的能源来驱动海水淡化过程，从而减少能源消耗和碳足迹。虽然在现有的艾德系统中，能量成本构成总操作成本的三分之一，但是电极构成总系统成本的近三分之一。为了降低系统成本，该技术将采用专有的电极设计，用低成本的碳基三维（3-D）电极取代目前基于铂族的平面电极。初始结果表明，当在商业艾德反转系统中操作时，与平面电极相比，显著改善（3倍）脱矿质和更高的电流效率。三维电极还可以防止不必要的副反应，从而提高电渗析堆的整体稳定性。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。