UNS: Collaborative Research: Non-Membrane, Low Temperature and Low Emission Water Desalination Using Directional Solvent

项目概述：水资源短缺是当今世界面临的最严重挑战之一。海水淡化已经成为一种潜在的解决方案。这个合作项目将研究一种不使用膜的新型海水淡化技术。目前的海水淡化技术要么是基于蒸发的，要么是基于膜的，它们既昂贵又耗能，还会导致全球变暖的二氧化碳排放。提出的研究将由一个假设驱动，即定向溶剂中的水溶性可以通过改变它们的分子结构来调节。蒙特卡罗和分子动力学模拟将执行计算相平衡的定向溶剂与盐和水作为温度的函数。从模拟中获得的官能团与水之间相互作用的知识将构成溶剂中水和盐溶解度的化学结构和方向性之间相关性的基础，从而能够合理设计高性能定向溶剂。根据提取趋势，对有前景的定向溶剂进行高通量实验筛选，以确定高效的定向溶剂。基于定向溶剂，将设计并演示一个实验室规模的连续脱盐系统。

1510826/1512113Luo / ShahProject Overview:Water scarcity is among the most serious challenges faced by the world today. Desalination has emerged as a potential solution. This collaborative project will examine a novel water desalination technology which does not use membranes.Current water desalination technologies are either evaporation-based or membrane-based, and they are costly and energy intensive, and also contribute to global-warming CO2 emissions. The proposed research will be driven by the hypothesis that the water solubility in directional solvents can be tuned by varying their molecular structures. Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations will be performed to calculate the phase-equilibria of directional solvents with salt and water as a function of temperature. The knowledge of interactions, obtained from the simulations, between the functional groups and water will form the basis of a correlation between the chemical structure and directionality of water and salt solubilities in the solvent, enabling rational design of high-performance directional solvents. According to the extracted trend, high throughput experimental screening of promising directional solvents will be performed to identify highly efficient directional solvents. Based on the directional solvents, a lab-scale continuous desalination system will be designed and demonstrated.