Collaborative Research: ECO-CBET: Convergent Electrolysis-Electrodialysis System (CEES) to Curb Urban Chloride Pollution by Eco-friendly Road Deicing and Waste Salt Upcycling

氯化物污染引起了人们对环境保护、饮用水安全和交通基础设施恢复能力的日益关注。与此同时，二氧化碳的排放已被广泛认为是造成一系列负面气候变化的主要温室气体。这个融合项目的愿景是启动和建立“融合电解-电渗析系统”，作为一种可行的工程解决方案，可以有效缓解与城市水体中日益增长的氯化物污染相关的复杂环境-生态-经济问题，同时减少二氧化碳的排放。该系统旨在通过将废盐在城市软水机再生流中进行升级回收，直接减少氯化物的排放，并通过将污染道路盐的除冰剂转换为环保的甲酸钠来阻止氯化物的持续污染。该系统以可再生能源为动力，将二氧化碳的转化和氯化物污染的减少协同起来，放大了环境和生态效益。这项解决日益严重的城市氯化物污染的基础研究直接有助于维持和恢复国家生态/环境系统的健康状况。该项目的总体目标是获得对该系统的技术可实现性、生态适应性和经济可行性的科学理解和技术见解，并对遏制城市地区真实的氯化物污染产生可衡量的影响。这项研究将促进知识，可广泛应用于环境工程、电化学、工艺工程、高分子材料、技术经济分析、生命周期评估和政策学习。融合研究团队的目标是：1)实现电解与电渗析的无缝集成；2)了解廉价电催化材料；3)了解电解和电渗析所需的复杂离子传输；4)考察甲酸钠作为新一代除冰剂的综合影响；5)深入了解生命周期评价和技术经济分析；6)通过政策学习和行为促进社会成果。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

Chloride pollution has brought increasing concerns over environmental protection, drinking water safety, and the resilience of transportation infrastructure. Meanwhile, the emission of carbon dioxide has been broadly recognized as a dominant greenhouse gas causing a series of negative climate changes. The vision of this convergent project is to initiate and establish “Convergent Electrolysis-Electrodialysis System” as a viable engineering solution that can effectively mitigate the complex environmental-ecological-economic issues associated with the ever-growing chloride pollution in urban waterbodies, while reducing the emission of carbon dioxide. The system is designed to directly cut down the chloride discharge by upcycling waste salt in the regeneration stream of urban water softeners, and to stop the continuous chloride pollution by switching the deicing agent from polluting road salt to the eco-friendly sodium formate. Powered by renewable energy, the system synergistically combines the conversion of carbon dioxide and the reduction of chloride pollution, magnifying the environmental and ecological benefits. This fundamental research of addressing growing urban chloride pollution directly helps maintain and recover the dwindling health of national ecological/environmental systems. The overarching objective of this project is to acquire the scientific understanding as well as the technological insights into the technical achievability, ecological suitability, and economic viability of the system with measurable impacts on curbing the real-world chloride pollution in urban areas. The study will advance knowledge that can be broadly applied to environmental engineering, electrochemistry, process engineering, polymer materials, technoeconomic analysis, life-cycle assessment, and policy learning. The convergent research team aims to: 1) achieve the seamless integration between electrolysis and electrodialysis; 2) acquire understanding of inexpensive electrocatalytic materials; 3) understand the complex ion transport required in both electrolysis and electrodialysis; 4) examine the comprehensive impacts of sodium formate as the new-generation deicer; 5) gain the insights into the life-cycle assessment and the techno-economic analysis; and 6) promote societal outcomes through policy learning and behavior.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.