Seawater desalination by over-potential membrane capacitive deionization: Opportunities and hurdles

Tang, Kexin; Kim, Yong-ha; Chang, Junjun; Mayes, Richard T.; Gabitto, Jorge; Yiacoumi, Sotira Z.; Tsouris, Costas

doi:10.1016/j.cej.2018.09.121

Title: Seawater desalination by over-potential membrane capacitive deionization: Opportunities and hurdles

Journal Article · Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Chemical Engineering Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2018.09.121· OSTI ID:1488696

^[1]; Kim, Yong-ha ^[2]; Chang, Junjun ^[3];

^[4]; Gabitto, Jorge ^[5]; Yiacoumi, Sotira Z. ^[6];

^[7]

Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States); Tianjin Univ., Tianjin (People's Republic of China); Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States); Louisiana State Univ., Baton Rouge, LA (United States)
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Prairie View A&M Univ., Prairie View, TX (United States)
Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)
Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

The salt removal capacity (SRC) of the carbon electrodes in membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI) is limited by the applied potential (<1.6 V). Thus, enhancement of the SRC is essential before applying MCDI to seawater desalination. This study aims at developing a novel MCDI system for seawater desalination by applying over-potential (OP) to enhance ion-adsorption capacity and kinetics, and by reversing the polarity (RP) of electrodes to improve ion-desorption kinetics (hereafter named OP-MCDI-RP) for seawater desalination. At 2.4 V, the OP-MCDI system with mesoporous carbon demonstrated a SRC value of 64.7 mg g^–1 when desalting 0.5 M NaCl solution, while the OP-CDI system could only remove 8.2 mg g^–1 under identical conditions. Similarly, an OP-MCDI cell using carbon aerogel demonstrated a greater SRC value of 43.4 mg g^–1 in comparison with 12.5 mg g^–1 achieved in OP-CDI. These results indicate that the OP-MCDI system can directly desalt high salinity water regardless of the electrode material. In contrast to the OP-MCDI system, the OP-MCDI-RP system yields a higher regeneration efficiency by applying a reversed low-voltage. It is shown that, under appropriate operating conditions, the OP-MCDI-RP system reduced the electrical conductivity of a seawater sample of 37 practical salinity units by 99.9%, suggesting that the OP-MCDI-RP system can be employed for seawater desalination. In conclusion, due to the dramatic increase in energy demand and insufficient long-term stability caused by high potential and high salt concentration, however, the OP-MCDI-RP process should be further investigated for potential practical applications.

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Research Organization:: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725

OSTI ID:: 1488696

Journal Information:: Chemical Engineering Journal, Vol. 357, Issue C; ISSN 1385-8947

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 60 works

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37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
Membrane capacitive deionization
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Title: Seawater desalination by over-potential membrane capacitive deionization: Opportunities and hurdles

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