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

doi:10.1016/j.cej.2018.09.121

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

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Abstract

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 practicalmore »« less

Authors:

^[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)

Publication Date:: 2018-09-17

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

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE

OSTI Identifier:: 1488696

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: Chemical Engineering Journal

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 357; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 1385-8947

Publisher:: Elsevier

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY; Membrane capacitive deionization; Over-potential; Seawater desalination; Mesoporous carbon; Carbon aerogel

Citation Formats


                    Tang, Kexin, Kim, Yong-ha, Chang, Junjun, Mayes, Richard T., Gabitto, Jorge, Yiacoumi, Sotira Z., and Tsouris, Costas. Seawater desalination by over-potential membrane capacitive deionization: Opportunities and hurdles.  United States: N. p., 2018. 
        Web.  doi:10.1016/j.cej.2018.09.121.

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                    Tang, Kexin, Kim, Yong-ha, Chang, Junjun, Mayes, Richard T., Gabitto, Jorge, Yiacoumi, Sotira Z., & Tsouris, Costas. Seawater desalination by over-potential membrane capacitive deionization: Opportunities and hurdles.  United States.  doi:10.1016/j.cej.2018.09.121.

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                    Tang, Kexin, Kim, Yong-ha, Chang, Junjun, Mayes, Richard T., Gabitto, Jorge, Yiacoumi, Sotira Z., and Tsouris, Costas. Mon .  
        "Seawater desalination by over-potential membrane capacitive deionization: Opportunities and hurdles".  United States.  doi:10.1016/j.cej.2018.09.121.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1488696.

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@article{osti_1488696,

  title        = {Seawater desalination by over-potential membrane capacitive deionization: Opportunities and hurdles},

  author       = {Tang, Kexin and Kim, Yong-ha and Chang, Junjun and Mayes, Richard T. and Gabitto, Jorge and Yiacoumi, Sotira Z. and Tsouris, Costas},

  abstractNote = {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.},

  doi          = {10.1016/j.cej.2018.09.121},

  journal      = {Chemical Engineering Journal},

  number       = C,

  volume       = 357,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {2018},

  month        = {9}

}

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DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2018.09.121

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