Revamping the Desalination Battery

ended

"Better managing energy and water resources along with development of water treatment technologies with low environmental impact and energy consumption has become more essential than ever due to water-energy nexus and growing environmental issues. This is mainly performed by using Reverse Osmosis (RO) technologies. However, RO presents number of environmental drawbacks such as effluents produced associated to the chemical regeneration of membranes. There is a strong necessity of secure and sustainable water supply, thus green technologies for water treatment are needed to safeguard the interests of a sensible use of water resources, to remain in strengthening environmental equilibrium as well as in the economic prosperity. Moreover, ""Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials Challenge"" in Horizon 2020 presents as one of its aims: positioning Europe as a global market leader in water-related innovative solutions. This project will revamp the Desalination Battery (DB) technology, the original and innovative aspects of the proposal lies in taking up the challenge to shift the knowledge frontier and develop a Cl- capturing electrode. Thus, the aim of this project is to develop a full concept for the next-generation DB, addressing the issue of new materials for anion capturing and cell design, which gives lower energy losses and more flexible operation. In order to do so, development of flexible and anionic electrode materials will be investigated, as well as the impact of operation variables on desalination degree and on energy consumption in dependence of the cell design. The multidisciplinary nature of the project is strong, involving a combination of electrode materials development, electrochemistry and engineering (scaling-up, cell and module design). This project is in line with the EU strategy for the sustainable development of water resources and desalination."