Desalination by capacitive deionization: development of new electrodes and process optimization

• Grant number: 15/16107-4
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Duration: November 01, 2015 - October 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Chemical Engineering - Industrial Operations and Equipment for Chemical Engineering
• Principal Investigator: Luis Augusto Martins Ruotolo
• Grantee: Luis Augusto Martins Ruotolo
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Exatas e de Tecnologia (CCET). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Julio J. Lado Garrido

Abstract

In the last few years, the interest in capacitive deionization technology (CDI) has been increasing progressively due to its low cost and the possibility of using it for water treatment (desalination and softening) and wastewater treatment. In the Brazilian context, the development of this new technology would be of great interest since it could be used to provide drinking water from brackish water and, consequently, to contribute to the social and economic development of the Brazilian semiarid where shortage of drinking water is of big concern. More recently, the hydric crises in the state of Sao Paulo is also stimulating the development of new technologies to provide potable water. The CDI technology is based on the concept of ions storage in the electric double layer formed when a pair of electrodes are positively and negatively polarized, thus promoting the removal of ions from water. In this context, the development of new electrode materials is one of the major challenges regarding to CDI technology, thus the production of low cost activated carbons with high specific surface area with an adequate pore size distribution is of big concern nowadays. In this proposal, electrochemistry and material science knowledge will be used for the development of new carbon electrodes for CDI. The sustainability concept will be taken into account since the activated carbon electrodes will be prepared using waste biomass sources, in this case, lignin and polysaccharides. In the second part of this project, the concepts of chemical and electrochemical engineering will be used to the development of a CDI cell to study different operational modes (potentiostatic, galvanostatic, and potentiodynamic) to optimize the process variables in order to maximize the desalination kinetics and charge efficiency. Afterwards, a single-pass CDI cell will be tested to desalinize real brackish water. (AU)

Scientific publications

(5)

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

LADO, JULIO J.; ZORNITTA, RAFAEL L.; CALVI, FELIPE A.; MARTINS, MARIANA; ANDERSON, MARC A.; NOGUEIRA, FRANCISCO G. E.; RUOTOLO, LUIS A. M.. Enhanced capacitive deionization desalination provided by chemical activation of sugar cane bagasse fly ash electrodes. JOURNAL OF ANALYTICAL AND APPLIED PYROLYSIS, v. 126, p. 143-153, JUL 2017. (15/16107-4, 15/26593-3)

LADO, JULIO J.; ZORNITTA, RAFAEL L.; CALVI, FELIPE A.; TEJEDOR-TEJEDOR, M. ISABEL; ANDERSON, MARC A.; RUOTOLO, LUIS A. M.. Study of sugar cane bagasse fly ash as electrode material for capacitive deionization. JOURNAL OF ANALYTICAL AND APPLIED PYROLYSIS, v. 120, p. 389-398, JUL 2016. (15/16107-4)

ZORNITTA, RAFAEL L.; GARCIA-MATEOS, FRANCISCO J.; LADO, JULIO J.; RODRIGUEZ-MIRASOL, JOSE; CORDERO, TOMAS; HAMMER, PETER; RUOTOLO, LUIS A. M.. High-performance activated carbon from polyaniline for capacitive deionization. Carbon, v. 123, p. 318-333, OCT 2017. (15/16107-4, 15/26593-3)

ZORNITTA, RAFAEL L.; RUOTOLO, LUIS A. M.. Simultaneous analysis of electrosorption capacity and kinetics for CDI desalination using different electrode configurations. CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL, v. 332, p. 33-41, JAN 15 2018. (15/16107-4, 15/26593-3)

LADO, JULIO J.; ZORNITTA, RAFAEL L.; VAZQUEZ RODRIGUEZ, INES; BARCELOS, KAMILA MALVERDI; RUOTOLO, LUIS A. M.. Sugarcane Biowaste-Derived Biochars as Capacitive Deionization Electrodes for Brackish Water Desalination and Water-Softening Applications. ACS SUSTAINABLE CHEMISTRY & ENGINEERING, v. 7, n. 23, p. 18992-19004, DEC 2 2019. (15/26593-3, 17/19838-5, 15/16107-4)

Filed patent(s) as a result of this research project