a portable and battery-powered seawater … institute of technology research laboratory of...

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Research Laboratory of Electronics

A Portable and Battery-Powered Seawater Desalination Device by

Ion Concentration Polarization

Dr. Sung Jae Kim,Prof. Jongyoon Han

November 16, 2010November 16, 2010

Micro/Nanofluidic BioMEMS Group,Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science,


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Water Resource on the Earth

World Water Development Report


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Global Water Market

Source: Global water Intelligence: Global Water Market 2008

9%7.3Desalination plants running operation8%2.4Desalination plants with membrane4%2.5Thermal desalination plants

Desalination20%1.9Treatment using membrane systems

14%0.5UV treatment

10%0.3Ozone treatment(10%)(91)(Sales of bottled water)

4%129Drinking water purification

Drinking water

19%4.2Membrane systems for wastewater treatment

4%13Chemicals and services for the industry

6%12Equipment for wastewater treatment

4%104Sewage treatment

Wastewater

Expected annual growth

Market volume 2007 (USD bn)


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Fresh Water in Resource-Limited Setting

Disaster-stricken areas

www.sacbee.com

Worldwide use of improved sanitation facilities in 2008WHO report 2010

2.6 billion people do not use improved sanitationBrackish ground water

www.who.int

Groundwater turns brackish

Disaster relief, military and humanitarian operation

Underdeveloped area

www.un.org

Lack of delivery and on-grid infrastructures


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www.watertechnology.net

Conventional Seawater Desalination

• Best energy efficiency ~ 5 Wh/L

• Requires large scale plants and significant membrane fouling

Thermal distillation / freezing

• Easiest method

• Energetically costly

Reverse Osmosis

• Less membrane fouling

• Worse energy efficient ~ 20 Wh/L

Electro-Dialysis

www.thewatertreatments.com


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Competing Technologies

Small/Medium scale desalination / purification system

• Household RO machine with UV lamps only for tap water like groundwatere.g. Aquaguard®, GE profileTM (only for <2000ppm TDS source water)

c.f. Brackish water: 1000-5000ppm TDS, Seawater: 30,000-40,000ppm TDS

• Medium-scale seawater desalination RO systems are not cost- and energy-efficiente.g. Ampac Seapro 100 (>$7650), 30-90Wh/L

• Other technologies focusing on particulate/organics, not salte.g. spiral filtration system (PARC)

chemical agent for inducing flocculation-sedimentationactivated carbon filters

Organism Examples General Size Filter Type Particle Size Rating

Protozoa Giardia, Cryptosporidium 5 microns or larger Water filter 1.0–4.0 microns

Bacteria Cholera, E. coli, Salmonella 0.2–0.5 microns Microfilter 0.2–1.0 microns

Viruses Hepatitis A, rotavirus, Norwalk virus 0.004 microns Water purifier to 0.004 microns


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100

m~1

mm

Micro/Nanofluidic Desalination Method

V +pressure

V

V

nano-junction

seawater

brine

fresh water (50% recovery)

ANY chargedspecies

ion depletionboundary

Nature Nanotechnology, 2010, 5, 297.US provisional patent, TLO case # 12601 / 13218,

Fresh waterreservoir

500m

Brine reservoir


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Applied electric field (V/cm)

50 60 70 80

Con

duct

ivity

(mS/

cm)

0

10

20

30

40

50

Conductivity of Desalted Stream

Seawater (from Crane Beach, Ipswitch, MA)

Salt evenlydistributed

Partially desalted

Completely desalted atlow channel

~500 mM

~4 mM

drinkable water: <10 mM

Calculated power consumption ~ 3.5 Wh/L c.f.) RO ~ 5.0 Wh/L, ED ~ 20.0 Wh/L


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Removal Capability

1Å 1nm 10nm 100nm 1m 10m 100m

solutes,particles

ions

hormones

proteins

viruses

bacteria

clay particles

E. coli

DNA

hair

RBC WBC

atomic/ionic

lowmolecular

highmolecular

microparticle

macroparticle

separationprocess

electro-dialysiselectro-dialysis

reverseosmosisreverseosmosis

nanofiltrationnanofiltration

ultrafiltration

microfiltrationmicrofiltration

scale

micro/nanofluidic desalination / purification


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1,600 unit deviceson a 8’ diameter plate

Portable, Self-Powered System

~100W solar panel

With the massive parallelization, we can expect Total flow rate ~ 300mL/min (can supply 7 peoples’ basic need by 1hr) 3.5Wh/L can be supplied by photovoltaic cell (25mW/cm2) or battery (~70W)

Cost estimation of manufacturing 1 stack ~$500 including materials and machine fees, excluding labor and software


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Competition Cost: ICP vs. RO

Energy Costs

Maintenance Costs

Investment Costs

Tota

l cos

ts o

f RO

for c

onsu

mer

60k

Cos

t (U

SD

)

50k

40k

30k

20k

10k

5k

0.9 22 30 47 63 72 95 110 142 157 253

Water production rate (liter/hour)

ICP system production and setup costs per device

100 wafers / month500 wafers / month

Courtesy by iTeam project member at MIT


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Where can it be applied for?

Phase I, (2yrs) Phase II, (1yr)

ICP desalination

Individual use Community use

• Cost-insensitive application

• Flow rate ~ 100mL/min

• Should be easy of use

• High energy efficiency

• Large ships

• Rural areas

• Island communities

• Cost-sensitive application

• Flow rate ~ 1L/min

• Should be easy of use• High energy efficiency

• Shipboard application

• Disaster relief

• Recreational purpose

• Military / humanitarian use

Phase III, (2yrs)

Large-volume Apps

• Large scale desal plants based on ICP desalination

• Pre-treatment for large-scale existing desal plants

• Rare metal mining from seawater / groundwater

• Cost-sensitive application

• Flow rate >> 1L/min

• Should be easy of use• High energy efficiency


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“One tiny gap in a channel, One giant leap for better life”

Questions?

greenhelm.spyestate.com

a portable and battery-powered seawater … institute of technology research laboratory of...

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