Ultrahigh-Efficiency Capacitive Devices for Continuous Water

Water is a critical part of the life of every living creature on the planet, but the ever increasing demand for potable freshwater will soon exceed the availability of groundwater supplies presenting a significant environmental and political issue. Demand increases are being driven by the increasing population growth, increased use irrigation of farm land to increase crop yields and industrial development. The most cost effective solution, at present, has been to search for additional sources of fresh groundwater, however, eventually, there will be no undiscovered groundwater resources remaining and alternative sources or approaches will need to be found to ensure water security and availability. Moreover, the increase in groundwater extraction has depleted the supplies resulting in a further worsening of the problem due to the increased salt water ingress into wells and aquifers as nature attempts to replenish these groundwater supplies. Thus extracting more freshwater from existing underground supplies often leads to the creation of more brackish water supplies, further accelerating the decline of potable water supplies that do not need any further processing. Brackish or salt contaminated water accounts for 70% of the overall groundwater supply. Thus there is a significant need for an efficient method of removing the salt from these increasingly brackish waters to provide stable supply of drinking water. Mainstream proposes to develop a high rate, high efficiency capacitive desalination system based on high surface area CNT-ultracapacitor electrodes. The Mainstream approach to making CNT electrodes allows for a high degree of control over the electrode properties which allows us to tailor the electrode properties to the target application maximizing the rate of salt removal and maximizing the energy recovery, thereby optimizing the overall efficiency and lowering the cost of the desalination process. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: The Mainstream Capacitive desalination system is expected to be highly scalable and would expect to find use in any application where groundwater is contaminated with salt and potable water is required for drinking water, agricultural application or industrial needs.