SBIR Phase I: Selective Ion Separation and Recovery for Wastewater Treatment

"The broader/commercial impacts of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project are in water management and resource recovery. Conventional wastewater treatment methods lack solute selectivity, leading to costly and energy-intensive inefficiencies and thwarting efforts to mitigate emerging contaminants. Waste streams may also contain valuable resources that could generate revenue if recovered. Further, improved water reuse operations are needed to address the growing demand for clean water. The technology presented in this project transcends the existing paradigm by offering a method for the highly selective separation of target solutes from water sources, creating multiple, distinct ionic products and substantially dewatering the feed source. In result, this technology may be used to simultaneously remove unwanted contaminants, recover valuable byproducts, and produce clean water for non-potable reuse. Various industries would benefit from this technology, but the ultimate aim is to lower the financial and infrastructural barriers to advanced treatment and reuse for economically disadvantaged communities. By significantly reducing the energy and maintenance costs of wastewater treatment and disposal, and enabling further cost-recuperation through resource recovery, this innovation is poised to greatly enhance the viability of water reuse, ensuring that all communities have equitable access to clean water and healthy ecosystems. The core technical innovation of the proposed technology lies in its ability to selectively separate specific ions from heterogeneous waste or raw water sources; such selectivity does not exist in current water treatment practice. The technology functions through the strategic implementation of energy-efficient electrochemical processes. This approach surpasses existing treatment conventions by not only performing selective exclusion, but by simultaneously generating four distinct, highly concentrated product streams that are differentiated by ion charge and valence, as well as an additional clean water stream that emerges during product concentration. This NSF SBIR Phase I project will focus on three main tasks: optimizing technical design for maximum solute selectivity and concentration, evaluating separation performance with representative wastewaters from three key industries, and scaling up the system for future pilot testing. Experimentation will validate total concentration and dewatering capacities, but initial estimates suggest products may be concentrated up to 10x their starting values and feed volume may be reduced by up to 88%. Evaluation with different waste effluents will determine the technology’s adaptability and marketability in different contexts. The successful completion of Phase I testing will lay the foundation for further commercial development of this innovative concept. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria."