A Hybrid Electrodialysis/Electrolysis Unit for Combined Nitrate Removal and Conversion from Agricultural Wastewater

Nitrate is currently the most prevalent groundwater pollutant in Northern America primarily fromagricultural activities and changing nitrogen input to the land surface. In the US over 7 millionAmericans drink water from community water systems (CWS) that contain nitrate (NO ) at3 concentrations exceeding the maximum contaminant level (MCL). The go-to technologies fornitrate treatment from CWSs produce highly concentrated nitrate brine residuals and are limitedby expensive brine disposal and management options. Further there exists more than 35 millionacres of sub-surface drained land in the US but no technology that removes nitrate fromagricultural drainage has established a significant market share. Based on the scale of nitratecontamination in community water systems and the growing need to reduce the nitrogen load fromtile-drainage the total addressable market for removal of nitrate has substantial potential. Onecomponent of our target market alone—the Point-of-Use Water Treatment Systems Market—isestimated to be worth $32.7 billion by 2023. Project Objectives: The main technical objective isto demonstrate/validate a highly efficient denitrification unit to treat agricultural return flow at acost lower than for incumbent technologies. In Phase I the team developed materials and systemswith superior nitrate removal and conversion efficiencies (>80%) when compared to Ion Exchange(IX) Reverse Osmosis (RO) and bioreactors. In Phase II downselected Phase I materials andsystems will undergo extensive optimization testing and operation in lab-scale and industrial- scale prototypes to reach nitrate removal efficiencies exceeding 95% and stability exceeding 1000hours in accelerated testing conditions. To reach these objectives the team will synthesize novelcatalysts with tunable physical and chemical composition will develop novel spectroscopictechniques to investigate their corrosion mechanisms test them in reactors for lab scale andindustrial scale use and perform a full-fledged technoeconomic analysis to identify pathways forcommercialization.Anticipated Results and Potential Commercial ApplicationsAt the completion of Phase II development Pani Clean Inc will have constructed a smallengineering-scale nitrate treatment unit with nitrate conversion efficiencies exceeding 95%freshwater recovery percentages exceeding 95% no brine disposal issues and a cost of less than$1.20 per 1000 gallons of treated water. This is a four- to five-fold decrease compared toincumbent technologies. The 1706 community water systems (CWS) experiencing recentregulatory violations of nitrate levels primarily from agricultural practices represent theimmediate addressable market. The near-term applications will be to treat nitrates at the edge-of- field environments and as Point-of-use (POU) nitrate treatment systems for individual residenceswith nitrate-contaminated private wells.