Technoeconomic Analysis of Brackish Water Capacitive Deionization: Navigating Tradeoffs between Performance, Lifetime, and Material Costs

The potential of electrodialysis as a cost-effective alternative to reverse osmosis for brackish water desalination

While electrodialysis (ED) demonstrates lower energy consumption than reverse osmosis (RO) in the desalination of low salinity waters, RO continues to be the predominant technology for brackish water desalination. In this study, we probe this skewed market share and project the potential for future disruption by ED through systematic assessment of the levelized cost of water (LCOW). Using rigorous process- and economic-models, we minimize the LCOW of RO and ED systems, highlighting important tradeoffs between capital and operating expenditure for each technology. With optimized current state-of-the-art systems, we find that ED is more economical than RO for feed salinities ≤ 3 g L-1, albeit to a minor extent. Considering that RO is a highly mature technology, we focus on predicting the future potential of ED by evaluating plausible avenues for capital and operating cost reduction. Specifically, we find that reduction in the price of ion-exchange membranes (i.e., < 60 USD m-2) can ensure competitiveness with RO for feed salinities up to 5 g L-1. For higher feed salinities (≥ 5 g L-1) we reveal that the LCOW of ED may effectively be reduced by decreasing ion-exchange membrane resistance, while preserving high current efficiency. Through extensive assessment of structure-property-performance relationships, we precisely identify target membrane charge densities and diffusion coefficients which optimize the LCOW of ED, thus providing novel guidance for future membrane material development. Overall, we emphasize that with a unified approach - whereby ion-exchange membrane price is reduced and performance is enhanced - ED can become the economically preferable technology compared to RO across the entire brackish water salinity range.

Preparation of heterogeneous cation exchange membrane and its contributions in enhancing the removal of Ni2+ by capacitive deionization system

Capacitive deionization (CDI), an emerging method to eliminate ions from water at a low cost, has garnered significant interest in recent years. This study evaluates the implication of cation exchange resin loading on the membrane via the nonsolvent-induced phase inversion method. After determining the quantity of resins efficiently loaded on the membrane, it was subsequently utilized as a cation exchange membrane in the membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI) unit to examine the performance removal of Ni2+. The results show that the amount of resins influenced the membrane structure and significantly improved the efficiency of Ni2+ removal. The sulfonic acid group show a strong intensity directly proportional to the quantity of resins based on the FTIR measurement. In conjunction with the enhanced resin amount, ion exchange capacity and water content were increased. Simultaneously, there was an observed elevation in the water contact angle and the roughness of the membrane surface with increased resin amount. In the MCDI unit, membrane M20 (20% by weight resin) was employed to elucidate its roles in the CDI unit, encompassing an examination of various concentrations and flow rates, with Ni2+ utilized as a test contaminant. The results demonstrated that using membrane M20 in the MCDI (MCDI-M20) unit consistently exhibited higher adsorption levels than the CDI unit, reaching 19.80 mg g-1 ACC in the MCDI-M20 unit, while CDI unit achieved 10.27 mg g-1 ACC at 200 mg L-1 Ni2+ concentration and a flow rate of 10 mL min-1 at 1.2 V. Additionally, Ni2+ concentrations and flow rates in CDI system had an evident impact on the duration of adsorption due to the mechanisms of ions transport on the membrane. This study suggests that employing the prepared membrane in the MCDI unit enhanced the removal of Ni2+ from the solution, contributing to sustainable development goals.

Capacitive deionization system with ultra-high salt adsorption performance: from lab design to agricultural applications

Capacitive deionization is an emerging water desalination technology for industrial applications. Recent advancements in electrode design and system development have led to the reporting of ultra-high salt adsorption performance, benefiting its potential application in agricultural water treatment at a potentially low cost. In this study, we provide a comprehensive summary of the porous electrode design strategy to achieve ultra-high ion adsorption performance, considering factors such as experimental parameters, chemically tuned material properties, redox chemistry and smart nanoarchitecture for future electrode design. Furthermore, we endeavor to establish a correlation between capacitive deionization (CDI) technology and its applicability in the agricultural sector, specifically concentrating on water treatment with an emphasis on undesirable ions associated with salinity, hardness, and heavy metals, to achieve harmless irrigation. Additionally, to ensure the efficient and cost-effective application of CDI systems in agriculture, a thorough overview of the literature on CDI cost analysis is presented. By addressing these aspects, we anticipate that ultra-high salt adsorption CDI systems hold great promise in future agricultural applications.

Machine learning modelling of a membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI) system for prediction of long-term system performance and optimization of process control parameters in remote brackish water desalination

Membrane Capacitive Deionization (MCDI) is a promising electrochemical technique for water desalination. Previous studies have confirrmed the effectiveness of MCDI in removing contaminants from brackish groundwaters, especially in remote areas where electricity is scarce. However, as with other water treatment technologies, performance deterioration of the MCDI system still occurs, hindering the stability of long-term operation. Herein, a machine learning (ML) modelling framework and various ML models were developed to (i) investigate the performance deterioration due particularly to insufficient charging/discharging of the electrode caused by accumulation of ions and electrode scaling and (ii) optimise MCDI operating parameters such that the impacts of these deleterious effects on unit performance were minimized. The ML models developed in this work exhibited a prediction accuracy of cycle time with average mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) values of 16.82% and 16.09% after 30-fold cross validation for Random Forest (RF) and Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) models respectively. The pre-trained ML model predicted different declining trends of water production for two different operating conditions and provided corresponding recommendations on frequencies of chemical cleaning. A case study on the adjustment of operating parameters using the results suggested by the optimization ML model was conducted. The model validation results showed that the overall water production and water recovery of the system using the cycle-based optimized process control parameters (SCN 1) exceeds the MCDI system performance under three fixed parameter settings that were used at each stage of SCN 1 by 1.78% to 4.48% and 2.95% to 9.46%, respectively. Permutation-based and Shapley additive explanation (SHAP) coefficients were also employed for variable importance (VIMP) analysis to uncover the "black-box" nature of the ML models and to better understand the various features' contributions to overall MCDI system performance.

Electrochemical Methods for Water Purification, Ion Separations, and Energy Conversion

Agricultural development, extensive industrialization, and rapid growth of the global population have inadvertently been accompanied by environmental pollution. Water pollution is exacerbated by the decreasing ability of traditional treatment methods to comply with tightening environmental standards. This review provides a comprehensive description of the principles and applications of electrochemical methods for water purification, ion separations, and energy conversion. Electrochemical methods have attractive features such as compact size, chemical selectivity, broad applicability, and reduced generation of secondary waste. Perhaps the greatest advantage of electrochemical methods, however, is that they remove contaminants directly from the water, while other technologies extract the water from the contaminants, which enables efficient removal of trace pollutants. The review begins with an overview of conventional electrochemical methods, which drive chemical or physical transformations via Faradaic reactions at electrodes, and proceeds to a detailed examination of the two primary mechanisms by which contaminants are separated in nondestructive electrochemical processes, namely electrokinetics and electrosorption. In these sections, special attention is given to emerging methods, such as shock electrodialysis and Faradaic electrosorption. Given the importance of generating clean, renewable energy, which may sometimes be combined with water purification, the review also discusses inverse methods of electrochemical energy conversion based on reverse electrosorption, electrowetting, and electrokinetic phenomena. The review concludes with a discussion of technology comparisons, remaining challenges, and potential innovations for the field such as process intensification and technoeconomic optimization.

Simultaneous Energy Storage and Seawater Desalination using Rechargeable Seawater Battery: Feasibility and Future Directions

Rechargeable seawater battery (SWB) is a unique energy storage system that can directly transform seawater into renewable energy. Placing a desalination compartment between SWB anode and cathode (denoted as seawater battery desalination; SWB-D) enables seawater desalination while charging SWB. Since seawater desalination is a mature technology, primarily occupied by membrane-based processes such as reverse osmosis (RO), the energy cost has to be considered for alternative desalination technologies. So far, the feasibility of the SWB-D system based on the unit cost per desalinated water ($ m-3 ) has been insufficiently discussed. Therefore, this perspective aims to provide this information and offer future research directions based on the detailed cost analysis. Based on the calculations, the current SWB-D system is expected to have an equipment cost of ≈1.02 $ m-3 (lower than 0.60-1.20 $ m-3 of RO), when 96% of the energy is recovered and stable performance for 1000 cycles is achieved. The anion exchange membrane (AEM) and separator contributes greatly to the material cost occupying 50% and 41% of the total cost, respectively. Therefore, future studies focusing on creating low cost AEMs and separators will pave the way for the large-scale application of SWB-D.

Pharmaceutical removal at low energy consumption using membrane capacitive deionization

The performance of the membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI) system was evaluated during the removal of three selected pharmaceuticals, neutral acetaminophen (APAP), cationic atenolol (ATN), and anionic sulfamethoxazole (SMX), in batch experiments (feed solution: 2 mM NaCl and 0.01 mM of each pharmaceutical). Upon charging, the cationic ATN showed the highest removal rate of 97.65 ± 1.71%, followed by anionic SMX (93.22 ± 1.66%) and neutral APAP (68.08 ± 5.24%) due to the difference in electrostatic charge and hydrophobicity. The performance parameters (salt adsorption capacity, specific capacity, and cycling efficiency) and energy factors (specific energy consumption and recoverable energy) were further evaluated over ten consecutive cycles depending on the pharmaceutical addition. A significant decrease in the specific adsorption capacity (from 24.6 to ∼3 mg-NaCl g^-1) and specific capacity (from 17.6 to ∼2.5 mAh g^-1) were observed mainly due to the shortened charging and discharging time by pharmaceutical adsorption onto the electrode. This shortened charging time also led to an immediate drop in specific energy consumption from 0.41 to 0.04 Wh L^-1. Collectively, these findings suggest that MCDI can efficiently remove pharmaceuticals at a low energy demand; however, its performance changes dramatically as the pharmaceuticals are present in the target water.

Flow Electrode Capacitive Deionization (FCDI): Recent Developments, Environmental Applications, and Future Perspectives

With the increasing severity of global water scarcity, a myriad of scientific activities is directed toward advancing brackish water desalination and wastewater remediation technologies. Flow-electrode capacitive deionization (FCDI), a newly developed electrochemically driven ion removal approach combining ion-exchange membranes and flowable particle electrodes, has been actively explored over the past seven years, driven by the possibility of energy-efficient, sustainable, and fully continuous production of high-quality fresh water, as well as flexible management of the particle electrodes and concentrate stream. Here, we provide a comprehensive overview of current advances of this interesting technology with particular attention given to FCDI principles, designs (including cell architecture and electrode and separator options), operational modes (including approaches to management of the flowable electrodes), characterizations and modeling, and environmental applications (including water desalination, resource recovery, and contaminant abatement). Furthermore, we introduce the definitions and performance metrics that should be used so that fair assessments and comparisons can be made between different systems and separation conditions. We then highlight the most pressing challenges (i.e., operation and capital cost, scale-up, and commercialization) in the full-scale application of this technology. We conclude this state-of-the-art review by considering the overall outlook of the technology and discussing areas requiring particular attention in the future.

Toward sustainable desalination using food waste: capacitive desalination with bread-derived electrodes

Each year approximately 1.3 billion tons of food is either wasted or lost. One of the most wasted foods in the world is bread. The ability to reuse wasted food in another area of need, such as water scarcity, would provide a tremendous sustainable outcome. To address water scarcity, many areas of the world are now implementing desalination. One desalination technology that could benefit from food waste reuse is capacitive deionization (CDI). CDI has emerged as a powerful desalination technology that essentially only requires a pair of electrodes and a low-voltage power supply. Developing freestanding carbon electrodes from food waste could lower the overall cost of CDI systems and the environmental and economic impact from food waste. We created freestanding CDI electrodes from bread. The electrodes possessed a hierarchical pore structure that enabled both high salt adsorption capacity and one of the highest reported values for hydraulic permeability to date in a flow-through CDI system. We also developed a sustainable technique for electrode fabrication that does not require the use of common laboratory equipment and could be deployed in decentralized locations and developing countries with low-financial resources.

Performance Loss of Activated Carbon Electrodes in Capacitive Deionization: Mechanisms and Material Property Predictors

Understanding the material property origins of performance decay in carbon electrodes is critical to maximizing the longevity of capacitive deionization (CDI) systems. This study investigates the cycling stability of electrodes fabricated from six commercial and two post-processed activated carbons. We find that the capacity decay rate of electrodes in half cells is positively correlated with the specific surface area and total surface acidity of the activated carbons. We also demonstrate that half-cell cycling stability is consistent with full cell desalination performance durability. Additionally, our results suggest that increase in internal resistance and physical pore blockage resulting from extensive cycling may be important mechanisms for the specific capacitance decay of activated carbon electrodes in this study. Our findings provide crucial guidelines for selecting activated carbon electrodes for stable CDI performance over long-term operation and insight into appropriate parameters for electrode performance and longevity in models assessing the techno-economic viability of CDI. Finally, our half-cell cycling protocol also offers a method for evaluating the stability of new electrode materials without preparing large, freestanding electrodes.

Brackish water desalination using reverse osmosis and capacitive deionization at the water-energy nexus

In this article, we present a critical review of the reported performance of reverse osmosis (RO) and capacitive deionization (CDI) for brackish water (salinity < 5.0 g/L) desalination from the aspects of engineering, energy, economy and environment. We first illustrate the criteria and the key performance indicators to evaluate the performance of brackish water desalination. We then systematically summarize technological information of RO and CDI, focusing on the effect of key parameters on desalination performance, as well as energy-water efficiency, economic costs and environmental impacts (including carbon footprint). We provide in-depth discussion on the interconnectivity between desalination and energy, and the trade-off between kinetics and energetics for RO and CDI as critical factors for comparison. We also critique the results of technical-economic assessment for RO and CDI plants in the context of large-scale deployment, with focus on lifetime-oriented consideration to total costs, balance between energy efficiency and clean water production, and pretreatment/post-treatment requirements. Finally, we illustrate the challenges and opportunities for future brackish water desalination, including hybridization for energy-efficient brackish water desalination, co-removal of specific components in brackish water, and sustainable brine management with innovative utilization. Our study reveals that both RO and CDI should play important roles in water reclamation and resource recovery from brackish water, especially for inland cities or rural regions.

Process design tools and techno-economic analysis for capacitive deionization

Capacitive deionization (CDI) devices use cyclical electrosorption on porous electrode surfaces to achieve water desalination. Process modeling and design of CDI systems requires accurate treatment of the coupling among input electrical forcing, input flow rates, and system responses including salt removal dynamics, water recovery, energy storage, and dissipation. Techno-economic analyses of CDI further require a method to calculate and compare between a produced commodity (e.g. desalted water) versus capital and operational costs of the system. We here demonstrate a new modeling and analysis tool for CDI developed as an installable Matlab program that allows direct numerical simulation of CDI dynamics and calculation of key performance and cost parameters. The program is provided for free and is used to run open-source Simulink models. The Simulink environment sends information to the program and allows for a drag and drop design space where users can connect CDI cells to relevant periphery blocks such as grid energy, battery, solar panel, waste disposal, and maintenance/labor cost streams. The program allows for simulation of arbitrary current forcing and arbitrary flow rate forcing of one or more CDI cells. We employ validated well-mixed reactor formulations together with a non-linear circuit model formulation that can accommodate a variety of electric double layer sub-models (e.g. for charge efficiency). The program includes a graphical user interface (GUI) to specify CDI plant parameters, specify operating conditions, run individual tests or parameter batch-mode simulations, and plot relevant results. The techno-economic models convert among dimensional streams of species (e.g. feed, desalted water, and brine), energy, and cost and enable a variety of economic estimates including levelized water costs.

Energy Efficiency of Electro-Driven Brackish Water Desalination: Electrodialysis Significantly Outperforms Membrane Capacitive Deionization

Electro-driven technologies are viewed as a potential alternative to the current state-of-the-art technology, reverse osmosis, for the desalination of brackish waters. Capacitive deionization (CDI), based on the principle of electrosorption, has been intensively researched under the premise of being energy efficient. However, electrodialysis (ED), despite being a more mature electro-driven technology, has yet to be extensively compared to CDI in terms of energetic performance. In this study, we utilize Nernst-Planck based models for continuous flow ED and constant-current membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI) to systematically evaluate the energy consumption of the two processes. By ensuring equivalently sized ED and MCDI systems-in addition to using the same feed salinity, salt removal, water recovery, and productivity across the two technologies-energy consumption is appropriately compared. We find that ED consumes less energy (has higher energy efficiency) than MCDI for all investigated conditions. Notably, our results indicate that the performance gap between ED and MCDI is substantial for typical brackish water desalination conditions (e.g., 3 g L^-1 feed salinity, 0.5 g L^-1 product water, 80% water recovery, and 15 L m^-2 h^-1 productivity), with the energy efficiency of ED often exceeding 30% and being nearly an order of magnitude greater than MCDI. We provide further insights into the inherent limitations of each technology by comparing their respective components of energy consumption, and explain why MCDI is unable to attain the performance of ED, even with ideal and optimized operation.