Capacitive
Deionization of Water
Excerpted
from: http://gemini.tntech.edu/~mjw5030/bos2002/elec%203.pdf
Reticle carbon and
advances in capacitive deionization. Carl C. Nesbitt; Reticle
Inc., 95 Main St., Suite 10, Los Altos, CA 94022, Fax: 650-948-8850,
cnesbitt@mtu.edu.
With the recent advancements in the manufacture of activated carbon
electrode material, Reticle Inc. has developed and patented a novel
carbon electrode material that has created new opportunities in
the field of capacitive deionization (CDI). The material has combined
qualities of large surface areas (> 1500 m 2 /g) with low electrical
resistivities and can be tailored during the manufacturing process
to give a wide range of properties. This material has helped to
propel CDI technology into a more efficient and less expensive water
treatment process and has generated new process options in many
other areas. To date, desalination and deionization experiments
have been conducted which show the material's unique ability to
remove ionized species from water at a very low cost. The energy
consumption of the process has been demonstrated to be 0.36 Whr/L.
This compares favorably to the current processes of reverse osmosis
(9 Whr/L) and distillation (53 Whr/L). A broad range of novel uses
for the material have also been explored including the recovery
of metals from dilute solutions and the removal of trace elements
from waste water. These results will also be presented along with
background information on CDI and the results of desalination and
deionization experiments showing the dramatic improvement with Reticle
carbon are part of the presentation and discussion.
There
has been many problems with the original carbon aerogel when used
in a real life scenario. However, the concept is considered to be
viable and should be developed further.
