I-Corps: An Electrochemical Desalination Cell

Yale University, New Haven CT

Investigators

Abstract

This Innovation Corps project will enable focused research by the proposed team to help bring the proposed Electrochemical Desalination Cell (EDC) to the market. EDC desalinates brine waste while producing electricity, synthesizing valuable inorganic chemicals, and consuming carbon dioxide. The I-Corps PI's previous NSF awards investigate the structure property relationships of nanomaterials in energy conversion devices. The first demonstration of the EDC was complete in through previous research, and proved the thermodynamic feasibility of the device. The primary research goal for this project is to achieve power densities and desalination rates an order of magnitude higher than that obtained from the initial prototype. If successful, the proposed technology has the potential to create a sustainable business through an industrial ecological approach that combines energy generation, brine treatment and chemical synthesis into a single, integrated process.