Periodic Reporting for period 1 - REDEBA (Revamping the Desalination Battery)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2020-01-15 do 2022-01-14
Better managing energy and water resources together with the development of water treatment technologies with low environmental impact and energy consumption has become more essential than ever due to water-energy nexus and growing environmental issues. Some of the EU goal targets for 2030 include the equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water, to improve the water re-use and to increase the supply of fresh-water or to improve the water quality, among other key aspects. More particularly, considering the Agenda 2030 – Goal 6: Clean water and sanitation, “Water scarcity affects more than 40 percent of people, an alarming figure that is projected to rise as temperatures do”, there is a strong necessity of a secure and sustainable water supply, which requires the development of alternative desalination and water treatment technologies. In this context, REDEBA project aimed to revamp the Desalination Battery as a versatile technology for desalination and water treatment and thus, to face challenges associated to water scarcity. Accordingly, the work performed during REDEBA project addressed issues directly related to climate change and the environment and dealt with an issue of great relevance for the society and for the scientific community. The original and innovative aspects of this project lied in taking up the challenge to shift the knowledge frontier and develop a Cl- capturing electrode. Thus, the aim of this project was to develop a full concept for the next generation of Desalination Batteries, addressing the issue of new materials for anion capturing and cell design, which gives lower energy losses and more flexible operation. In order to do so, the development of flexible and anionic electrode materials was investigated, as well as the impact of operation variables on the desalination degree and on the energy consumption in dependence of the cell design.
The multidisciplinary nature of REDEBA project covered electrode materials development, electrochemistry and engineering (scaling-up, cell design). Starting with the selection and synthesis of active materials for the positive and negative electrode, different types of flexible electrodes were fabricated, with special focused on the Cl- capturing electrode. The electrochemical performance of these electrodes was studied and eventually, different Desalination Battery cells were assembled and their desalination performance was evaluated by studying different operational modes reaching in seawater concentration: desalination capacities >70 mgNaCl gT-1) at a high efficiency (>80%) and low net energy consumptions (<1 Wh gNaCl-1).
New flexible electrodes for anion capturing were developed being the main scientific contribution to the state-of-the-art. Furthermore, the Desalination Battery prototypes assembled and studied could set the basis to further future upscaling of the technology to go beyond TRL3 . This could lead to the industrial development of stand-alone devices for the desalination of seawater, or the use of the Desalination Battery devices as a water pre-treatment technology. Accordingly, prototypes developed in REDEBA could improve the well-being and health of citizens and future generations by providing clean water. Overall, REDEBA project contributed to the development of a sustainable desalination and water remediation technology for water to cope with the need of a better management of water resources bringing important benefits for the society.