Desalination and disinfection of inland brackish ground water in a capacitive deionization cell using nanoporous activated carbon cloth electrodes

By Karthik Laxman and Myo Tay Zar Myint and Mohammed Al Abri and Priyanka Sathe and Sergey Dobretsov and Joydeep Dutta
Published in Desalination NULL 2015

Abstract

Desalination of brackish water using capacitive deionization (CDI) poses unique challenges attributed to the microbial, organic and other contaminants in water. By using chemically inert and high surface area activated carbon cloth electrodes, the desalination of water from wells in Oman's Al Musanaah wilayat is demonstrated. The ion adsorption characteristics for well water are compared to that of synthetic water (sodium chloride) and their dependence on the charge, size and concentration is investigated. Disinfection properties of the \CDI\ unit were also demonstrated with a 3-fold decrease in viable bacterial cells upon desalination of well water. The power consumption for well water desalination was lower than that of synthetic water with similar salt concentrations and was calculated to be 0.78 kWh/m3. The stated desalting capabilities and small footprint make \CDI\ a viable option for remote ground water desalination.

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