[Courtesy of the Korea Institute of Energy Research]
SEOUL -- South Korea's state-run energy research institute developed new capacitive deionization (CDI) technology using carbon nanotubes that is highly effective for the desalination of salty water such as seawater.
The Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER) said in a statement Wednesday that a flow-electrode-based CDI technology using carbon nanotubes is about four times more efficient than traditional filter-based or distillation methods.
Scientists and research institutes around the world focus on developing new desalination technologies to solve global problems caused by water shortage. There are about 17,000 desalination plants being operated in some 150 countries to produce about 75 million tons of fresh water daily.
CDI technology uses more than two electrodes, often made of carbon, dipped inside salt solutions to remove salt ions, while other desalination methods extract water. KIER researchers added a large quantity of functional carbon nanotubes into flow electrode slurry, a semiliquid mixture of fine particles, to increase conductivity.
Carbon nanotubes worked as a bridge between other particles including active carbon particles in the slurry, and the performance of deionization was about four times better than previous desalination methods. The research paper was published in Water Research, an international science journal.
South Korea has long developed desalination technologies to provide fresh water to islands located along the south coast. Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction, a key contractor in South Korea's energy industry, leads the global desalination industry. Posco E&C converts about 30,000 tons of hot wastewater created by its seaside steel mill into fresh industrial water.
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