1. Capacitive Deionization (CDI) for Desalination of Brackish Water
IC-IMPACTS 2016 Summer Institute
Talk to you about desalination
Water shortages are happening in many parts of the world, and even more places are under water stress. One solution that has been proposed is desalination – turning salt water into usable water.
An emerging technology – capacitive deionization abbreviated CDI
Mike Chung, Adrian Serrano Mora, Macarena Cataldo Hernandez
David Wilkinson, Madjid Mohseni
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
The University of British Columbia

2. Desalination of Brackish Water
Fresh Water
Brackish Water
Salt Water
< 500 ppm TDS
500 – 30,000 ppm TDS
30,000 – 50,000 ppm TDS
Thermal Distillation
Expensive, energy-intensive, and
generates lots of waste concentrate!
Fresh water and salt water – brackish water
Traditional use high temperature and pressure, and have low separation efficiency
GEC Co. Ltd. Pure Water Products. (n.d.).
Pentair. Membrane technology for facilitating reverse osmosis. (n.d.).

3. How does CDI work? Charge + + + + + + + + + + - + + - - - + - + + - + - + + - - -
Porous electrodes with pores and high surface area + - + + -

4. How does CDI work? Discharge + + + + + + + + + - - - - - - - + + - + - - - - - - - - + + -
Separate purified water stream and concentrated water stream + - + + + + + +

5. Developing a working CDI unit
Developing a high-performance and cost-effective electrode
Developing a working CDI unit
We are at beginnings of the project, so no characterization or data yet
Nanotechnology plays a role – improve electrode surface area, pore and conductivity properties ?

6. Impacts
One of the highlights of IC-IMPACTS is ability to establish collaborations and partnerships
-> 2 project members, 2 PIs from UBC and a PI from Eureka Forbes
-> Can pool together knowledge, skills, and other resources to tackle common problems between Canada and India

7. Thank You!