Devices and methods for removing dissolved ions from water using composite resin electrodes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10662082-B2
Application number	US-201715843712-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 15, 2017
Priority date	Oct 3, 2014
Publication date	May 26, 2020
Grant date	May 26, 2020

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a device comprising or configured to comprise composite resin electrodes. Further provided are methods of using the device for selectively removing dissolved ions from water.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of selectively removing at least a portion of dissolved ions from water containing a first concentration of ions to be removed, the method comprising:
(a) providing a system for selectively removing at least a portion of the dissolved ions to be removed from an ion-containing water, the system comprising at least one first electrode in contact with a first plurality of selective ion exchange resin (IER) particles, at least one second electrode in contact with a second plurality of IER particles, an alternating or direct current voltage source, a chamber containing or defined by the at least one first electrode and the at least one second electrode, an inlet, and a first outlet, wherein the at least one first electrode, the at least one second electrode, and the direct (DC) or alternating (AC) current voltage source are in electrical communication with each other and the chamber is in fluid communication with the inlet and the first outlet, wherein the voltage source is configured so that the direction of a current to the at least one first electrode and the at least one second electrode can be switched; and wherein the first and second plurality of IER particles independently have selectivity for one or more ions to be removed;
(b) providing a flow of water containing the first concentration of ions, said flow moving from the inlet into the chamber and out of the first outlet, wherein, in the chamber, one or more dissolved ions to be removed associate to the first and/or second plurality of selective IER particles, wherein water containing a second concentration of one or more of said dissolved ions to be removed flows out of the chamber via the first outlet, and wherein said second concentration of ions is lower than said first concentration of ions;
(c) passing an AC or DC current through a water remaining in the chamber, such that the one or more ions associated with the first and/or second plurality of selective IER particles dissociate from said particles, thereby forming in the chamber a waste water in which a second concentration of ions of the waste water is higher than said first concentration of ions; and
(d) flowing the waste water out of the chamber.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, in step (b), passing a direct or alternating current through the water in the chamber containing the first concentration of ions to be removed via the at least one first electrode and at least one second electrode.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the current is direct current, the at least one first electrode is negatively charged, and the at least one second electrode is positively charged.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the current is an alternating current.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the absolute magnitude of applied voltage across the at least one first electrode and the at least one second electrode is from about 0 to about 5 volts.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the current across the at least one first electrode and the at least one second electrode is from about 10 μA/cm 2 to about 10 mA/cm 2 .

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising repeating steps (c) and (d) one or more times.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the device further comprises a second outlet in fluid communication with the chamber, the inlet and the first outlet.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the waste water is flowed out of the second outlet.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising reducing, increasing or stopping the flow of water of step (b) during step (c).

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ions to be selectively removed are anions and/or cations comprising one or more elements from any one or more of Periodic Table Groups 1 to 17.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein at least one of the anions or cations comprise an element of Group 1 or 2.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the cations to be selectively removed are one or more of lithium, sodium, potassium, or calcium.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein at least one of the anions or cations comprise one or more elements from any one or more of Groups 3-14.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein at least one of the anions or cations comprise one or more elements selected from the group consisting of sodium, potassium, lithium, calcium, fluorine, chlorine, bromine, antimony, arsenic, bismuth, boron, cadmium, chromium, copper, gallium germanium, gold, indium, iridium, iron, lead, manganese, mercury, nickel, nitrogen, phosphorous, platinum, radium, rhodium, ruthenium, selenium, silver, sulfur, thallium, tin, uranium, and zinc.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the anions to be selectively removed are one or more of arsenate, fluoride, bromate, chloride, chromate, cyanide, nitrate, perchlorate, phosphate, selenate, or sulfate.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first plurality of selective ion exchange resin particles and the second plurality of selective ion exchange resin particles are each independently selected from the group consisting of strongly acidic resins bearing sulfonic acid groups, strongly basic resins bearing quaternary amino groups, weakly acidic resins with carboxylic acid groups, weakly basic resins bearing primary, secondary, and/or tertiary amino groups, chelating resins bearing iminodiacetic acid groups, ion selective resins, gel-type resins and macroporous resins.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the first plurality of selective ion exchange resin particles and the second plurality of selective ion exchange resin particles are different.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one first electrode and the at least one second electrode comprise a conductive substrate.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the conductive substrate is one or more of a conductive metal, a conductive metal alloy, or a conductive polymer.

21. The method of claim 20 , wherein the conductive metal is stainless steel.

22. The method of claim 20 , wherein the conductive substrate is comprised of carbon.

23. The method of claim 20 , wherein the conductive polymer is a nylon composite plate, mesh or film.

24. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ion-containing water contains ions in an amount from about 1 ppm to about 10,000 ppm.

25. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first concentration of ions to be removed is from about 1 ppm to about 10,000 ppm.

26. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second concentration of ions of the waste water is from about 0.01 ppm to about 4,000 ppm.

27. The method of claim 1 , wherein the dissolved ions comprise at least a first species of ion and a second species of ion, and wherein selective removal of the first species of ion in the presence of the second species of ion occurs with a selectivity for the first species of ion of from about 5 to about 200 fold.

28. The method of claim 27 , wherein the first species of ion is nitrate and the second species of ion is sulfate.

29. The method of claim 1 , wherein the current across the at least one first electrode and the at least one second electrode in step (c) is applied at an absolute magnitude of voltage of from about 0.1 to about 5 volts.

30. The method of claim 1 , wherein the absolute magnitude of current across the at least one first electrode and the at least one second electrode in step (c) is from about 10 μA/cm 2 to about

Assignees

• Univ California

Inventors

• Subban Chinmayee V
• Gadgil Ashok J
• Kostecki Robert
• Chen Guoying

Classifications

• C02F2303/16

  Regeneration of sorbents, filters · CPC title

• C02F2101/103

  Arsenic compounds · CPC title

• C02F2103/08

  Seawater, e.g. for desalination · CPC title

• C02F2001/46157

  Perforated or foraminous electrodes · CPC title

• Y02W10/37

  using solar energy · CPC title