J. Mahadevan, V. Contini, E. Truong, J. Brune
Battelle Memorial Institute, Ohio, United States
Keywords: fuel cell, power, mobile power, portable power, potable water, power, reduced signature power sources, power from sea water, power for EABO, power for expeditionary operations
The novel approach proposed herein is the Direct Hydrogen Desalination technology. Consuming hydrogen to desalinate brine, sea water or brackish water it produces potable water. The desalination works on the principle of a redox reaction, that produces protons and hydroxyl ions that in turn drive an ion exchange process through selectively permeable membranes. The cell also produces electric power at sufficient efficiencies of energy conversion. A desalination cell was designed by fabricating certain components of the cell at the lab scale. The lab scale single cell system was tested and validated against a mathematical model. The single cell laboratory scale testing was conducted at 0.5 cc/min of desalination. Initial test results show that the brine can be desalinated by about 13% while producing power at an extent between 1.5 to 4.5 mW. These performance parameters show that desalination and power production can proceed simultaneously. Further tests are planned to demonstrate 100% desalination and improved power generation. Based on the lab scale cell performance, and the theoretical limits predicted by the model, a scaled-up system is being considered. Our goal is to develop a pilot scale system to generate 5 kW power and 14000 liters/Day water production rate.