Simultaneous Generation of Clean Water and Electricity Via Desalination Fuel Cells

Abstract

We will present a nascent technology which desalinates water and produces net electricity simultaneously from a single electrochemical cell, driven by the hydrogen/oxygen redox couple [1]. The cell combines hardware of PEM fuel cells, alkaline fuel cells and electrodialysis cells, and thus we term this device a "desalination fuel cell" [2]. We will describe both the operating principle and lab-scale cell results, as well as our development of the fundamental thermodynamics to predict the maximum available electricity production from our cell during its combined chemical reaction-separation process [2]. Our recent advances will be described, including the development of chloride-tolerant non-platinum group metal ORR catalysts [3], achievement of >95% thermodynamic energy efficiency [4], and establishment of system scaling rules. This technology promises to extend the concept of the hydrogen economy to water purification, and we will discuss the outlook on this technology and potential application areas.