Portable Seawater Desalination System for Generating DrinkableWater in Remote Locations

:a portable seawater desalination system would behighly desirable to solve water challenges in rural areas and disastersituations. While many reverse osmosis-based portable desalinationsystems are already available commercially, they are not adequatefor providing reliable drinking water in remote locations due to therequirement of high-pressure pumping and repeated maintenance.We demonstrate afield-deployable desalination system withmultistage electromembrane processes, composed of two-stageion concentration polarization and one-stage electrodialysis, toconvert brackish water and seawater to drinkable water. A data-driven predictive model is used to optimize the multistageconfiguration, and the model predictions show good agreementwith the experimental results. The portable system desalinatesbrackish water and seawater (2.5-45 g/L) into drinkable water (defined by WHO guideline), with the energy consumptions of 0.4-4 (brackish water) and 15.6-26.6 W h/L (seawater), respectively. In addition, the process can also reduce suspended solids by atleast a factor of 10 from the source water, resulting in crystal clear water (<1 NTU) even from the source water with turbidity higherthan 30 NTU (i.e., cloudy seawater by the tide). We built a fully integrated prototype (controller, pumps, and battery) packaged intoa portable unit (42x33.5x19 cm3, 9.25 kg, and 0.33 L/h production rate) controlled by a smartphone, tested for battery-poweredfield operation. The demonstrated portable desalination system is unprecedented in size, efficiency, and operationalflexibility.Therefore, it could address unique water challenges in remote, resource-limited regions of the world.

Automated summary

This article introduces a portable seawater desalination system that utilizes multistage electromembrane processes to convert brackish water and seawater into drinkable water. The system is efficient and can reduce suspended solids in the source water. It addresses water challenges in remote areas.