Freezing-based desalination: A molecular approach to understanding and optimisation.

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26820059
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Thermal engineering
• Research Institution: Kyushu University (2015-2016); The University of Tokyo (2014)
• Principal Investigator: Cannon James 九州大学, 工学研究院, 准教授 (80648866)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: Desalination / Nano-scale / Simulation / Freezing

Outline of Final Research Achievements

With a changing climate and increasing world population, the pressure on water supplies around the world is increasing. The problem is not that there is insufficient water in the world, but rather that most of it is mixed with impurities. Extracting pure-water from the sea (“desalination”) has therefore been of long interest to society, and the amount of the world’s water supply obtained through desalination is increasing. One difficulty however is that this requires a large amount of energy.
This research considers freezing-based desalination, using the fact that freezing water takes relatively little energy, and that ice tends to reject impurities as it freezes. To do this, understanding the thermo-physical properties of water-impurity mixtures is crucial. These properties originate on the nano-scale, and a novel result of this work is the ability to predict such properties based only on knowledge of the molecular structure of the impurity.

Free Research Field

機械工学