A photodialysis device that can desalinate saline streams is described herein. The device can have a desalination rate that is significantly faster than current solar thermal desalination technology. Salt is removed from water by passing ionic current derived from sunlight through this water using dye-sensitized membranes. The device can serve as a distributed, low-cost technology that can efficiently and effectively desalinate low salinity sources of water, which is particularly useful for agriculture and drinking water applications.

A method including acidifying a solution including dissolved inorganic carbon; vacuum stripping a first amount of a carbon dioxide gas from the acidified solution; stripping a second amount of the carbon dioxide gas from the acidified solution; and collecting the first amount and the second amount of the carbon dioxide gas. A system including; a first desorption unit including a first input connected to a dissolved inorganic carbon solution source to and a second input coupled to a vacuum source; and a second desorption unit including a first input coupled to the solution output from the first desorption unit and a second input coupled to a sweep gas source.

A method of chemical extraction and power generator cooling includes receiving an aqueous solution with dissolved inorganic carbon. The method further includes extracting the dissolved inorganic carbon from the aqueous solution and collecting the dissolved inorganic carbon. The aqueous solution is then acidified and supplied to the power generator to cool the power generator.

A method of making building materials from an aqueous solution includes receiving the aqueous solution with dissolved ions and increasing a pH of the aqueous solution so the dissolved ions precipitate from the aqueous solution as salt. The method also includes collecting the salt precipitated from the aqueous solution and forming the building materials from the salt.

Provided are a system and a method of treating wastewater. The system includes a wastewater chamber, positive and negative electrode chambers, acid and basic solution chambers and a buffer chamber. The wastewater chamber receives wastewater containing a first ion. The positive and the negative electrode chambers are respectively on opposite sides of the wastewater chamber. The acid chamber is between the wastewater chamber and the positive electrode chamber. The basic chamber is between the wastewater chamber and the negative electrode chamber. The buffer chamber is between one of the acid and the basic chambers and the wastewater chamber, and receives the buffer solution containing the first ion. The interfaces between the wastewater chamber and the buffer chamber and between the one of the acid and the basic chambers and the buffer chamber are ion exchange membranes having the same electrical properties.

A method of increasing operational efficiency of a power plant includes determining an average rate of accumulation of scale-forming compounds in a cooling water source, directing water from the cooling water source having a first concentration of scale forming compounds through a treatment system to produce a treated water having a lower concentration of scale-forming components than the first concentration by operating the treatment system with operating parameters selected such that a rate of removal of the scale-forming components from the water in the treatment system is greater than the average rate of accumulation of the scale-forming components, directing the treated water back into the cooling water source, and circulating water including the treated water from the cooling water source through a cooling system of the power plant.

A system for treatment of a brine feed, the system including a hybrid reactor, the reactor having a plurality of forward osmosis membranes configured to permit the passage of a draw solution solute through the middle of the membrane to draw water across the membrane wall from the brine feed so as to generate diluted solute, and a plurality of membrane electrode assemblies configured to separate ions of the salt in the brine feed to concentrate the salt ions, each membrane electrode assembly having an anion exchange membrane and a cation exchange membrane; whereby each membrane electrode assembly houses a plurality of forward osmosis membranes therewithin.

Wastewater containing scale components, organic substances, inorganic ions, and the like, such as human effluent, generated in a closed system space, such as a nuclear shelter, a hazardous shelter, a space station or a moon-Mars mission manned spacecraft, or a lunar base is efficiently treated by a simple structural apparatus, so that water is recovered. After a hardness component is removed from water to be treated, such as human effluent, by a softening device, and heat exchange is performed between softening treated water and electrolysis treated water by a heat exchanger, by a high-temperature and high-pressure electrolysis device, organic substances, urea, ammonia, and the like are removed by electrolysis performed under high-temperature and high-pressure conditions. After the electrolysis treated water is processed by a deaeration treatment using a deaeration membrane device, a desalting treatment is performed by acid/alkali manufacturing electrodialysis devices and provided in series at two stages.

A membrane having permselectivity for perchlorate ion is prepared using certain types of quaternary ammonium salts contained in a polymeric matrix material, which may be plasticized. Such membranes are useful in electrodialysis processes, whereby perchlorate-contaminated aqueous compositions are purified.

A dryer system includes an electrodialytic regenerator that comprises a first channel that dilutes a first stream of liquid desiccant and a second channel that concentrates a second stream of the liquid desiccant. An air-liquid interface is in fluid communication with the second stream of the liquid desiccant and an input air stream and exposes the second stream of the liquid desiccant to the input air stream. The absorption of the water from the input air stream creates a dehumidified air stream. The system includes a heat transfer element in thermal communication with the air-liquid interface. The heat transfer element carries latent heat generated from the absorption of the water from the input air stream. The system includes a drying chamber coupled to receive the dehumidified air stream and the heat.