ORNL and UT researchers invent new energy-efficient desalination technology

Researchers from US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the University of Tennessee (UT) have developed an energy efficient desalination technology.

The technology involves the use of a porous membrane which is made of strong, slim graphene – a carbon honeycomb one atom thick.

ORNL’s Chemical Sciences Division researcher Shannon Mark Mahurin said: "Our work is a proof of principle that demonstrates how you can desalinate saltwater using free-standing, porous grapheme."

Other experimentalists involved in the project were ORNL Energy and Transportation Science Division’ s Ivan Vlassiouk and UT Department of Chemistry’s Sheng Dai.

The innovation has been developed through a study titled ‘Water Desalination Using Nanoporous Single-Layer Graphene’.

Results from the ORNL-led study have been published in the March 23 advance online version of the journal ‘Nature Nanotechnology’.

The process is based on reverse osmosis technology, which uses less amount of energy as compared to other conventional methods involving distillation or heating.

ORNL’s Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program had offered the funds for the water technology research.

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Image: ORNL and UT researchers innovate energy-efficient desalination technology using grapheme membrane. Photo: Courtesy of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, US Dept. of Energy