Capacitive deionization (CDI) is a promising water desalination technology. Advancing this technology and facilitating its commercialization have intrigued me for years.

The bench-scale CDI systems assembled in my lab use commercially available activated carbon cloth as electrodes. We explore CDI operations from different engineering perspectives, including evaluating the effectiveness of the use of Ion exchange membranes plated on the electrodes, developing strategies of fouling and scaling reductions, optimizing process-driven procedures such as electrode regeneration, deepening the understanding of factors that may influence CDI operation in different kinds of water, and developing models that aid in practical engineering design.

Representative CDI publications in my group are as follows: (# denotes my student author)

Huang, K.Z. #, Tang, H.L.* Temperature and desorption mode matter in capacitive deionization process for water desalination. Environmental Technology, 2019. DOI: 10.1080/09593330.2019.1611941

Li, Y.#; Stewart, T.C.#; Tang, H.L.* A comparative study on electrosorptive rates of metal ions in capacitive deionization. Journal of Water Process Engineering, 2018, 26, 257-263. DOI: 10.1016/j.jwpe.2018.10.021

Yao, Q.#; Tang, H.L.* Effect of desorption methods on electrode regeneration performance of capacitive deionization. Journal of Environmental Engineering, 2017, 143, 0417047. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)EE.1943-7870.0001245

Liu, D.#; Wang, X.; Xie, Y.F.; Tang, H.L.* Effect of capacitive deionization on disinfection by-product precursors. Science of the Total Environment, 2016, 568, 19-25. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.05.219

Yao, Q.#; Tang, H.L.* Occurrence of re-adsorption in desorption cycles of capacitive deionization. Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, 2016, 34, 180-185. DOI: 10.1016/j.jiec.2015.11.004

Liu, D.#; Huang, K.#; Xie, L.#; Tang, H.L.* Relation between operating parameters and desalination performance of capacitive deionization with activated carbon electrodes. Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology, 2015, 1, 516-522. DOI: 10.1039/C5EW00102A