Simultaneous Energy Storage and Seawater Desalination using Rechargeable Seawater Battery: Feasibility and Future Directions

Rechargeable seawater battery (SWB) is a unique energy storage system that can directly transform seawater into renewable energy. Placing a desalination compartment between SWB anode and cathode (denoted as seawater battery desalination; SWB-D) enables seawater desalination while charging SWB. Since seawater desalination is a mature technology, primarily occupied by membrane-based processes such as reverse osmosis (RO), the energy cost has to be considered for alternative desalination technologies. So far, the feasibility of the SWB-D system based on the unit cost per desalinated water ($m(-3)) has been insufficiently discussed. Therefore, this perspective aims to provide this information and offer future research directions based on the detailed cost analysis. Based on the calculations, the current SWB-D system is expected to have an equipment cost of approximate to 1.02$ m(-3) (lower than 0.60-1.20 $ m(-3) of RO), when 96% of the energy is recovered and stable performance for 1000 cycles is achieved. The anion exchange membrane (AEM) and separator contributes greatly to the material cost occupying 50% and 41% of the total cost, respectively. Therefore, future studies focusing on creating low cost AEMs and separators will pave the way for the large-scale application of SWB-D

Cross-species reactivity of antibodies against Plasmodium vivax blood-stage antigens to Plasmodium knowlesi

Funding: FM would like to thank Indonesia Government Fund for Education for the financial support of his scholarship. This study was supported by Indonesia Government Fund for Education (LPDP/20140812021475) (FM), by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIP) (NRF-2017R1A2A2A05069562) (ETH), by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (2015R1A4A1038666) (ETH). RM is supported by a UK Medical Research Council Career Development Award Fellowship (MR/M021157/1).Malaria is caused by multiple different species of protozoan parasites, and interventions in the pre-elimination phase can lead to drastic changes in the proportion of each species causing malaria. In endemic areas, cross-reactivity may play an important role in the protection and blocking transmission. Thus, successful control of one species could lead to an increase in other parasite species. A few studies have reported cross-reactivity producing cross-immunity, but the extent of cross-reactive, particularly between closely related species, is poorly understood. P. vivax and P. knowlesi are particularly closely related species causing malaria infections in SE Asia, and whilst P. vivax cases are in decline, zoonotic P. knowlesi infections are rising in some areas. In this study, the cross-species reactivity and growth inhibition activity of P. vivax blood-stage antigen-specific antibodies against P. knowlesi parasites were investigated. Bioinformatics analysis, immunofluorescence assay, western blotting, protein microarray, and growth inhibition assay were performed to investigate the cross-reactivity. P. vivax blood-stage antigen-specific antibodies recognized the molecules located on the surface or released from apical organelles of P. knowlesi merozoites. Recombinant P. vivax and P. knowlesi proteins were also recognized by P. knowlesi- and P. vivax-infected patient antibodies, respectively. Immunoglobulin G against P. vivax antigens from both immune animals and human malaria patients inhibited the erythrocyte invasion by P. knowlesi. This study demonstrates that there is extensive cross-reactivity between antibodies against P. vivax to P. knowlesi in the blood stage, and these antibodies can potently inhibit in vitro invasion, highlighting the potential cross-protective immunity in endemic areas.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

The Development of Na Metal Electrode-based Desalination Batteries

School of Energy and Chemical Engineering (Energy Engineering (Battery Science and Technology))clos

A Na+ ion-selective desalination system utilizing a NASICON ceramic membrane

Seawater is a virtually unlimited source of minerals and water. Hence, electrodialysis (ED) is an attractive route for selective seawater desalination due to the selectivity of its ion exchange membrane (IEM) toward the target ion. However, a solution-like IEM, which is permeable to water and ions other than the target ion, results in the leakage of water as well as extraction of unwanted ions. This degrades the productivity and purity of the system. In this study, A novel desalination system was developed by replacing the cation exchange membrane (CEM) with a Na super ionic conductor (NASICON) in ED. NASICON exceptionally permits Na+ ion migration, and this enhanced the productivity of desalted water by removing 98% of Na+ while retaining water and other cationic minerals. Therefore, the final volume of desalted water in N-ED was 1.36 times larger compared to that of ED. In addition, the specific energy consumption for salt (NaCl) extraction was reduced by -13%. Furthermore, the NASICON in N-ED was replaced into a two-sided NASICON-structured rechargeable seawater battery, thereby further conserving -20% energy by simultaneously coupling selective desalination with energy storage. Our findings have positive implications and further optimizations of the NASICON will enable practical and energy-effective applications for seawater utilization

Seawater battery desalination with a reverse osmosis membrane for simultaneous brine treatment and energy storage

As it is typically disposed of to the ocean, naturally produced brine water has been an avoidable issue in seawater desalination technology, particularly in the reverse osmosis (RO) process. To address this issue, a seawater battery-desalination (SWB-D) system was used to reduce the concentration of RO brine while also storing electrical energy by harvesting sodium ions from the brine. The SWB equipped with an anion exchange membrane (AEM) can lower the RO brine concentration to seawater levels, but the use of AEM for brine treatment is costly and the slow kinetics of salt transport require long operation times. In this study, we present a proof of concept for using RO membrane as an alternative to AEM in the SWB desalination system. Owing to its low cost and unexpected support for salt removal via diffusion across the RO membrane, using RO membrane is a viable application. The effect of diffusion enables SWB-D with RO membrane to reduce the charging time by 36.8% (up to-40.5% salt removal) compared with SWB-D with AEM. In addition,-52.5 kWh m(-3) of energy (assuming 80% energy recovery) was saved while lowering the concentration of brine to seawater levels (from 1.2 to-0.6 M)

Energy projection of the seawater battery desalination system using the reverse osmosis system analysis model

Water-stressed countries have been shifting their sources of clean water from inland freshwater to seawater. This led to a comprehensive exploration of seawater desalination processes to address water scarcity; however, membrane processes have expensive operational costs and high energy consumption. In this regard, this study presented a novel energy self-sufficient desalination system design that incorporates rechargeable seawater batteries as an additional energy storage system. Experimental data were projected using the reverse osmosis system analysis model to determine the configuration that achieved the lowest energy consumption and highest charging rate. The results show that the seawater battery achieved a satisfactory desalination performance with>90% and 74%-82% removal of sodium and chloride ions from actual water samples, respectively. Among the configurations, using ultrafiltration as pretreatment and applying 1.8 mA as initial current yielded the lowest energy consumption (1.35 kWh/m(3)) and the highest energy charging rate (1.01). Compared to the conventional reverse osmosis desalination plants (2.83 kWh/m(3)), the seawater battery-desalination system has a huge potential in addressing the major disadvantages of current desalination technologies

Meta-Analysis of Survival Effects of Receptor Tyrosine Kinase-like Orphan Receptor 1 (ROR1)

Background and Objectives: Identification and targeting of membrane proteins in tumor cells is one of the key steps in the development of cancer drugs. The receptor tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor (ROR) type 1 is a type-I transmembrane protein expressed in various cancer tissues, which is in contrast to its limited expression in normal tissues. These characteristics make ROR1 a candidate target for cancer treatment. This study aimed to identify the prognostic value of ROR1 expression in cancers. Materials and Methods: We conducted a comprehensive systematic search of electronic databases (PubMed) from their inception to September 2021. The included studies assessed the effect of ROR1 on overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). Hazard ratios (HR) from collected data were pooled in a meta-analysis using Revman version 5.4 with generic inverse-variance and random effects modeling. Results: A total of fourteen studies were included in the final analysis. ROR1 was associated with worse OS (HR 1.95, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.50–2.54; p p Conclusions: This meta-analysis provides evidence that ROR1 expression is associated with adverse outcome in cancer survival. This result highlights ROR1 as a target for developmental therapeutics in cancers

Compartmentalized desalination and salination by high energy density desalination seawater battery

A novel desalination seawater battery (DSWB) has been developed by adapting the design of a rechargeable seawater battery, which operates for both seawater desalination and energy storage. The DSWB system has a unique architecture composed of two subsystems used for desalination and salination during charging and discharging, respectively. A higher energy density (4010 Wh/kg) can be achieved at high nominal cell potential (E-o = 3.46 V, pH 8.4) in the DSWB system throughout the charging (desalination) process which is much larger than those of any reported desalination battery system (< 78 Wh/kg and < 1.25 V). In addition, the system provides a compartment for desalination, which is independent from the salination (discharging) process, enabling the salination process to be carried out without renewing the seawater for every step, which enables the proposed system to achieve high levels of seawater desalination (up to 84%). The results affirm that further optimization of the cell system will facilitate economical and practical desalination battery applications with high energy density