Research Areas
Our mission is to conduct research that contributes to climate change adaptation by securing water and energy at a low carbon footprint
Freshwater production and resource recovery at low energy consumption
Our research includes electrochemical and membrane-based technologies that can separate clean water from seawater/wastewater and recover valuable resources (i.e., nitrogen and phosphorus). In particular, in the case of electrochemical-based technology, the use of battery electrodes that can selectively separate specific ions enabled the process to operate at low energy consumption.
Representative Publications
Son, Moon, et al. "Improving the thermodynamic energy efficiency of battery electrode deionization using flow-through electrodes." Environmental Science & Technology, 54.6 (2020): 3628-3635.
Son, Moon, et al. "Recovery of ammonium and phosphate using battery deionization in a background electrolyte." Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology, 6.6 (2020): 1688-1696.
Son, Moon, et al. "Stepwise ammonium enrichment using selective battery electrodes." Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology, 6.6 (2020): 1649-1657.
Son, Moon, et al. "Polyelectrolyte-based sacrificial protective layer for fouling control in reverse osmosis desalination." Environmental Science & Technology Letters, 5.9 (2018): 584-590.
Funds
Soft landing grant, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, 2021-Present
Sejong Science Fellowship, National Research Foundation of Korea, $ 650,000 USD (Principal Investigator), 2021-2026
Seawater battery as a multifunctional device
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. As one of the leading research groups in this field, we are conducting various research from fundamental research of SWB-D technology to research for commercialization.
Representative Publications
Son, Moon, et al. "Simultaneous Energy Storage and Seawater Desalination using Rechargeable Seawater Battery: Feasibility and Future Directions." Advanced Science, 8.18 (2021): 2101289.
Son, Moon, et al. "Seawater battery desalination with sodium-intercalation cathode for hypersaline water treatment." Desalination 531 (2022): 115713.
Park, Sanghun, et al. "Investigating the influence of catholyte salinity on seawater battery desalination." Desalination, 506 (2021): 115018 (*co-corresponding author).
Park, Sanghun, et al. "Seawater battery desalination with a reverse osmosis membrane for simultaneous brine treatment and energy storage." Journal of Cleaner Production, (2022): 130188 (*co-corresponding author).
Funds
Soft landing grant, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, 2021-Present
Artificial intelligence for data analysis and process optimization
Artificial intelligence, which has been used with great success in a variety of application domains in the past few years, should be a useful approach to optimize environmental remediation processes. We have successfully conducted research on predicting specific factors of an electrochemical process by applying deep learning, an artificial intelligence technology, to the process. Based on these results, a wider range of artificial intelligence tools and environmental data analysis are being conducted in the lab.
Representative Publications
Son, Moon, et al. "Deep learning for pH prediction in water desalination using membrane capacitive deionization." Desalination, 516 (2021): 115233.
Jeong, Kwanho, et al. "Prediction of biogas production in anaerobic co-digestion of organic wastes using deep learning models." Water Research, 205 (2021): 117697.
Funds
Sejong Science Fellowship, National Research Foundation of Korea, $ 650,000 USD (Principal Investigator), 2021-2026
Soft landing grant, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, 2021-Present
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