主权项 |
1. A desalination and purification system for a source liquid containing co-ions and counter-ions selected from dissolved ions, charged impurities, charged droplets and combinations thereof, wherein the co-ions and counter-ions have charges of opposite signs, the system comprising:
a conduit for liquid flow including a liquid inlet port, a desalinated/purified liquid outlet port, and a waste liquid outlet port; a first electrode; a second electrode and ion-selective boundary configuration selected from:
a) a second electrode and at least one distinct ion-selective boundary, andb) a second electrode that also serves as the ion-selective boundary,wherein the electrodes are configured to drive ionic current in the source liquid when the source liquid fills the conduit and to produce brine/waste liquid from the source liquid, and wherein the ion-selective boundary is configured to conduct the ionic current and selectively transmit or remove the counter-ions and block the co-ions from the source liquid; and
at least one porous medium on an opposite side of the ion-selective boundary from the second electrode, wherein the porous medium has a surface charge with a sign that is the same as the sign of the co-ions to enable conduction of an additional ionic current via the counter-ions and consequent production of a region of desalinated/purified liquid, wherein the desalinated/purified liquid outlet port is positioned to extract the desalinated/purified liquid from the porous medium, wherein no membrane is positioned in the porous medium to create a separation of liquid flow paths from the liquid inlet port between (i) the desalinated/purified liquid outlet port and (ii) the waste liquid outlet port. |